An extraordinary Jorge Lorenzo took his seventh victory of the 2013 season consecutive with a psychologically crushing win over both Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa in Honda’s home circuit at Motegi.
This new victory for the steely Yamaha factory rider who trails Marquez in the standings by 13 points will now take the fight for the championship title to the final round of the season (for the first time since 2006) at Valencia on November 10th, even if Lorenzo wins, Marquez has just to finish fourth to bring home the crown.
Polesitter Lorenzo who decided to risk mounting a soft rear tire for this long race, took off like a scalded cat when the lights went out and led the race from start-to-finish despite undergoing some considerable pressure from his title rival during the middle phases of the race and being held up Damian Cudlin, but he managed to bend the Repsol Honda riders with his martillo y mantequilla style.
Even if Marquez had a huge crash during this morning’s warm-up practice, his cat like reflexes and a fair amount of luck allowed him to bounce back and try to stop Lorenzo, but some braking issues (at Motegi the riders have to mount bigger discs) kept him from attempting his usual aggressive overtakes as he ran hot once and had trouble stopping his RC213V.
Team mate Dani Pedrosa also suffered similar issues an began to lose ground to the two and he would finish third and 4.
592 seconds adrift, but he is now mathematically out of the title contention.
Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista took fourth ahead, of courageous Stefan Bradl who finished fifth just two weeks after fracturing his ankle and undergoing surgery during the Sepang round.
Valentino Rossi took sixth.
The Italian had one of his best starts of the season slotting into second after the first turn and heseemed able to protect Lorenzo‘s back from the assault of the Repsol Honda riders, but a braking error put him fourth during lap 2 and even bigger braking error that made him run off track put him in 11th and having to start all over again.
Yamaha Tech3 riders, Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith were seventh and eighth respectively followed by Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso in the usual Ducati challenge, that not only sees a total upheaval of the team with arrival of Gigi Dall’Igna, but also the departure of team manager Vittoriano Guareschi who will leave the Italian manufacturer to take over Valentino Rossi’s new Moto3 team, and Ben Spies retirement from racing.
Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Yamaha’s wild card entry, test rider and All Japan superbike rider finished 11th.
Many may remember that he finished 2nd in the wild and wet 2012 Valencia round.
2013 MotoGP Motegi Race results:01- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – 24 laps in 42’34.
291 02- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 3.
188 03- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 4.
592 04- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 19.
755 05- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 22.
810 06- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 24.
637 07- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 27.
496 08- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 30.
969 09- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 37.
010 10- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 42.
944 11- Katsuyuki Nakasuga – Yamaha YSP Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 53.
345 12- Colin Edwards – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – FTR Kawasaki – + 1’03.
213 13- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 1’06.
840 14- Andrea Iannone – Energy T.
I.
Pramac Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1’08.
218 15- Yonny Hernandez – Ignite Pramac Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1’18.
240 16- Hector Barbera – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 1’19.
108 17- Hiroshi Aoyama – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 1’21.
174 18- Danilo Petrucci – CAME Iodaracing Project – Ioda Suter BMW – + 1’30.
546 19- Michael Laverty – Paul Bird Motorsport – ART GP13 – + 2’23.
358 20- Claudio Corti – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – FTR Kawasaki – 1 lap 21- Damian Cudlin – Paul Bird Motorsport – PBM 01 – 1 lap 22- Bryan Staring – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – FTR Honda MGP13 – 1 lap