Master class from Jorge Lorenzo

Jorge Lorenzo leaves the Ducati factory team at the end of 2018 and moves to Repsol Honda team for 2019 and after yet another master class, this time in in Catalunya it looks like Ducati's loss is definitely Honda's gain.
motogpmotogp
motogp

Lorenzomade it two in a row by winning the Catalan MotoGP at the Circuit de Barcelona, Catalunya, two weeks after his debut Ducati win in Mugello, by over four seconds from reigning champion and 2018 championship leader Marc Marquez, his team-mate for next year.

The Mallorcan had a perfect weekend starting the race from pole and moved into the lead past holeshot man Marc Marquez under braking into turn one on lap two. From then until the end of the race it was ‘hammer time’ as Lorenzo pushed hard at the front opening out a race winning gap over the Repsol Honda rider in second controlling the race from the front taking the chequered flag 4.479 seconds clear of his nearest rival. Marquez may have had no answer to his future team-mate but his race was made a lot easier when his big rival Andrea Dovizioso on the Ducati, who was sitting comfortably in third, crashed out at turn five, on lap nine. Nine times world champion Valentino Rossi made a good start from seventh on the grid and with Dovizioso out claimed the final rostrum place on the Movistar Yamaha. Again top British finisher was Cal Crutchlow on the LCR Honda in fourth.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Today’s win was really fantastic” Said Lorenzo. “We showed that we can win not only by entering the first turn in first place, but also by recovering and overtaking the others. It was actually a completed race because I made a bad start and lost a lot of metres to Marquez, but I told myself that the race was long and I had to keep calm. It wasn’t too difficult to take Marc because I had that little bit extra under braking, but he stayed pretty close to me right down to the flag.

Now we’ve got a very competitive package and I think that this is the most complete Ducati of all time. We must capitalize on this situation because the Desmosedici works well at virtually every track and it doesn’t consume tyres too much and this is a big advantage. Now lets enjoy this win and then think about the next race.” Said Lorenzo.

It was another magical performance from five-time World Champion Lorenzo at the Catalan GP, who will be aiming for his third consecutive victory as the premier class head to the classic Assen circuit. Marquez extended his Championship lead to 27 points, but Rossi remains his closest challenger and the ‘Doctor’ is a master at Assen.

Frenchman Fabio blasted the Quartararo HDR – Speed Up Racing to a stunning first Grand Prix victory in the Moto2 class ahead of KTMs Miguel Oliveira while in an incident packed moto3 race it was Italian, Enea Bastianini, Leopard Racing who took his first victory since Motegi 2016.