Lorenzo’s teammate Spies, who had been in fourth, ran wide early on
to drop back down the order into seventh, with Ducati Team’s Valentino
Rossi on his tail. Meanwhile, four laps in, Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s
Andrea Dovizioso pushed past his teammate Cal Crutchlow to go into
fourth place behind Pedrosa.
With 21 laps to go, Lorenzo and Pedrosa were chipping away at
Stoner’s lead, as they closed the gap to just under one second. On the
same lap, Crutchlow ran wide in the first turn whilst trying to outbreak
his Italian teammate, yet managed to retain his position, as the pair
continued their lonely battle for fourth.
With 16 laps to go Speed Master’s CRT entry Mattia Pasini crashed out
as he lost the front of his ART machine, while at the same time Avintia
Blusens’ Iván Silva retired after suffering too much pain from his
warm-up crash.
At the halfway point of the race, Lorenzo had closed in on Stoner,
while his Yamaha teammate made it past LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl
to take eighth. Avintia Blusens’ day went from bad to worse, as Yonny
Hernandez crashed out with 11 laps to go, yet walking away unscathed.
Paul Bird Motorsport’s difficult start to the season also continued,
as Briton James Ellison pulled into the pits nine laps before the end
with a mechanical issue on his ART bike. Cardion AB Racing´s Karel
Abraham suffered a crash five laps from the end, making this the third
Grand Prix in succession he has not been able to finish.
With the battle between the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 pair hotting up
towards the end, Crutchlow was desperate to get past the Italian, but
once again forced his bike off track. Further down the field, Bradl had
re-taken Spies for eighth, though the American soon fought back.
Three laps before the end, just as Lorenzo seemed to be catching
Stoner, the Australian put the hammer down to open the gap to more than a
second once more. At the end it was Stoner who took the checker flag in
front of Lorenzo and his Repsol teammate Pedrosa. Stoner has now won a
race at every single track on the MotoGP calendar in the premier-class.
Andrea Dovizioso held off the late charge from Crutchlow to take
fourth, finishing in front of his teammate for the first time this
season. San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Álvaro Bautista put in a solid
performance as he held sixth position from start to finish, in what was a
lonely race for the Spaniard. Valentino Rossi claimed his best finish
of the season in seventh, beating Yamaha’s Ben Spies, who did not manage
to recover from a difficult start to the race. LCR’s Stefan Bradl
finished in ninth, whilst Pramac Racing’s Héctor Barberá rounded out the
top ten. Power Electronics Aspar’s Espargaró took top CRT spot for a
second race in succession.
The MotoGP grid will be out on track at Estoril tomorrow morning at
10am local time for the first in-season test of the 2012 MotoGP World
Championship.
Repsol’s Marc Marquez took the holeshot and
led the opening stages from Interwetten-Paddock’s Tom Lüthi, whilst
Technomag-CIP’s Dominique Aegerter made it into third with a brilliant
start. Lüthi soon made it past Marquez on the home straight, as Aegerter
was passed by Pons 40 HP Tuenti’s Pol Espargaró and JiR Moto2’s Johann
Zarco.
Speed Master’s Andrea Iannone and Marc VDS Racing Team’s Scott
Redding soon also got past Aegerter and chased down the leading four to
dice for podium positions. As the pack settled down somewhat on lap
five, Zarco made a move on Espargaró to take third, as Iannone took
advantage of the tussle to briefly slip into fifth. On the same lap, NGM
Mobile Forward Racing’s Yuki Takahashi crashed out of 17th place, but
escaped unscathed.
Espargaró ran wide on the following lap, yet managed to hang on to
the back of the leading group and re-join the fight. Federal Oil Gresini
Moto2’s Gino Rea went into the pits with an electrical problem, and
subsequently had to retire.
With 18 laps to go, Lüthi started to pull out a small lead, while
Zarco managed to push past Marquez into second. This was short lived, as
Espargaró pulled off a stunning move on the pair at the end of the
straight a lap later to jump up to second.
