Lorenzo Wins, Spies Third In England

Paul Carruthers | June 20, 2010

Although Jorge Lorenzo made the race his own in Grand Prix racing’s return to the Silverstone circuit in England after a 24-year hiatus, the battle behind him went to the bitter end and it ended with Texan Ben Spies earning his first-ever MotoGP podium as he passed countryman Nicky Hayden on the final lap to finish third.For Lorenzo the race was a calculated third victory of the season, the Spaniard tussling with the rest for a few laps and then simply leaving them behind, slowing at the end of the 20-lap race to win by 6.7 seconds.But behind him it was war with Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso earning second place after a near-race long scrap with LCR Honda’s Randy dePuniet, the Frenchman fading at the end to finish an eventual sixth. Marlboro Ducati’s Hayden moved into third place with a few laps remaining but he had Spies breathing down his neck. The Texan made a move that stuck on the final lap, the World Superbike Champion earning his first-ever MotoGP podium as he finished some .3 of a second behind Dovizioso. Hayden was another .3 behind for his fourth fourth-place finish of the year.Fifth place, and right on Hayden at the finish, was his teammate Casey Stoner. Stoner started from the second row, but botched the start badly and dropped all the way back to dead last in the first corner. From there he fought forward, passing Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, San Carlo Honda’s Marco Simoncelli and de Puniet in the latter stages to move into the battle for second. He ran out of laps, however, and ended up fifth.De Puniet was sixth with Simoncelli having his best MotoGP finish in seventh, almost a second ahead of Pedrosa, the Spaniard feeling the effects of his two crashes over the course of the weekend.Spies’ Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Colin Edwards finished ninth with Pramac Racing’s Aleix Espargaro rounding out the top 10. There were 13 finishers with Italian’s Marco Melandri and Loris Capirossi both crashing out of the race.Lorenzo’s lead in the championship grew to 37 points over Dovizioso, the Italian moving into second in the title chase. Lorenzo has 115 points, Dovizioso has 78 and Pedrosa slips to third with 73 points. The injured Valentino Rossi is fourth with 61 points, nine more than Hayden.”This was an important day for me and an important win, because I felt so strong and I enjoyed riding my Yamaha so much,” Lorenzo said in a team release “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 [Pedrosa] 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!”

MotoGP

1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)

2. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)

3. Ben Spies (Yamaha)

4. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)

5. Casey Stoner (Ducati)

6. Randy de Puniet

7. Marco Simoncelli (Honda)

8. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)

9. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)

10. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati)