Jorge Lorenzo put in another textbook performance at Assen today, leaving his rivals trailing as he led from the front to win the 80th Dutch TT and take his fourth victory of the season.
In doing so he becomes only the seventh rider in history to have won in three or more classes at the historic racetrack, with 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP wins to his name.
Lorenzo had looked the man to beat all weekend after topping both practice and qualifying and he got a great start from pole position and quickly pulled out a second's gap, but by lap five Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner were looming large behind him and for a few laps it looked as if a tense three-way battle was in the offing. However Lorenzo's choice of the harder Bridgestone tyre soon began to pay off and, with a lighter fuel load by mid-race distance, he was able to step things up a notch and gave himself an unassailable lead, crossing the line 2.935 seconds ahead of Pedrosa, with Stoner third and Ben Spies fourth.
The Fiat Yamaha man's second win on the bounce sees him extend his championship lead to an impressive 47 points from Pedrosa, while Rossi remains fourth in the standings. The next round comes in just a week's time at Barcelona in Spain, when Wataru Yoshikawa will join the Fiat Yamaha Team to fill in until Rossi is back on board his M1.
"This race was a bit more difficult than Silverstone because Dani was so fast with the softer tyre early on in the race and I had to really keep my concentration to stay in front of him at that point," Lorenzo explained.
:I was confident that my harder Bridgestone tyre would help me later on and this was the case, so we made the right choice. It wasn't easy though and at the end I was sliding quite a lot, in fact I made a mistake at the chicane and nearly crashed so I was quite glad to finish! I am really happy that I have won here in all three classes because it's such a historic place and the football I had in Parc Ferme was to celebrate this 'hat-trick.' Thanks to all my Yamaha guys and also to Bridgestone for this win, we have a big lead in the championship so we can afford to stay calm and relaxed. Now we go to my home in Barcelona and I am excited about another chance to race in front of the Spanish fans."
Dani Pedrosa passes Ben Spies and moved into second on the third of 26 laps and stalked Lorenzo throughout, closing sharply on the fourth of 26 laps when Pedrosa set a new fastest lap on the slightly altered 4.542kms Circuit van Drenthe. Pedrosa was able to keep within a second of Lorenzo for the first half of the race, which he credited to the team. His Repsol Honda technicians had transformed the RC212V overnight and when he went out in Saturday morning warm-up the difference was impressive, he said.
‰ÛÏWell, first of all I have to say I‰Ûªm surprised by this result because, I tell you, in practice we had a lot of problems and we tried so many things that didn‰Ûªt work, so I wasn‰Ûªt expecting to get second today or to have this pace. For the warm-up we found something which gave us a better lap time and my rhythm improved a lot, which gave us the chance to fight in the race," Pedrosa explained.
I knew with the soft rear Bridgestone tyre that I would have more of an advantage in the first part of the race and so I pushed really hard from the start to catch up. But then Ibegan losing a little bit of time in the first section of the circuit and lap-by-lap we lost touch. Anyway, this is a good result for us and I‰Ûªd like to say thanks to my team because they never gave up," Pedrosa concluded.
Casey Stoner picked up his first podium of the season with thied and moved to 7th in the championship.
‰ÛÏThis is the first race this season we have come away from with a decent result. It shouldn't be our first podium of the year but that's the way it is and it was nice to finish a race, not just a qualifying session, and head to parc ferme," Stoner said.
"The team has been doing a fantastic job, especially over the last two weekends, when we have established a good base setting that has allowed us to fight for the podium, if not the win yet. Unfortunately at Silverstone we had the start we had but here it was me that struggled more than the bike with arm-pump from about mid distance - it was the same problem as Silverstone and I guess we didn't have time to recover. It is another setback we have to deal with now but I think we can get over it. Anyway all in all it was a positive day and I want to thank the team for the work they have done," the Australian cocnluded.
Rookie Ben Spies produced another outstanding ride today with a fourth place. Spies made a blistering start from fourth on the grid to take up the tough challenge of fighting with Lorenzo for the lead in the early stages but running the softer tyres the Texan eventually slipped back to 5th before overtaking Andrea Dovizioso in the dying laps to claim 4th.
"I got a good start and was happy with that. I ran the soft rear tyre because it made the front load better for turning and the track temperature was hotter than all weekend. But it didn't work as well I'd hoped in the first ten laps and then when Dani and Casey came by I knew I was holding them up, The monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riderd said. "I wanted at least fourth place today and I'm happy but I didn't have the pace for the podium like in Silverstone. I'm happy with the result and we go to Catalunya next week not knowing the track and I think we will be a little bit on the back foot again. But I'll do the same as the past two weeks and push as hard as I can, Spies concluded.
Andrea Dovizioso suffered with tyre's as well and could only salvage a 5th for the day.
‰ÛÏWe had higher expectations for today‰Ûªs race and so I‰Ûªm a little disappointed with how things went. I made a good start and moved up to fourth but I couldn‰Ûªt ride the laps under 1m 35s that were needed to stay with the leaders. We weren‰Ûªt at 100% with the front-end feeling which meant I couldn‰Ûªt ride as aggressively as I wanted," Dovizioso said. "Today‰Ûªs race was disappointing, but with only five days before we get back out on track we won‰Ûªt have to wait long before we can make amends," the Italian concluded.
After starting on the row Randy De Puniet made a pigs ear of the start and dropped way back from were he would not recover, eventually finishing 6th. American duo Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards finished 7th and 8th with Marco Simoncelli and Aleix Espargaro rounding out the top ten.
Main Photo: Jorge Lorenzo leads at Assen
2010 MotoGP Netherlands - Assen 26/06/2010
1 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 41'18.629
2 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 0'02.935
3 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 0'07.022
4 Ben Spies Yamaha USA 0'13.265
5 Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 0'15.323
6 Randy De Puniet Honda FRA 0'15.772
7 Nicky Hayden Ducati USA 0'25.867
8 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 0'28.991
9 Marco Simoncelli Honda ITA 0'35.658
10 Aleix Espargaro Ducati ESP 0'35.837
11 Mika Kallio Ducati FIN 0'56.769
12 Hector Barbera Ducati ESP 0'56.890
13 Loris Capirossi Suzuki ITA 1'00.615
14 Alvaro Bautista Suzuki ESP 1'08.074
15 Kousuke Akiyoshi Honda JPN -1Laps
RIDER STANDINGS 26/06/2010
1. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 140
2. Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 93
3. Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 89
4. Nicky Hayden Ducati USA 61
5. Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 61
6. Randy De Puniet Honda FRA 56
7. Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 51
8. Ben Spies Yamaha USA 49
9. Marco Simoncelli Honda ITA 39
10. Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 34
11. Marco Melandri Honda ITA 32
12. Aleix Espargaro Ducati ESP 28
13. Hector Barbera Ducati ESP 28
14. Mika Kallio Ducati FIN 20
15. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda JPN 18
