Monday 16 September: Jorge Lorenzo has won his second consecutive Grand Prix, winning the GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini at Misano this morning.
The World Champion, who took the lead at the start, controlled the
pace as championship leader Marc Marquez beat Dani Pedrosa to second
position.
From second on the grid, Lorenzo shot into the lead as pole-sitter
Marquez dropped to third on the opening lap. The latter would put on a
spurt in the second half of the race, but by this point had fallen to
fourth place due to an unforced error; Marquez recovered from his Turn 8
mistake to catch and pass both Lorenzo’s teammate Valentino Rossi and
his Repsol Honda Team colleague Pedrosa. However, as the two Honda
riders engaged in a battle, Lorenzo’s already comfortable lead only
grew.
Marquez’s championship lead is now 34 points with five races remaining,
while Lorenzo has drawn level with Pedrosa for second overall. Rossi
and Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow are the only other two riders
who can mathematically still clinch the title; the Italian ended
Sunday’s race fourth, while the Englishman fell to sixth on the final
lap behind LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl. Alvaro Bautista was seventh
for GO&FUN Honda Gresini, having claimed his maiden MotoGP™ podium
at Misano in 2012, while Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso beat teammate
Nicky Hayden and Ignite Pramac Racing’s Michele Pirro to eighth spot.
11th was Tech3’s Bradley Smith, while Colin Edwards (NGM Mobile Forward Racing) was the leading CRT rider in 12th;
the American finishing one position ahead of Aleix Espargaro (Power
Electronics Aspar) who, from an impressive sixth on the grid, ran fourth
on Lap 1 but was handed a ride-through penalty for jumping the start.
Six riders failed to make the finish, including Energy T.I. Pramac
Racing’s Andrea Iannone who was one of six Italians racing in front of a
passionate crowd.
The MotoGP™ World Championship continues with Round 14, the Gran Premio
Iveco de Aragón, at MotorLand Aragon in north-eastern Spain on 29th September.
"Luckily
we improved the bike a lot in warm up, especially in braking so we
improved the lap time and the pace quite a bit. I was convinced to
follow my strategy of the last couple of races which was to try to break
away and finally I could do it. The first two laps I had a big
advantage so I had to keep pushing to maintain a distance because they
never gave up and wanted to catch me. I’m happy, we recovered five
points and we are closer to Marc. I need to be constant and try to win
races and stay focused.”
"All
the weekend our performance was quite good, I stayed with the top three
and I raised my level, especially in qualifying, I could push stronger
with the new tyres and make the first row. The expectation for the race
was very high, after the start the top guys were very fast but my
fastest lap was close to theirs. Unfortunately after some laps I was in
trouble in braking and entering corners. I was struggling in hard
braking and made some mistakes going wide and step-by-step they pulled
away. I made a small mistake on turn seven and lost two seconds and by
then already I had too much disadvantage. It's a pity because we wanted
to try for the podium here in Italy in front of all the fans in Misano.
We hope the weather remains good for tomorrow as we have to try some new
parts.”
On Saturday, Tuenti HP 40’s Espargaro – 38 points behind Redding in the
championship following a poor race at Silverstone – had confidently
sealed pole position, with his chief rival starting fifth for Marc VDS
Racing Team. A clean start saw the Spaniard retain the lead but
Italtrans Racing Team’s Nakagami, highly keen to win after finishing
second in the last three races, went through on Lap 4.
As Nakagami’s tyres began to drop off the cliff in the final stages of
the race, Espargaro relentlessly reduced a two-second gap and posted the
fastest lap of the entire Grand Prix on Lap 22. The ultimately
inevitable pass came at the end of the start/finish straight with only
two tours remaining, demoting Nakagami to yet another second place as
Espargaro’s teammate Rabat – who ran second in the early stages –
completed the rostrum. Tom Luthi and Dominique Aegerter completed the
top five for Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing and Technomag carXpert,
correspondingly.
For Redding, it was a case of damage limitation. Eventually losing out
to the likes of Aegerter, the Englishman narrowly beat Came Iodaracing
Project’s Johann Zarco to sixth place; this means his new championship
leading margin is 23 points – now less than a single race win. The top
ten in the race was rounded out by Maptaq SAG Zelos Team’s Xavier
Simeon, Redding’s teammate Mika Kallio and Aspar Team Moto2’s Nico
Terol. On the victory lap, second-placed Nakagami took a moment to
reflect with a large Japanese flag, remembering late compatriot Shoya
Tomizawa.
The Moto2™ World Championship continues in two weeks’ time, with the
Gran Premio Iveco de Aragón at MotorLand Aragon in north-eastern Spain.
Moto3: Rins pips Viñales to Misano victory
Alex Rins has claimed his fourth race win of the Moto3™ season, beating
Maverick Viñales by just one hundredth of a second in the GP Aperol di
San Marino e Riviera di Rimini. Alex Marquez completed the podium while
championship leader Luis Salom limited the points loss, finishing fourth
from tenth place on the grid.
Heading into Round 12, Salom (Red Bull KTM Ajo) held a 26-point lead
over Viñales (Team Calvo) with Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) a further
seven in arrears. It was Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3’s Jonas Folger who
claimed pole position, though, as he targeted his first victory of the
season.
A three-horse race at the front quickly turned into a simple
head-to-head when Folger – who had lost the lead to Rins and Viñales –
suffered a dramatic highside on the fourth lap; he would suffer a
fracture to the left ankle and an injured shoulder. The battle for first
would rage for the rest of the race, with Viñales moving ahead on Lap
13 before Rins returned with a late-race surge; the eventual move would
come at Turn 13 on the final lap, as both men avoided incidents knowing
that Salom was further back in the pack. Marquez finished third, six
seconds behind the winner, to jump ahead of Folger for fourth place in
the World Championship standings.
Having crashed earlier in the weekend, Salom knew this race would be no
easy feat as he started on the fourth row – his equal worst qualifying
performance of 2013 so far. The Mallorcan was already in fourth place in
the early stages of the race and would cross the line in the same
position, but only after monitoring a train of five riders all
threatening to demote him to eighth. Salom, 11 seconds behind the
victor, would ultimate hold off the attentions of Jack Miller (Caretta
Technology – RTG), his own teammate Zulfahmi Khairuddin and Miguel
Oliveira (Mahindra Racing), as Niccolo Antonelli (GO&FUN Gresini
Moto3) dropped to the tail of the battle.
There was a career-best result for Philipp Oettl as the German finished
ninth for Tec Interwetten Moto3 Racing, ahead of San Carlo Team
Italia’s Romano Fenati who suffered handling problems for most of the
race. Niklas Ajo was 11th for Avant Tecno, rounding out a
bruising weekend that had featured a trip to hospital, but there was
disappointment for Aspar’s Eric Granado who retired in the closing
stages after becoming the class’ best ever Brazilian qualifier with
seventh on the grid. Luca Marini also retired, as the half-brother of
nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi highsided his Twelve Racing
machine into the first corner of the race; Italian national championship
rival Andrea Locatelli (Mahindra Racing) also hit trouble at Turn 1.
Both Viñales and winner Rins – whose victory is his first since
Indianapolis – now move back to within one race win’s equivalent of
points of Salom. The championship leader is standing on 246 points, with
Viñales and Rins respectively 19 and 21 points in arrears. The battle
will continue at Spain’s MotorLand Aragon on 29th September.