Iannone was hanging on to fifth, yet ran wide onto the gravel with 16
laps left and re-joined the pursuing group with Redding, Mapfre Aspar
Team’s Toni Elías and Espargaró’s teammate Esteve Rabat. Further down
the order, Pons 40 HP Tuenti’s Axel Pons suffered a crash in the
chicane, ending his race prematurely.
At the front, Lüthi could not run away from Marquez, who made a move
on Espargaró to retake second, while Zarco was being dropped off
slightly in fourth. Iannone was outpacing his group and running away
with fifth, while Came IodaRacing Project’s Simone Corsi ran wide
fighting for sixth, dropping back down the order.
With just over nine laps to go, Marquez was on Lüthi’s tail looking
to steal top spot. Two laps later, both Marquez and Espargaró took
advantage of the slipstream to displace Lüthi into third, and Spanish
pair soon pulled out a margin as they repeated their previous race’s
dice for the win.
Rabat copied his teammate Pons and crashed in the chicane late on,
followed closely by Corsi. On the same lap, S/Master Speed Up’s Mike Di
Megilo ended his weekend early with a crash as well. An entertaining
battle between Elías and NGM Mobile’s Alex De Angelis was taking place
for seventh, as the old teammates went fairing to fairing. Shortly
after, Elías also had Marc VDS’ Mika Kallio to contend with as well, as
the pair swapped positions frequently.
It was however Marquez and Espargaró who provided one of the best
last lap battles seen in Moto2, as the pair swapped positions in the
final seconds, with Marquez coming out on top after a mistake by
Espargaró going into the final chicane.
This makes it two wins from three races for Marquez to extend his
championship lead. Lüthi took the final spot on the podium, followed by
Zarco, Iannone and De Angelis. Rounding out the top ten are Toni Elías,
Blusens Avintia's Julián Simón, Mika Kallio and Tech 3 Racing's Bradley
Smith.
Moto3: Cortese wins Estoril thriller
Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Sandro Cortese took victory in a thrilling
battle to the line with rival Maverick Viñales at the Grande Prémio de
Portugal Circuito Estoril.
It was Cortese who got the holeshot and led
into the first corner, ahead of Blusens Avintia’s Maverick Viñales,
Air-Asia-SIC-Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin, Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Miguel
Oliveira and JHK T-Shirt Laglisse’s Efrén Vázquez.
After the typical Moto3 melee of 34 bikes swapping places in the
opening laps, a leading group of Cortese, RW Racing GP’s Luis Salom,
Vázquez, Viñales and Cortese’s teammate Kent started to pull away. There
was heartbreak early on for the Portuguese crowd, as Oliveira pulled
into the pits with a mechanical issue.
San Carlo Gresini Moto3’s Niccolo Antonelli was showing some good
form, and made a bold move on Kent with 16 laps to go to take sixth, but
the Briton fought back immediately. On the same lap, Mahindra Racing’s
Danny Webb retired to the pits following an issue with his bike.
As Viñales was heading the leading group, the majority of action was
taking place in the four-way battle for fifth between Fenati, Kent,
Antonelli and Vázquez. In a stunning pass at the end of the home
straight, Fenati took advantage of the others running wide to take
fifth, though was taken back immediately by Kent on turn two. With 12
laps to go, Viñales and Cortese upped the pace, leaving Salom and
Khairuddin to tussle for the final podium spot.
Nine laps before the end, both Kent and Fenati rode into the gravel,
pushing both back in the pack. The Italian’s luck got even worse as he
and Racing Team Germany’s Louis Rossi both crashed out a few turns
latter in the same incident. Rossi has now crashed out of two races in
succession.
A few laps later, MotoFGR’s Jasper Iwema lost the front of his bike
and ended his race early, while back at the front Cortese moved past
Viñales at the end of the straight to take the lead. Cortese could not
shake the young Spaniard as the two were wheel to wheel for the final
three laps. Salom also took the fight to Khairuddin, as he pushed past
him on the first bend with two laps to go.
