Photography by Gold & Goose
In perhaps the most eventful MotoGP of the season, it was MoviStar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo scoring his first victory of 2014, employing a perfect strategy coming in to switch to his rain bike with just four laps to go and then emerging the leader a lap later after Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez crashed his machine while still running on slick tires on the wet MotorLand Aragon track. Finding himself alone up front Lorenzo raced on to a 10.295-second victory over Aleix Espargaro, who elbowed his way to second with a fierce final stretch battle with the hard-charging Cal Crutchlow for the runner-up spot.
It marked the first MotoGP podium ever for Espargaro on the NGM Forward Yamaha and the first of the season for factory Ducati mounted Crutchlow.
The damage to Marquez’ series lead was blunted with crashes by his closest series competitors, Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi. So even though he finished 13th, Marquez actually added to his series lead. He now leads by 75 points and could clinch the world championship at the next round in Japan in two weeks.
With the victory Lorenzo closed in enough to now be a factor in the battle for second in the championship with Pedrosa and Rossi. Lorenzo is now just 12 points behind his teammate Rossi in the standings. He was beaming after his victory.
“I made one of the best starts of my career,” said Lorenzo, who scored his 32nd-career MotoGP victory. “The first laps were very good. And then I made a mistake on the brakes and was in third place, but I was really impressed by my pace and my feeling on the bike with dry conditions. Then it started spitting (rain) and with the spitting I did not want to crash, I did not have the confidence. I was careful, maybe more careful than the Repsol guys. It was a pity because I thought I could not fight for a victory, but would be third or fourth.”
And then Lorenzo talked about the rain making for a major change in the complexion of the race.
“I saw that Marc and Dani keep on the track, so I said OK, I’m going to risk and enter the pits and see what happens. I entered the pits and went out on rain tires. It was very difficult to warm up the tires, but little by little I was very focused and started going faster. The first time on the straight I saw the board and I was 12th. So I say another race like Assen (where Lorenzo finished 13th), but on the next lap I was in first position (big smile) so I just wanted to keep the concentration and not crash, but actually going fast because I did not want for the others to catch me. The first victory of the season… finally. After a long time without victory after so many hard times, so many sacrifices, so I’m very proud, very happy.”
It marked the first win for Lorenzo since the 2013 season finale at Valencia.
The race, round 14 of the MotoGP World Championship and the 800th of series history, started under threatening skies with a reported 70,000 fans on hand. The first lap was one of the more intense of the season. Pedrosa led the field into the first turn, but a few turns in it was Andrea Iannone diving his Ducati underneath the Honda rider to take over the lead. Then Marquez and Lorenzo moved aggressively up past Pedrosa and then swapped second a couple of times for good measure.
The drama continued on the second lap with the opportunistic Marquez moving up to pass Iannone for the lead. A few turns later Iannone, trying to respond, ran off the track onto the damp grass. He couldn’t get it slowed down and finally after a long struggle to keep the bike upright, got pitched off the Ducati GP14.2.
Finally by lap three things settle down a bit with Marquez leading the way over Lorenzo by 0.382 seconds. Meanwhile Pedrosa was all over Lorenzo with Rossi right behind.
On lap four Rossi suffered a hard crash in turn seven and looked to tangle with his bike as it tumbled in process. He lay on the track near a retaining wall and was lifted away from the scene by stretcher. Later Rossi could be seen sitting up talking with trackside medical personnel.
As the race progressed Marquez continued to lead, but was unable to gap Lorenzo and Pedrosa, as the trio pulled sharply away from the rest of the field.
On lap nine Lorenzo took the lead by holding a tighter line and going underneath the series leader on a double right-hand turn. The pass only seemed to liven up Marquez, who proceeded to run seemingly effortlessly behind Lorenzo, probing here and there to find a weakness. As is often the case Pedrosa was sitting there close enough in third to have the beast season in the house, but making no attempt to join the fray up front.
On lap 12 Marquez took back the lead with a perfect slingshot and outbraking move into turn one. At that point Marquez put his head down to see if he could establish a gap on Lorenzo. Simultaneously the flag came out indicating very light precipitation in the area. Riders now had the option to swap bikes to their wet setup, but at first the traction didn’t seem greatly diminished.
A great battle was being waged for sixth with Stefan Bradl leading a tightly-packed group with Alvaro Bautista, Cal Crutchlow, Aleix Espargaro.
