Lorenzo takes another Estoril win

October 31st, 2010

Jorge Lorenzo maintained his unbeaten run at Estoril in MotoGP as he took his first win in two months in the Portuguese Grand Prix.

The Yamaha rider beat his team-mate Valentino Rossi in a head to head fight, the duo having pulled clear of the rest of the field after some close-fought early laps.

It was Rossi in front for most of the first half of the race, and he looked comfortable at first, leading by as much as 1.8 seconds.

But Lorenzo fought back, catching his team-mate and surging past under braking for the first corner on lap 17. Once ahead, he was unstoppable, taking his eighth victory of 2010 – and his first since Brno in August – with an 8.6-second margin.

The race saw drama even before the start, when Ben Spies crashed his Tech 3 Yamaha on the way to the grid and sustained a dislocated left ankle.

The opening laps then featured a spectacular dice between the two Yamahas, the two Ducatis and fast-starter Andrea Dovizioso, who briefly got up to second for Honda.

Ducati’s Nicky Hayden battled his way through to lead for a lap before being shuffled back by the Yamaha duo and his team-mate Casey Stoner. The latter had lost ground with a few small errors but then charged up behind the two Yamahas, only to crash at the final corner on lap five.

That moved Hayden into a lonely third, where he seemed set to finish until his pace began to drop off and he was passed by Gresini Honda’s Marco Simoncelli and Dovizioso.

The two Italians then mounted a huge battle for the last podium position. Dovizioso seemed to have made the decisive move into the first corner with two laps to go, only for Simoncelli to dive back through at the chicane on the last lap. It was not over though, as Dovizioso tucked in and got a better run through the last corner, drafting back into third by just 0.059s at the line. Hayden, Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) and Colin Edwards (Tech 3) chased them home.

The still-recovering Dani Pedrosa impressed by getting up to sixth, before tailing off and falling back to eighth for Honda.

Marco Melandri could not turn his season-best sixth on the grid into a strong race result and was ninth for Gresini Honda, almost caught by Hector Barbera as the Aspar Ducati fended off Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista for the final top 10 spot. On a miserable day for Suzuki, Loris Capirossi was the last finisher in 13th.

Carlos Checa produced a plucky ride on his return with Pramac Ducati, running as high as 11th and battling hard with the regular MotoGP midfielders. But he pulled in to retire before half-distance, suffering from arm pump. His team-mate Aleix Espargaro crashed at the chicane on the opening lap, limping away from the accident in some discomfort.

Pos  Rider             Team                  Time/Gap

 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha              46m17.962s

 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                + 8.629s

 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda                + 26.475s

 4.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda        + 26.534s

 5.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati               + 27.154s

 6.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda            + 28.297s

 7.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha        + 30.109s

 8.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                + 44.947s

 9.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      + 1m13.649s

10.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       + 1m17.721s

11.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             + 1m17.908s

12.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda  + 1m33.025s

13.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             + 1m39.752s

Retirements:
     Carlos Checa      Pramac Ducati      12 laps

     Casey Stoner      Ducati             4 laps

     Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      0 laps

     Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      DNS