Jorge Lorenzo seals British MotoGP win at Silverstone
Lorenzo 'excited' by Silverstone win
Spain's Jorge Lorenzo stretched his lead at the top of the Championship standings to 37 points after winning Sunday's British MotoGP at Silverstone.
The Fiat Yamaha rider led from start to finish, having begun the race on pole.
Last year's winner Andrea Dovizioso came in second while American Ben Spies grabbed his first podium spot in third.
Compatriot Nicky Hayden was edged into fourth with Casey Stoney fifth, a place ahead of Frenchman Randy de Puniet with Dani Pedrosa trailing in eighth.
Pedrosa, who was second in the Championship going into the race, endured a torrid weekend.
The Spaniard crashed during qualifying on Saturday, sustaining bruising to both knees, fell off again in final practice on Sunday and the Repsol Honda rider was well off the pace in the race itself.
 | When I saw five laps to go and De Puniet made a mistake I thought 'the podium is potentially on, I am pulling the pin' Ben Spies |
For Lorenzo, it was his third win of the season in five races. The 23-year-old is favourite for the title after team-mate and world champion Valentino Rossi broke his leg in practice for the Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago.
"I'm so excited. I didn't expect to go so fast at the beginning, the track was quite cold and it was difficult to go fast with these tyres," he told BBC Sport. "Today was very important for the Championship."
Dovizioso moved up from fourth to second in the standings after his second place, with Pedrosa dropping to third.
"We had a controlled race," said Doviozoso. "We didn't have the pace to fight with Lorenzo, he was so fast, but second is very important for the Championship."
Spies was also thrilled to earn his first podium finish in MotoGP.
"When I saw five laps to go and De Puniet made a mistake I thought 'the podium is potentially on, I am pulling the pin'. Then Nicky and I went crazy, but I held on and got the podium and it feels good."
In the Moto2 race France's Jules Cluzel, riding for Forward Racing, took victory ahead of Swiss Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Moriwaki) and Spaniard Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar).
In a thrilling final lap Cluzel took advantage of a small mistake by Luthi in the closing stages to claim his first grand prix race win.
Briton Scott Redding turned in a superb performance, finishing in fourth after starting 12th on the grid.
Compatriot Bradley Smith went one better and grabbed his first podium place of the season in the 125cc race.
"It is something I will treasure for a long time," said the Briton. "It is something like fifth time lucky because I have never managed to get on the podium before here.
"It is a special moment for my family and friends, and the team after a struggle in the first four races of the season."
Marc Marquez won an enthralling tit-for-tat battle at the front after his fellow Spaniard Pol Espargaro made a mistake on the final lap as he tried to overtake.
But Espargaro's second place was enough to lift him above Nico Terol, who finished fourth, in the Championship standings by a point.
British MotoGP result:
1 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha
2 Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Honda
3 Ben Spies (US) Yamaha
4 Nicky Hayden (US) Ducati
5 Casey Stoner (Australia) Ducati
6 Randy de Puniet (France) Honda
7 Marco Simoncelli (Italy) Honda
8 Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda
9 Colin Edwards (US) Yamaha
10 Aleix Espargaro (Spain) Ducati
Standings after British MotoGP:
1 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha 115 points
2 Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Honda 78
3 Dani Pedrosa (Sp) Honda 73
4 Valentino Rossi (It) Yamaha 61
5 Nicky Hayden (US) Ducati 52
6 Randy de Puniet (France) Honda 46
7 Ben Spies (US) Yamaha 36
8 Casey Stoner (Australia) Ducati 35
9 Marco Melandri (Italy) Honda 32
10 Marco Simoncelli (Italy) Honda 32
Moto2 result:
1 Jules Cluzel (Fra) Suter
2 Thomas Luthi (Swi) Moriwaki
3 Julian Simon (Spa) Suter
4 Scott Redding (Gbr) Suter
Moto2 standings:
1 Toni Elias (Spain) Moriwaki 80 points
2 Shoya Tomizawa (Japan) Suter 65
3 Thomas Luethi (Switzerland) Moriwaki 58
13 Scott Redding (GB) Suter 18
125cc result:
1 Marc Marquez (Spa) Red Bull
2 Pol Espargaro (Spa) Tuenti Racing
3 Bradley Smith (GB) Bancaja Aspar
4 Nico Terol (Spa) Bancaja Aspar
10 Danny Webb (GB)
125cc standings:
1 Pol Espargaro (Spa) Tuenti Racing 99 points
2 Nico Terol (Spa) Bancaja Aspar 98
3 Marc Marquez (Spa) Red Bull 82
4 Bradley Smith (GB) Bancaja Aspar 61
11 Danny Webb (GB) 24
| Jorge Lorenzo - 1st, 41'34.083 (Yamaha Racing) "This was an important day for me and an important win, because I felt so strong and I enjoyed riding my Yamaha so much. I had a different feeling today; I felt that it was going to be a good race. It was quite hard to be fast at the start and the first lap with Dani was difficult, but once I got past him I felt very relaxed and comfortable. I thought he would follow me for a bit longer but he didn't and then I was on my own, so I just had to focus on myself; I didn't even know who was behind me! I never dreamt of taking three wins from five races but here we are and I am feeling very strong mentally at this moment. I want to thank my team, Yamaha and Bridgestone for this victory. The Beatles celebration was something fun for the fans, I love their music and I thought it was nice to make a homage to them, since we're in England!" |
Wilco Zeelenberg - Team Manager Jorge Lorenzo "This was a great performance by Jorge. The start was a little bit interesting, with us on the hard Bridgestone and some of the others on the softer one, but Jorge rode so well, kept his head and brought it home safely. Our bike is working very well and it was great to see Spies taking a podium on the Yamaha too, well done to him. It is impressive to have a 37-point gap at this stage but now we have four more races in very close succession so we can't relax. Well done to Jorge and to everyone for today |
Andrea Dovizioso’s consistency this season moved up another gear at the AirAsia British Grand Prix on Sunday, where the Repsol Honda rider secured his best finish of 2010 to date with second place.