On lap 14 Lorenzo moved up to swap the lead with Marquez and then Marquez looked back and seemingly signaled Lorenzo to go by on the front straightaway, perhaps wanting to follow in the worsening conditions. Then on lap 16 both the Honda riders Marquez and Pedrosa passed Lorenzo to relegate him to third. All of this happening as the light rain increased ever so slightly.
On a stunning lap 17 Marquez and Pedrosa began a series of passes on one another that saw each take the lead back and forth no less than five times in the span of about four turns – this as the tension rose on what riders would do with the rain now coming down in earnest. Pedrosa settled out as the new leader. The first rider pitting was Aleix Espargaro for his wet bike.
With five laps to go Marquez went to the front with the leading three still having not pitted for wet bikes. With four to go Pedrosa crashed at a high speed just as he touched the brakes for turn one, Lorenzo finally dove to the pits for his wet bike. Amazingly Marquez stayed on the track with his dry set up. Pedrosa somehow was unhurt in his triple-digit speed crash and ran back to the pits to get his back-up machine and almost unbelievably finished the race in 14th.
With three to go Marquez astonishingly didn’t come in for a wet bike, the rain now pouring. The gamble bit him big. A few turns later he crashed, doing big damage to the tail section of his Honda, yet he was able to re-enter the race and head to the pits for his wet machine. He would ultimately finish 13th.
Lorenzo then took over the lead, six-plus seconds ahead of Aleix Espargaro with Crutchlow and Bradl battling for the final podium spot.
At the flag it was Lorenzo taking the win over an epic battle for second with Espargaro and Crutchlow elbowing each other to the line and Espargaro taking the spot by inches.
On his return to racing after four races away following wrist surgery, American Nicky Hayden scored his second best result of the season with ninth. His previous best was eighth in the opening round in Qatar.
Aleix Espargaro, the first rider to pit for a wet setup, talked about scoring his first-career podium in the premier class.
“It was a difficult race,” said the eldest of the Espargaro brothers racing in MotoGP. “We changed the bike completely from yesterday. In the start I felt really good, I was doing a little bit better, but Bradley (Smith) touched me and so the first lap I was last. I tried be focused. I overtook a lot of riders and then I arrive at the group with my brother, Bradl, Bautista. And then when the rain came everybody was going slow, slow, so I decided to take a risk and go to the pits. And when I go into the pits I saw that the rain was much stronger. So then I tried to be very focused on the rain tires and make no mistakes. After the first laps I saw Jorge was nine or ten (seconds) and immediately was P2 and I got really nervous. It was the longest five laps of my life, but finally the podium. I’m really happy for the team, NGM Mobile Forward, because they really made a good job with the bike we have.”
Crutchlow made a valiant charge on the final lap and drew alongside Espargaro, but with the physical contact between the two perhaps blunting his charge, he had to settle for third.
“Obviously we got very lucky with the conditions,” said Crutchlow, who earned his fifth career podium and the first since Assen last season. “But the first rule of racing in these conditions is to try to stay on the bike and make no mistakes and we did that and managed to bring Ducati to the podium. I have to thank them. They haven’t given up and I haven’t given up – fighting as much as we can. I had a not a so good feeling in the dry conditions at the start of the race, but I felt I was still quite competitive – more than at the other races this year. So I think it’s well deserved from me and the team that we got podium on this weekend. A good battle with Aleix in the end. I tried my hardest, but I’ll have to beat him next race. Congratulations to the other two guys on the podium.”
The series next moves to Motegi, Japan on Oct 12.
Results of the MotoGP race at Aragon, Spain – Sept. 28, 2014
1. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 44m 20.406s
2. Aleix Espargaro ESP NGM Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 44m 30.701s
3. Cal Crutchlow GBR Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 44m 30.718s
4. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP (RC213V) 44m 32.124s
5. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 44m 49.889s
6. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 44m 50.092s
7. Alvaro Bautista ESP Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RC213V) 44m 50.169s
8. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 44m 58.247s
9. Nicky Hayden USA Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 45m 3.363s
10. Scott Redding GBR Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RCV1000R) 45m 14.343s
11. Danilo Petrucci ITA IodaRacing Project (ART) 45m 20.230s
12. Alex De Angelis RSM NGM Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 45m 21.124s
13. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 45m 35.633s
14. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 45m 44.932s
15. Yonny Hernandez COL Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 45m 58.661s
16. Michael Laverty GBR Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART) +1 lap
17. Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing (Avintia) +1 lap
18. Broc Parkes AUS Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART) +1 lap
19. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Racing (Desmosedici) +1 lap
Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici) DNF
Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) DNF
Andrea Iannone ITA Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) DNF
Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing (RCV1000R) DNF
