Lorenzo cuts Rossi’s title advantage with Estoril triumph

Estoril 2009 - MotoGP Race Highlights
A great win for Jorge Lorenzo at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal saw him reduce the gap to Valentino Rossi in the standings to 18 points.

Jorge Lorenzo repeated his 2008 Estoril victory from pole on Sunday to significantly boost his title chances as Valentino Rossi could only manage fourth place at the challenging Portuguese circuit.

The Fiat Yamaha pair got away in first and second places on the grid but Rossi was unable to match the pace of Lorenzo as he pulled away quickly at the front. On his return to action Ducati’s Casey Stoner rode brilliantly to follow Lorenzo across the line in second place, whilst Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa was third.

Lorenzo will now feel that with three races to go and an 18 point deficit to Rossi the championship is far more achievable than before the visit to Portugal. The Spaniard was in unstoppable form in the Atlantic Coast sunshine and his fourth win of the year was eventually secured by a 6.3s margin.

Stoner performed admirably on his return to action after two months away due to illness, achieving his first podium since Assen in June – and he now has his home race at Phillip Island to look forward to in a fortnight’s time.

Pedrosa rode smoothly from fourth on the grid, taking the holeshot with one of his traditionally rapid starts onboard the factory RC212V and briefly holding the lead before Lorenzo slipped through. Pedrosa’s third place was his eighth podium of 2009.

World Champion Rossi appeared to be off-colour throughout the race, finishing off the podium for the first time at Estoril in the premier class. The championship leader will undertake a comprehensive inquest into his lack of competitiveness with his Fiat Yamaha crew after finishing 23 seconds behind Lorenzo.

Behind the MotoGP big guns at the front, Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was 10 seconds back on Rossi in fifth place, whilst Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini) held off Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) for sixth on the line.

The top ten also featured Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro), James Toseland (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki), with Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) crashing out early on and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini) retiring due to technical problems.

Jorge Lorenzo acknowledges Rossi competitiveness

Jorge Lorenzo interview after race in Misano
Jorge Lorenzo believes second place at Misano was a good result considering Valentino Rossi’s form throughout the weekend.

Having lapped sixth fastest in the Sunday warm up Jorge Lorenzo said he knew there was a very tough race ahead of him, also considering the pace of his team-mate and title rival Valentino Rossi throughout the weekend, and that proved to be the case once the real action got underway.

Lorenzo rode steadily after an early scare when Alex de Angelis, Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden crashed out next to him, the Spaniard then hunting down Dani Pedrosa and chasing Rossi for the lead, but eventually falling two and a half seconds short.

The Majorcan rider is the only rider to have been on the podium every time he has finished a race this year and the Misano contest took him onto the rostrum for the tenth time in 2009.

Afterwards he said, “After the pace in warm up I knew it was going to be a difficult race. I had a not bad start, but then I almost crashed on the second corner, because (Alex) de Angelis was going so fast and his bike touched me. Fortunately I didn’t go down and I wanted to relax, so that I could recover, without taking too many risks.”

“I think today was the day to finish second and not to win, because Valentino had the best pace all through the weekend. So I had to concentrate on getting second place because I didn’t have the perfect set-up for my bike and I couldn’t brake so late. Because of that it was difficult to get around Dani (Pedrosa), as the Honda was accelerating very well. Anyway, second place is good.”

Lorenzo wins Indianapolis MotoGP

Spain's Jorge Lorenzo gave his slim hopes of catching Yahama teammate Valentino Rossi for the Moto GP world championship a big boost Sunday with a triumph in the Indianapolis Grand Prix.

Spain's Jorge Lorenzo gave his slim hopes of catching Yahama teammate Valentino Rossi for the Moto GP world championship a big boost Sunday with a triumph in the Indianapolis Grand Prix.

Before the race the 22-year-old said making up a 50-point deficit on Rossi was "impossible."

It looked a little more feasible after Lorenzo, who had crashed in his last two races, recorded his third victory of 2009 and Rossi failed to score a point after crashing early in the race.

"His misfortune was good for me. It makes a difficult thing for me a little more possible," said Lorenzo, who has five more races to catch his teammate.

"This is fantastic for me," he added. "I've had two crashes in a row, but now I've won and my closest rivels have crashed instead. I'm sorry for them, but these are the highs and lows of racing and it is an amazing result for me."

Lorenzo, who was the series rookie of the year in 2008, won the 28-lap, 118.104 km race by more than nine seconds over runner-up Alex De Angelis of San Marino.

American Nicky Hayden, who finished second in the inaugural Indianapolis race last year, was third, fending off the late challenge of Andrea Dovizioso.

Lorenzo averaged 149.976 km/h on his Yamaha to win in 47min 13.592sec.

De Angelis was 9.435 seconds behind the leader as he earned his first podium finish on the circuit.

Eight-time world champion Rossi of Italy, Lorenzo's Fiat-Yamaha teammate and the current points leader, had his bid for a second consecutive Indianapolis victory come to a premature end when he crashed and slid onto the grass on the 10th lap.

He managed to remount, but soon pitted and walked away.

Pole sitter Dani Pedrosa of Spain pulled away at the start and led Rossi after the first four laps with Lorenzo third.

Pedrosa slid out of the lead with a crash in Turn 15 and eventually finished 10th.

Rossi and Lorenzo then dueled for the lead with Lorenzo in front when Rossi went down.

"A disappointment of course! We struggled with the settings all weekend, but we made an improvement today and I got a good start," Rossi said. "I knew it would be between Jorge and I, but I honestly don't know how it would have finished because Jorge was very fast."

Rossi, seeking his seventh world championship in the premier MotoGP class, said he "ran wide onto a dirty part of the track" and lost the front of his motorcycle.

"I tried to carry on, but there was a problem with my throttle and it wasn't possible."

Despite his fall, Rossi retains his overall lead in the standings with 212 points, but Lorenzo reinforced his position as the only rider with any realistic chance of catching him with five races remaining.

Lorenzo halved his deficit from 50 to 25 points as he took his total to 187.

Australian Casey Stoner, who missed his third straight race with a mystery illness, is third with 150 points.