Lorenzo wins at Jerez

Added on Sunday, April 3rd, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Jorge Lorenzo took a dominant MotoGP victory at Jerez this afternoon, grasping his first win of the season in front of a home crowd.

Despite not controlling the race from the off, the reigning MotoGP World Champion fought right to the end, to take the chequered flag thirteen seconds ahead of second placed. After not getting the best of starts from the front of the grid, fellow Spaniard Dani Pedrosa battled back through the pack to cross the finish line a distant second to Lorenzo.

The early stages of the race saw Marco Simoncelli take the lead, until an incident at turn one cost him a potential first win in the series. Despite leading Lorenzo by three seconds at the time of his accident, Simoncelli was immediately forced into retirement.

Now with a clear track in front of him, Lorenzo was able to extend his advantage, as he cruised to victory. Behind him the chaos soon began, with a number of incidents causing trouble for a number of riders. A wet race didn’t help conditions, with the slippery track playing havoc throughout the field.

The most notable of incidents proved to be between race one winner Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi. Whilst over-taking Stoner, Rossi succumbed to the wet conditions, and slipped from his Ducati and into Stoner. The Australian was unable to recover his stricken Repsol Honda machine, whilst Rossi soon regained momentum.

As the race counted down to a close, Colin Edwards suffered a disappointing fate, when a trip to the gravel trap forced him out of the race. Despite being within touching distance of the chequered flag and a podium position, Edwards was unable to get his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 bike going again.

This allowed Nicky Hayden into third place, with the Ducati rider securing the teams best finish so far this season. Fourth place went the way of Hiroshi Aoyama, giving him his best MotoGP finish, whilst Rossi clawed his way back to fifth.

Hector Barbera secured a sixth place finish, with Karel Abraham inches behind in seventh. Eighth place was awarded to Brit Cal Crutchlow, with Toni Elias and John Hopkins completed the top ten. Loris Capirossi and Andrea Dovizioso completed the field, with a total of five retirements from the original seventeen race starters.

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