Lorenzo Again

Paul Carruthers | July 3, 2010

ASSEN, HOLLAND, JUNE 26: Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo put a further stamp on the MotoGP World Championship with a dominant win the 80th Dutch TT in Assen.Lorenzo jetted away from the pole position and controlled the race from the front. In the early going it was Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Ben Spies in second, with the Texan being passed by Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner very early on.Pedrosa closed the lead at one point, but as the race entered the second half Lorenzo eased away. The difference was tires. Lorenzo chose the harder of the two Bridgestone rears and most of the field chose the medium. As their tires faded his stayed strong and it showed. Little by little Lorenzo continued to add to his margin until he crossed the line at the end of the 26-lap race with 2.935 secs. in hand. Pedrosa was second and Ducati Marlboro’s Stoner took his first podium of the year, another 4.087 secs. back. It was also the first time this season that Stoner had beaten teammate Nicky Hayden, who, after a bad start, recovered to finish seventh.The win was Lorenzo’s fourth in six races and increased his championship lead to 47 points. After six of 18 races, he leads Pedrosa 140 to 93. Pedrosa took over second from teammate Andrea Dovizioso, who won a spirited battle with LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet to take fifth.Both were chasing Spies, who pulled away in the final few laps to secure a comfortable fourth a week after his first podium at Silverstone.Behind Hayden came Spies’ teammate Colin Edwards, eighth this week after finishing ninth in England.San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Marco Simoncelli won a battle with Pramac Racing’s Aleix Espargaro (Duc) to finish ninth.Mika Kallio finished 11th on the second Pramac Ducati, just holding off Paginas Amarillas Aspar’s Hector Barbera.The Rizla Suzukis were 13th and 14th, Loris Capirossi in front of Alvaro Bautista. The final point went to Kousuke Akiyoshi, riding the Interwetten MotoGP Honda in place of the injured Hiroshi Aoyama.

Results:

1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)

2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)

3. Casey Stoner (Ducati)

4. Ben Spies (Yamaha)

5. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)

6. Randy de Puniet (Honda)

7. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)

8. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)

9. Marco Simoncelli (Honda)

10. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati)

Paul Carruthers | Editor

Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.