Photography by Gold & Goose
Jorge Lorenzo continued his amazing wave of momentum by winning his fourth MotoGP of the season Sunday in front of 97,000 fans at the Catalunya Grand Prix, round seven of the 18-race series. In what turned into a race of attrition, Lorenzo emerged the leader and then held off his Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi by 0.885 at the finish. Honda’s Dani Pedrosa returned to the podium, taking a lonely third in his comeback from an arm-pump operation.
Surprisingly it marked the first time in his illustrious career that Lorenzo has won four MotoGP races in a row.
Catalunya was a crash-fest. In the end only 15 of the 23 starters finished. Among the fallers was defending world champ Marc Marquez. American Nicky Hayden was also among those non-finishers.
With the victory Lorenzo drew to within a single point in the standings (138-137). Iannone moved into third.
Pole winner Aleix Espargaro took the early lead at the start on his Suzuki. Cal Crutchlow was an early faller. He was up and OK, but then an even bigger surprise when Marquez also crashed.
Marquez looked to be going into a turn a bit faster than Lorenzo, who he was trailing. Marquez nearly clipped the back of Lorenzo’s rear wheel before the defending champ slipped off the track and slid into the gravel trap.
He alluded to an issue with the bike.
“When you’re on your home surface sometimes that can happen,” Marquez said of his crash. “More when you are on the limit. The problem is that we are able to be fast, but still with this bike we have small problem. I had a small problem coming in on the entry to the brake point. I nearly crashed, I nearly touched Lorenzo and I decide to go wide. I’m disappointed because today we may have been able to stay on the podium, but it didn’t happen.”
They were dropping like flies when Pol Espargaro and Andrea Dovizioso both fell in rapid succession. Dovi got back on the track, but pulled into the pits.
Meanwhile through all the chaos it was Lorenzo who emerged the leader with Yamaha teammate Rossi working his way up into second. Pedrosa moved to third and that’s how they would run for the rest of the race.
American Nicky Hayden was running near the back of the pack when he fell a bit after halfway.
With six laps to go Rossi cut the gap to Lorenzo by a half-second and got to within 1.3 seconds, perhaps because of a mistake by the leader. That may have been confirmed when Lorenzo seemed to be able to stabilize his gap at just over a second in the closing laps.
Aleix Espargaro’s excellent weekend came to an unfortunate end when the pole setter crashed his Suzuki going into turn five with five laps to go under pressure from Ducati’s Andrea Iannone. Standing in the gravel trap, Espargaro bowed his head in frustration, now a non-finisher for three-straight races.
That put Iannone in fourth, about six seconds behind Pedrosa, who in turn was 15 seconds behind the leaders Lorenzo and Rossi. Bradley Smith and Maverick Vinales engaged in a good battle for fifth.
In the end it Lorenzo over Rossi, Pedrosa a lonely third, Iannone fourth and Smith equaling his best finish of the season, rounding out the top five. Maverick Vinales earned his best result of the season in sixth. Also notable was Aprilia’s first top-10 result with Álvaro Bautista scoring 10th.
Spaniard Lorenzo was thrilled winning in his home country. He admitted the Catalunya heat may have gotten to him a bit late in the race.
“It was very hot,” said Lorenzo, who scored his 37th MotoGP victory of his career, matching the great Mike Hailwood. “In all the weekend we didn’t have these temperatures, so today it was very difficult to repeat the pace I had yesterday morning. So Valentino improves in these conditions and I get a little bit worse, so it has been very difficult to solve. To ride in these conditions with a lot of passing and acceleration and the bike moving, but I could stayed focused and was not making any mistake and pushing so hard – Valentino make me push so hard, but finally th effort has been worth it.”
Next up is the Dutch TT in Assen on June 27.
Results of the Catalunya Grand Prix – June 14, 2015
1. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 42m 53.208s
2. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 42m 54.093s
3. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 43m 12.663s
4. Andrea Iannone ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP15) 43m 18.133s
5. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 43m 20.990s
6. Maverick Viñales ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 43m 22.767s
7. Scott Redding GBR Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) 43m 29.632s
8. Stefan Bradl GER Athina Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 43m 35.311s
9. Danilo Petrucci ITA Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP14.1) 43m 42.558s
10. Alvaro Bautista ESP Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 43m 45.777s
11. Jack Miller AUS CWM LCR Honda (RC213V-RS) 43m 46.874s
12. Eugene Laverty IRL Aspar MotoGP Team (RC213V-RS) 43m 48.973s
13. Loris Baz FRA Athina Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 43m 49.040s
14. Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP14 Open) 44m 2.245s
15. Alex De Angelis RSM E-Motion IodaRacing (ART) 44m 18.471s
16. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP14 Open) +1 lap
Aleix Espargaro ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) DNF
Nicky Hayden USA Aspar MotoGP Team (RC213V-RS) DNF
Marco Melandri ITA Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) DNF
Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP15) DNF
Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) DNF
Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) DNF
Cal Crutchlow GBR CWM LCR Honda (RC213V) DNF
Yonny Hernandez COL Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP14.2) DNF
