Lorenzo, in a league of his own, takes Aragon Grand Prix victory

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo proved to be unbeatable at today’s Aragon Grand Prix as the two-time MotoGP World Champion led from start to finish to close the gap to teammate Valentino Rossi to just fourteen points with four rounds remaining.
 
The win not only maintained Lorenzo’s tilt at this year’s MotoGP championship it also marked his sixtieth Grand Prix victory across all classes and was his 88th MotoGP podium on Bridgestone tires. This sees Lorenzo surpass Casey Stoner as the most successful MotoGP rider on Bridgestone tires with a total of 38 victories, 34 second places and 16 third-place finishes.
 
Lorenzo got the holeshot into the first corner and immediately set a scorching pace, setting a new Aragon Circuit Lap record of 1’48.120 on his second lap and led for the entire race, taking the checkered flag 2.683 seconds ahead of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa in second place. Having qualified on the second row in fifth place, Pedrosa rode a fantastic race, holding off the fast-finishing Valentino Rossi who had to settle for third place. Such was the pace at today’s Aragon Grand Prix that the first four riders completed the race under the old overall race time record, Lorenzo’s race time being eighteen seconds quicker than the previous record.
 
The morning Warm Up session was subjected to cool temperatures due to heavy cloud cover but for the race, the skies cleared resulting in weather conditions that were almost identical to those experienced during qualifying yesterday. The track temperature leading up to and during the race was steady at 35°C so the riders selected the same slick tire combinations used during race simulations yesterday. The medium compound front slick was selected by every rider for the race except Forward Racing’s Toni Elias who opted for the soft compound slick instead. Rear tire choice showed a strong preference for the medium compound rear slick with sixteen of the twenty-five riders selecting this option, with the remaining nine riders selecting the soft compound rear slick.
 
Lorenzo’s sixth win of the season reduces the deficit to his teammate and championship leader Valentino Rossi to just fourteen points. Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez holds onto third place in the standings on 184 points despite suffering his fifth DNF of the season.
 
Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department
“Today we saw Jorge ride a very impressive race and I would like to say congratulations to him for such a fine victory and to Yamaha on their double podium at Aragon. Jorge is now the most successful MotoGP rider on Bridgestone tires having amassed 88 podiums since he first used our tires at the Qatar Grand Prix back in 2009. Today’s result sets up the championship for a thrilling conclusion over the next four rounds and with the next race being Bridgestone’s home race at Japan, I am sure the passionate Japanese fans will be treated to another exciting contest in a couple of weeks’ time. Our staff now head off on the three back-to-back races in Asia and Australia in good spirits as we look forward to supporting all the teams and riders in the final stages of the season.”
 
Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tire Development Department
“For a while it seemed that for the third race in a row we were going to have conditions for the race that were very different to the practice sessions, but in the end the conditions were perfect so the riders were able to select the slick tire options they used in their race simulations yesterday. This resulted in the medium compound front and rear slicks being the most popular combination. Aragon is a harsh circuit for the left shoulder of the front and rear tires but tire performance over race distance was consistent, with the overall race time this year being 18 seconds quicker than the old record. This is a pleasing result as it shows that the riders could maintain a strong pace throughout twenty-three laps at what is a tough circuit for tires.”
 
Jorge Lorenzo, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – Race Winner
“As always I made a good start and my strategy was to ride at the maximum from the beginning. It worked well as Marc struggled to keep up with me but I didn’t expect him to crash so when he did, I felt I could breathe a little easier. However, Dani kept a good pace and could keep the same gap to me, so I had to push all the way to the end of the race to take the victory.”