Lorenzo gains third successive Misano victory

Jorge Lorenzo was untouchable in today’s San Marino Grand Prix, the Yamaha Factory Racing rider streaking away from the start of the race to take the chequered flag by 3.379 seconds to score his third successive MotoGP victory at Misano.

Starting from second on the grid, Lorenzo got the holeshot to lead into the first corner and by the end of the first lap amassed a gap of 1.2 seconds to break the resolve of the following pack. Lorenzo continued his strong pace throughout the twenty-eight lap contest to take victory ahead of Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez who came out on top in an entertaining battle with teammate Dani Pedrosa for second place. Colin Edwards’ strong season continues, the American rider crossing the finish line in twelfth place on his NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR-Kawasaki to be the top CRT finisher at Misano.

Ambient temperatures were warmer today but cloud cover and a strong breeze kept track temperatures lower than the previous two days of action, with a peak figure of 31°C recorded during the race. The lower track temperatures and poor grip level of the circuit resulted in all riders selecting the softer rear slick options while for the front tyre, seventeen of the twenty-four riders selected the softer of the two front slick options, the medium compound. Tyre performance during the race was consistent, with the overall race time being the quickest ever recorded at this circuit, beating the old record by six seconds.

Marquez now sits on 253 championship points to lead the standings by thirty-four points over both Lorenzo and Pedrosa, who now sit equal on 219 championship points with five rounds remaining.

Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department

“It was cooler today for the race but this didn’t have a significant effect on tyre choice as most riders had already decided to use the softer slick options front and rear to compensate for the poor grip level of the Misano circuit. The only variation in race tyre choice was for the front tyre, with most riders selecting the softer front option for maximum grip, while the Yamaha and Repsol Honda riders opting for the harder front slick. After another satisfying race weekend our attention now turns to the Misano post-race test where our engineers will be on-hand to support the teams and where we will also be providing our new experimental rear slick for the riders to evaluate.”

Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing – Race Winner

“It was important to win here to recover five more points to Marc, so it was a good result for the championship. I am very happy for this victory because we were struggling a bit this weekend but we made a change in warm up which helped my performance a lot. It was physically a hard race because Marc and Dani never gave up and had a quick pace, so thanks to the team for working to improve my bike and helping me to get the win.”

San Marino MotoGP Top 10 Race Classification