The last lap was a nail-biting affair as Viñales and Cortese touched
fairings throughout, yet it was the German who won the drag to the line
after the final bend, to take his first victory of the season and the
lead in the championship. The last step on the podium went to Salom, who
manage to oust Khairuddin into fourth. The top ten were rounded out by
Efrén Vázquez, Niccolo Antonelli, Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Rins,
Danny Kent, Caretta-Technology’s Alexis Masbou and Redox-Ongetta-Centro
Seta’s Jakub Kornfeil.
Red Bull Rookies - Deroue double with Estoril 2 win
Scott Deroue scored a sensational double win at the Portuguese
Grand Prix at Estoril to lead the Red Bull MotoGP Cup points table
after 4 of the 15 races.
The 16 year old Dutchman repeated his genius
of Saturday, running 2nd out of the final corner to inch past German 16
year old Philipp Oettl before the line. Karel Hanika, the 16 year old
Czech, picked up a very close 3rd to match his own performance from the
previous day.
"That was fantastic," said Deroue who was 6th on the grid. "I seem to
be able to get the good starts and I did again. We had a lot of fun in
the race the guys were riding very well and I could just see that it was
going to work out like yesterday. I went wide into the chicane on the
last lap so no one could get past and then I had a good line through the
last corners behind Philipp and I knew I could get him before the
line."
Oettl was not too devastated by losing on the line. "I'm happy to be
back on the podium after such a difficult start to the Rookies season,"
he said referring to the troubles he has had switching from the 4-stroke
he rides in the Spanish Championship back to the 2-stroke KTM. "We had
the bike working well this weekend and the only thing wrong yesterday
was the start and the opening laps. Today I got away with the group and
that made the difference. It is a great feeling to be up here again. I
really thought I had it won out of the last corner but then I saw Scotty
out of the corner of my eye."
Florian Alt, who flashed across the line 2nd on Saturday was even
more unlucky in the 2nd race, crashing out with 4 laps to go after a
wicked almost-high-side that led into a brush with Hanika and fall that
damaged the 16 year old German's KTM. Up to the point Alt had done much
of the leading just as he did on Saturday and the misfortune cost him
the points lead.
Hanika was happy to be 3rd again. "It was another great race, a lot
of fun. I changed my seating position a bit from yesterday and that made
things better on the straights," explained the lanky blond. "I was
enjoying the race and then about 4 laps to go Florian hit me on the
inside and went down, I don't think it was my fault. I lost ground to
Philipp and Scott but managed to catch back up, I just couldn't get in
front before the line."
Not surprisingly Alt saw things differently. "The race was going fine
up to then, no problems at all, then I was inside and Hanika hit me,
there was nothing I could do."
From 4 races Alt has been unlucky enough to fail to finish twice, a
technical problem in Race 2 in Jerez after the 1st leg victory and
another zero after 2nd in Race 1 in Estoril. He slipped from 1st to 3rd
in the points table and local hero Ivo Lopes slipped from 2nd to 4th
with similar misfortune. The home town hero failed to score after being
brought down in the lead pack when 14 year old Briton Bradley Ray tucked
the front on the brakes and took the wheels out from under the 15 year
old Portuguese.
Crossing the line 4th was Kyle Ryde, the 14 year old Briton who had
also been in the lead group all race. "We changed the suspension from
yesterday looking for more grip. It helped in some places but I just
couldn't get the drive out of turn 4 and onto the back straight. We were
still doing OK but then Florian crashed in front and it was tough to
catch up from there.
The British 125 Champion defended his position ahead of 5th place
finisher Joe Roberts who had also had a fine race, including snatching
the lead, "That was great," said the 14 year old American. "I knew I had
to push hard from the start to get with the lead pack and that's what I
did. Then Bradley crashed and I lost touch a bit, I fought back but
then Florian went down so it was difficult in the end but I am happy
enough because I know I can run with the guys at the front."
Races 5 and 6 of the 2012 Rookies Cup are at Silverstone on June 16th and 17th.
Copy and pics courtesy of MotoGP.