Having already placed third in three of the four preceding rounds, the Italian enjoyed the next level up on the podium at Silverstone, a result that also improved his standing in the Championship.
“I’m really happy with second in the race, and we also have second in the Championship now so this reflects our strong start to the season,” said Dovizioso, who shot up from fourth on the starting grid and then enjoyed a battle with Randy de Puniet for the majority of the 20-lap race.
“In the middle of the race I saw many riders were closing in behind me and so I tried to push at 100% to get a gap and try to avoid a fight on last lap. Corners 13 and 14 towards the end of the lap are really slow and you can see clearly the riders that are behind, and it would be easy to be overtaken here on the last lap if they were too close, so it was important to get a gap, which I managed to do.”
With such a promising start to the season Dovizioso is now focused on accomplishing the next step and taking a victory, something he has done just once before in the premier class.
“I’m so pleased with the season so far and I’d like to say thank you to Honda and to the team for the work they are doing. We still need to improve so that we can battle for race wins, but we are one step closer today and it’s a good result for us at the start of a busy period of races. Next stop is Assen and we must move forward again so that we have a chance of winning there,” concluded the 23 year-old.
"I didn't expect to get my first podium so quickly, especially after yesterday which wasn't the best for me. I got a decent start but once I got by Dani and Simoncelli I just tried to stay on the back of the group battling for the podium. Once I realised I could stay in contention I just tried to save the rear tyre as much as I could and it all worked out. The last few laps I pushed as hard as I could and made some good passes and it is great for Yamaha and the Monster Tech 3 Team. I'm also pretty happy about it too and this is good for my confidence. That last lap was difficult to pass Nicky but I got a really good drive onto the back straight and tried to pass him at Stowe Corner but he came back by. On the next straight I managed to get by him and then had to ride quite defensively on the last part of the lap. I was on the edge but I had to go for the podium and it worked out. It will be hard to duplicate this but right now I'll let it sink in and make the most of it. But on this day I can say I was the third best rider in the world and it is a good feeling."
Hayden frustrated with last-lap error, Stoner laments bad start
Sunday, 20 June 2010 from motogp.com
The Ducati Marlboro riders assessed their respective results of fourth and fifth at the AirAsia British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Ducati Marlboro riders Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner were left to wonder what could have been after finishing fourth and fifth at the AirAsia British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday.
Hayden had looked like he would secure his first podium finish of the season as he went into the final lap in third place, but a small mistake from the American allowed compatriot Ben Spies through at Abbey Corner as he finished fourth for the fourth race this season.
“It’s a pretty frustrating result because the team did a great job with the bike after the warm-up and it was a lot of fun to ride,” explained Hayden. “Unfortunately I didn’t get a good start – we’ve been having some little clutch problems and didn’t get away well.”
“The race was really fun, everybody was going back and forth, I was able to make some moves in the corners but just didn’t really have the top speed in the straights. It’s hard for me to dress this result up because I’m not happy to finish fourth again but the good thing is we were in the hunt again. We did something good with the bike today so hopefully it will work at Assen, a circuit I love,” he concluded.
Stoner lost ten places after a bad start to the race saw him drop to the back of the field as the riders went into the first corner, but a superb ride from there onwards saw the Australian rise to fifth by the end.
“I’m not happy with fifth place because we were capable of more today,” said Stoner, who was left to speculate on what could have been had he gotten off to a better start. “I don’t know if we could have challenged Jorge for the win but we definitely found something in warm-up and made more improvements in the race, but we paid the price for a terrible start. As I let the clutch out the bike started jumping and hopping around and I had to pull the clutch in and go again, by which time everybody was past.”
He continued: “The tyres were fresh on before the warm-up lap so in the early laps I had to be really careful before being able to start overtaking and I lost a lot of seconds. The race then was fun, we were able to find a good rhythm and to make our way forward but the time lost at the beginning prevented us by fighting for the podium.”
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"I don't want to be finishing in ninth at all but honestly I'm reasonably happy with the way I rode and it was a lot better than I expected after what has been a tough weekend. I'm still a fair way behind the top group but I had so many problems this weekend that even a top ten was looking like a difficult result to achieve. I didn't leave anything out there and I went better than I did in qualifying but it was still not easy. The bike isn't agile enough and having to muscle it around gave me a small arm pump problem, but not as bad as Mugello. If I could get the bike to go where I want it to go I could save lots of time, but we've got some ideas for the future. It was a bit of a lonely race but I rode as hard as I could for as long as I could. I want to congratulate Ben though because he did an awesome job and I've got nothing but admiration for him. He showed today what a great rider he is and it is great for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team to be back on the podium."
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