Motourage

Lorenzo extends championship lead with win at Assen

Jorge Lorenzo put in another textbook performance at Assen on Saturday, leaving his rivals trailing as he led from the front to win the 80th Dutch TT and take his fourth victory of the season. In doing so he becomes only the seventh rider in history to have won in three or more classes at the historic racetrack, with 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP wins to his name. Meanwhile Tech 3 Yamaha rider Ben Spies ensured that there were still two Yamahas in the top four, despite the absence of Valentino Rossi, with another brilliant performance to back up his maiden podium last week.

Lorenzo had looked the man to beat all weekend after topping both practice and qualifying, and he got a great start from pole position and quickly pulled out a second’s gap. But, by lap five, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner were looming large behind him, and for a few laps it looked as if a tense three-way battle was in the offing. However Lorenzo’s choice of the harder Bridgestone tire soon began to pay off and, with a lighter fuel load by mid-race distance, he was able to step things up a notch and gave himself an unassailable lead, crossing the line 2.935 seconds ahead of Pedrosa, with Stoner third and Spies fourth.

The Fiat Yamaha man’s second win on the bounce sees him extend his championship lead to an impressive 47 points from Pedrosa, while Rossi remains fourth in the standings. The next round comes in just a week’s time at Barcelona in Spain, when Wataru Yoshikawa will join the Fiat Yamaha Team to fill in until Rossi is back on board his M1.

Jorge Lorenzo – 1st, Time: 41’18.629
“This race was a bit more difficult than Silverstone because Dani was so fast with the softer tire early on in the race and I had to really keep my concentration to stay in front of him at that point. I was confident that my harder Bridgestone tire would help me later on and this was the case, so we made the right choice. It wasn’t easy though and at the end I was sliding quite a lot, in fact I made a mistake at the chicane and nearly crashed so I was quite glad to finish! I am really happy that I have won here in all three classes because it’s such a historic place and the football I had in Parc Ferme was to celebrate this ‘hat-trick.’ Thanks to all my Yamaha guys and also to Bridgestone for this win, we have a big lead in the championship so we can afford to stay calm and relaxed. Now we go to my home in Barcelona and I am excited about another chance to race in front of the Spanish fans.”
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Fimmco Speed Up rider Andrea Iannone is celebrating a second pole position in three rounds as the Italian recorded the fastest time in qualifying for Saturday’s sixth round of the Moto2 World Championship at the Assen circuit in the north of Holland.

Iannone started from pole position then won the fourth round at Mugello in Italy three weeks ago and will be looking to do the same tomorrow after being fastest throughout practice and qualifying.

Fellow FTR rider Alex Debon was leading the qualifying session when he became involved in an incident with a slower rider. Debon fell from the Aeroport de Castello-Ajo M210 and the luckless Spaniard suffered a broken right collarbone. The crash rules Debon out of tomorrow’s Assen race even though he qualified in third place on the front row.

Cardion AB Motoracing’s Karel Abraham continues to adapt to the FTR M210 after switching to the Buckingham, England-built chassis for the Le Mans, France third round last month. Abraham was constantly in the top 10 throughout practice and qualifying but a crash-ridden finish to qualifying left the Czech Republic rider in 12th place, completing the third row of the grid.

Iannone’s teammate Gabor Talmacsi – again a front-runner throughout practice – will start from 23rd place after crashing out of qualifying, escaping injury.

FTR’s Steve Bones
“We’re working hard with Andrea Iannone as he still has some set-up issues but his time in qualifying was impressive and I’m sure he’ll believe he can win tomorrow. It was a real shame for Alex Debon as he’d made some changes prior to the qualifying session and on his third lap out set the time that was eventually to be good enough for third place on the grid. Karel Abraham is impressing every week as he gets used to the FTR M210 and we’re hoping he can push for a top 10 finish tomorrow. After the injury to Alex Debon I’m pleased that Gabor Talmacsi is OK to race following his crash. His machine needs some attention but that can be easily fixed.”

Rizla Suzuki racers Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista will start side-by-side on the fourth row of the grid for tomorrow’s MotoGP Dutch TT at Assen in the Netherlands.

Bautista (1’36.344, 28 laps) produced his best qualifying performance of the season to put his bike next to Capirossi on the fourth row in 12th place. Despite still struggling with his shoulder injury – that has manifested itself to a greater extent than at Silverstone – he continued to make improvements to his lap times before setting his best time on his penultimate lap of the day. Bautista is in a confident mood for tomorrow’s 26-lap race as he goes in search of his best finish in a MotoGP race to match today’s qualifying.

Capirossi (P11, 1’35.664, 29 laps) made progressive steps with his Suzuki GSV-R today, but the Italian is still looking for the optimum setting for his machine that will enable him to get the best out of himself and the bike here at Assen. He is still sure that he can run in a higher position and will be out to prove that when tomorrow’s race gets underway.

Today’s qualifying was held in warm and sunny conditions with track temperatures reaching 107ºF. Jorge Lorenzo on his factory Yamaha took his second successive pole position of the season.

Tomorrow’s race is the only event on the Grand Prix calendar to be held on a Saturday and proceedings will commence at 2pm local time (Noon GMT, 8am EDT) for the 80th running of the historic Dutch TT.

Álvaro Bautista:
“This morning I had some problems with my left arm and I felt quite a lot of pain. I think it is because this track is very physical and requires a lot more work with my arm. For this afternoon I took some pain-killers, but it was still very uncomfortable so I tried to take things a bit easier, so I could save myself for the race tomorrow. We resolved some of the problems we had from yesterday and made some improvements, but we are still not quite there. I still have some problems changing direction as I feel that the bike is very heavy because I don’t have the strength in my arm. We still have some small things to try in warm-up to make some small steps to make things better. I want to start well and stay with a good group and be able to push more as the race goes on. I hope the pain doesn’t get any worse during the race and I can enjoy it. I am confident that I can make a good result, but the main thing is to enjoy riding the bike.”

Loris Capirossi:
“I don’t really know what to say today! We did change the bike a bit to alter the way the weight transfers and this gave us a bit of traction back, but still we are not competitive enough. It seems if we improve the rear we are losing out on the front. We just cannot find the best solution and all the guys are working so hard to make things better. We improved the electronics this afternoon and I am happy that we have made a step there. We hope that we can make a small step in the morning because we don’t want to start making big changes to the bike now. We’re still confident we can run higher than the qualifying position and we’ll just have to see what tomorrow brings.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“There is no great satisfaction to be taken from the result today, but after the Silverstone weekend at least we can say that we have made a start to rebuilding the season. Loris is only 0.9 seconds off the front row and while that gap is too big, it’s a lot smaller than it was a week ago. Unfortunately Álvaro is struggling more with his injury than he was last week and despite showing good potential in some parts of the track, he is struggling in the important fast changes of direction – both with the bike setting and his injury – so the team will be working hard tonight to make it easier for the race tomorrow. Our target for tomorrow is not too far-fetched – we’d like to see both riders finish the Grand Prix, score some points and take a better platform on to Catalunya next weekend.”

Tim TT Assen Qualifying Practice Classification:
1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1’34.515: 2. Randy de Puniet (Honda) +0.282: 3. Casey Stoner (Ducati) +0.288: 4. Ben Spies (Yamaha) +0.411: 5. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) +0.484: 11. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.149: 12. ÁLVARO BAUTISTA (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.829: