Jorge Lorenzo took his second consecutive win, his third this season for the fifth round of the MotoGP championship at the Catalunya circuit, under cloudy skies but luckily a dry track.
The Yamaha rider further stretched his lead in the championship to +20 points, fought a hard battle with a super fast Dani Pedrosa for ninteen laps until he decided to catch him.
The Repsol Honda rider (on hard tires) got the holeshot with a finally aggressive Ben Spies who dived up to second, but when the Yamaha rider tried to overtake Pedrosa on lap he outbraked himself at turn 3 and running wide ended up in the gravel trap, he rejoined in 17th and fought back to take 10th after a contact with Pramac’s Hector Barbera for the position.
With Spies out of the way Lorenzo caught up with Pedrosa and tailed him for several laps with the two exchanging the top spot after a first error by Lorenzo and then by the Repsol Honda rider whose bike wheelied with six laps to go which pushed him wide and that changed the outcome of the race, as Lorenzo was able to edge away and take the victory with a five second margin.
Today’s dark horse wasn’t Cal Crutchlow as we expected, but his Yamaha Tech3 team mate Andrea Dovizioso who took the third spot on the podium taking advantage of Casey Stoner’s problems and he was the first satellite rider to podium since last year.
The Australian finished fourth and it was his first time off the podium since last year’s Jerez GP when he was taken out by Valentino Rossi.
Stoner was never in running for a podium spot as he couldn’t find the same pace as the front runners and Dovizioso, but he managed to get closer to the Italian only in the final laps when Tech3’s rider soft tires dropped off and he began struggling.
Cal Crutchlow took fifth after tailing Stoner for almost the entire race until his soft tires began dropping off.
Alvaro Bautista sliced through the field to claim sixth, while Valentino Rossi who shadowed Bautista until the closing laps finished seventh and proving that he was right that could be the position he could realistically hope for.
Behind Rossi came LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl and Ducati’s Nicky Hayden in ninth but he was 30 seconds from Lorenzo and almost 12 from his team mate.
The best CRT rider was Aleix Espargaro followed by Gresini’s Michele Pirro while returning Colin Edwards had to retire.
Lorenzo celebrated his win with his Lorenzo Land flag and a red and white foam chemical explosion that came from two buckets prepared by his fan club.
Tomorrow the team will stay on for an official post race test and Wednesday at Aragon to make up for the washed out Estoril test.
MotoGP Catalunya race results:01- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – 25 laps in 43’07.
68102- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 5.
00303- Andrea Dovizioso – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 9.
36104- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 9.
54405- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 12.
50606- Alvaro Bautista – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 13.
94807- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 17.
55508- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 23.
47809- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 30.
41010- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 32.
89711- Hector Barbera – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 36.
14412- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 56.
22913- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 1’08.
05414- Michele Pirro – San Carlo Honda Gresini – FTR Honda – + 1’08.
77515- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 1’10.
48316- James Ellison – Paul Bird Motorsport – ART GP12 – + 1’13.
09017- Mattia Pasini – Speed Master Team – ART GP12 – + 1’20.
90318- Yonny Hernandez – Avintia Blusens – BQR MotoGP – + 1’21.
23519- Danilo Petrucci – CAME Iodaracing Project – Ioda TR003 – + 1’41.
20720- Ivan Silva – Avintia Blusens – BQR MotoGP – + 1’41.
888