Lorenzo wins in Qatar from Rossi and Márquez Rossi and Lorenzo. www.yamaha-racing.com image. Jorge Lorenzo has started his MotoGP™ title defence in the best possible way, winning Sunday’s Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar. Valentino Rossi charged back from a mistake to second place as Marc Márquez picked up a podium on his debut. The much-awaited start to the 2013 campaign came under lights as the
Losail International Circuit celebrated its tenth MotoGP™ event. World
Champion Lorenzo aimed to repeat his performance of last year by taking
victory from pole position. Márquez’s much-awaited first race would
begin from sixth on the grid.
As the lights went out, a scorching start by Dani Pedrosa saw the Repsol Honda Team rider shoot up into second place by Turn 1, hoping to challenge Lorenzo who began to pull away on his Yamaha Factory Racing bike. The same could not be said for Pedrosa’s teammate Márquez, who endured a slow getaway and dropped to eighth. On Lap 2, Cardion AB Motoracing’s Karel Abraham became the first retirement of 2013 as Márquez looked to recover. By Lap 4, the 20-year-old Spaniard and youngest rider in the field had already passed Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso and then pulled a move on Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow, at Turn 1. Lorenzo already led Pedrosa by 1.6 seconds and would eventually stretch his advantage by half a second per lap as those behind him became engaged in a dramatic battle. By the halfway point on Lap 11, Márquez was very much involved in a duel with teammate Pedrosa, as Crutchlow looked to take advantage; it was at this point that Rossi’s charge took off. In his first race back with Yamaha, the Italian had run wide on the second lap and plummeted back to where he started - seventh place. Moves came on Dovizioso and LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl, who proceeded to crash while chasing down the seven-time premier class title winner. Also failing to make the finish were GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Bryan Staring, Tech 3’s Bradley Smith, Came IodaRacing Project’s Danilo Petrucci and NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards, who had been the lead CRT runner at Losail last year. Márquez overtook Pedrosa on the 17th tour of the 22, leaving the latter to deal with Crutchlow as Rossi joined combat. The Italian stormed past the Englishman in a brave move between Crutchlow and the pit wall, only for the Tech 3 man to misjudge his braking point and run off-track at Turn 1. Rossi’s charge continued with maneuvers on Pedrosa and Márquez on Laps 19 and 20 respectively, only for the debutant to fight back as the pair went head-to-head. Rossi would come out on top by just two tenths of a second, with Márquez becoming the first MotoGP™ rookie to seal a rostrum result in his first race since Lorenzo finished second position at Losail five years ago. Tonight, Lorenzo’s eventually winning margin was 5.9 seconds. Pedrosa and Crutchlow completed the top five from Gresini’s Álvaro Bautista, Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden on the pair of Ducati Team machines, Pramac Racing newcomer Andrea Iannone and his teammate Ben Spies. Power Electronics Aspar won CRT honours, with reigning class Champion Aleix Espargaró finishing 11th overall and leading home teammate Randy de Puniet by 6.6 seconds. Avintia Blusens’ Héctor Barberá rose from 22nd on the grid to 13th, having suffered electrical problems in qualifying, as rounding up the 18 finishers were PBM’s Yonny Hernández, Avintia’s Hiroshi Aoyama, Forward’s Claudio Corti, PBM’s Michael Laverty and Ioda’s Lukáš Pešek who on Saturday had qualified 15th for his debut. In two weeks’ time MotoGP™ will head to pastures new, as the 18-round World Championship travels to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Moto2™ - Espargaró beats Redding to Losail victory
Tuenti HP 40’s Pol Espargaró has converted pole position into the
opening Moto2™ race victory of 2013, but only after a spirited battled
with Marc VDS Racing Team’s Scott Redding. Italtrans Racing Team’s
Takaaki Nakagami led in the opening stages before going on to achieve a
career-first podium finish.
Espargaró had delivered a last-gasp lap to grab pole on Saturday, but it was Nakagami who led Sunday’s race as the pack battled for the first time this year. Behind, Thai Honda PTT Gresini Moto2’s Ratthapark Wilairot jumped the start and was forced to take a ride-through penalty, whereas Tech 3’s Louis Rossi, Tuenti HP 40’s Axel Pons and QMMF Racing Team’s Anthony West were all early fallers. More crashes came later into the race, as the stewards looked into investigating a coming together between Jir Moto2’s Mike de Meglio – coming from a pit lane start after a problem on the Warm-Up lap – and NGM Mobile Racing’s Mattia Pasini, which left the latter out of the race. Pasini’s teammate Ricard Cardús was taken to the Medical Centre following an incident, as Wilairot became the sixth and final retirement. Redding had settled in behind Nakagami at the front, but took his chance to shoot into the lead at the start of the ninth tour, narrowly avoiding contact with his rival’s left knee. Watching the battle unfold, Espargaró posted the fastest lap and quickly proceeded to dispatch with Nakagami, who was unable to maintain the pace of the pair in front but was still pleased with a his maiden podium finish. Espargaró’s crucial move on Redding for the lead came with five laps to go, with the Englishman losing out on the start/finish straight but managing to keep up in the twisty infield section. There was almost contact between the duo as Redding strived to retake the lead on the final lap, but losing ground allowed the Spaniard to win in Qatar for the first time – crossing the line just under one second ahead. Fourth position went to Dominique Aegerter and Technomag carXpert, just edging ahead of second Marc VDS rider Mika Kallio as Italtrans’ Julián Simón finished where he started, in sixth place. The top ten was completed by NGM Mobile pair Simone Corsi and Alex de Angelis plus Tuenti HP 40’s Esteve Rabat and Desguaces La Torre Maptaq’s Xavier Simeon. Moto2™ continues in a fortnight’s time, as the championship heads to Austin, Texas and Circuit of the Americas for the first time. |
