PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
Movistar Yamaha Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo has taken a dominant victory in the 2015 Czech Republic MotoGP to take the lead in the World Championship from teammate Valentino Rossi, his fifth win of the season.
Lorenzo bested reigning champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) in a race reminiscent of his previous four victories during the first half of the season, getting to the front immediately from pole position and stretching the gap to 4.462sec. Valentino Rossi completed the podium in third, struggling with early race pace behind the Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso as Lorenzo and Marquez stretched a two second gap over the Italian by lap three that he would never recover from.
The result sees Lorenzo and Rossi tied on points but the championship lead goes to Lorenzo by count of having more race wins (five to Rossi’s three), as Marc Marquez’s hopes of an unlikely comeback title victory were dealt a serious blow with seven races remaining.
“I was a little worried about the pace with the medium/medium tire, but I could open a gap after six laps, and little by little, open a bigger gap, then it was difficult to keep the bike as it was sliding a lot,” Lorenzo said. “But luckily I have a little bit more pace than Marc to take this very important victory in the championship because for now I am leading the championship with Valentino and it is more difficult for Marc to recover.”
Fourth went to Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone. Iannone was in the early battle with teammate Andrea Dovizioso and Rossi for third place but steadily dropped behind Valentino as the race wore on, gesticulating to his crew as he came into the pits at the end of the race, indicating issues with his machine.
Fifth went to a charging Dani Pedrosa. The veteran Spaniard suffered a huge crash on Friday in practice, inflaming an old injury in his left foot that required a series of painkillers on race morning. Pedrosa got the better of Dovizioso in a tense battle on the final lap with a move on the Italian four corners from home.
The top 10 were rounded out by Dovizioso, Tech3 Yamaha teammates Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro, Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Pramac Racing Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci.
2015 BWIN CZECH REPUBLIC MOTOGP CLASSIFICATION
1 Jorge Lorenzo Spa Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 42’53.042
2 Marc Marquez Spa Repsol Honda Team +4.462
3 Valentino Rossi Ita Movistar Yamaha MotoGP +10.397
4 Andrea Iannone Ita Ducati Team +13.071
5 Dani Pedrosa Spa Repsol Honda Team +15.650
6 Andrea Dovizioso Ita Ducati Team +15.725
7 Bradley Smith Gbr Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +21.821
8 Pol Espargaro Spa Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +23.240
9 Aleix Espargaro Spa Team Suzuki Ecstar +43.784
10 Danilo Petrucci Ita Octo Pramac Ducati +45.261
