2013/5/5

Dani Pedrosa clinched his maiden victory of this year¢s MotoGP™ World Championship, winning the Gran Premio bwin de España on Sunday, as teammate Marc Marquez spiced up proceedings by barging past Yamaha Factory Racing¢s Jorge Lorenzo for second place in the final corner. 


Lorenzo had been the rider to beat for much of the weekend, comfortably sealing his second pole position of the season on Saturday, yet Pedrosa overtook him at the start of the 27-lap race. The lead was immediately snatched back, but Pedrosa made the move stick as he passed at Dry Sack on Lap 6. As the Yamaha rider dropped into the clutches of Marquez, Pedrosa maintained a steady pace en route to his first win since Valencia last year. 

Marquez¢s race was a dramatic one, having entered as the joint championship leader with Lorenzo. Having quickly demoted Valentino Rossi to fourth place after the Yamaha rider overtook at the end of Lap 1, the 20-year-old charged up to the back of Lorenzo and attempted several different lines in a bid to distract the current title holder. The eventual move came at the newly-named Jorge Lorenzo Corner at the end of the very last lap, where Marquez forcefully made his way past his compatriot, leaving the latter in a less than happy mood in Parc Fermé. 
Rossi had a lonely ride to fourth place on the second Yamaha Factory bike, with Monster Yamaha Tech 3¢s Cal Crutchlow overcoming GO&FUN Honda Gresini¢s Alvaro Bautista for a top five spot at the end of a difficult weekend, which featured two sizeable accidents on Saturday. Ducati Team duo Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso made the top eight while test rider Michele Pirro enjoyed a strong first ride of the campaign to 11th on the squad¢s GP13 Lab chassis. Hector Barbera and Avintia Blusens impressed by qualifying tenth on the lead CRT machine, but on race day the Spaniard fell to 12th as Power Electronics Aspar¢s Aleix Espargaro took top CRT honours for the third time in as many races, finishing ninth from Tech 3¢s Bradley Smith. 

Comments: 1) The drama at the last turn was due to Lorenzo¢s mistake, leaving the door open with a very aggressive rider like Marquez on his back. From the other hand, Marquez was so desperate to pass, while he knew that he had to brake immediately after, at the entrance, blocking his competitor. That high risk move was at the limits of the fair play. Happily enough no one crashed, although Lorenzo who seems to be the most prominent title candidate, was pushed almost out of the track. 
2) It is impressive that Honda found eventually the answer to Yamaha and especially Lorenzo who was the dominant rider of the qualifying. Maybe distinguishing the tracks to the favouring Honda or Yamaha ones, is not a key issue after this race.


GRAN PREMIO bwin DE ESPAÑA 
MotoGP Race Classification 2013 J
erez de la Frontera, Sunday, May 05, 2013 
Pos. Points Num. Rider Nation Team Bike Km/h Time/Gap 
1 25 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 158.1 45'17.632 
2 20 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 158.0 +2.487 
3 16 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 157.8 +5.089 
4 13 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 157.6 +8.914 
5 11 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 157.4 +12.663 
6 10 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 157.3 +15.094 
7 9 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 156.7 +25.632 
8 8 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 155.7 +41.881 
9 7 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Power Electronics Aspar ART 155.6 +43.812 
10 6 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 155.6 +44.461


  Standings, 2013 MotoGP                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
 Pos.   Rider  Bike  Nation  Points
 1  Marc MARQUEZ  Honda  SPA  61
 2  Dani PEDROSA  Honda  SPA  58
 3  Jorge LORENZO  Yamaha  SPA  57
 4  Valentino ROSSI  Yamaha  SPA  43
 5  Cal CRUTCHLOW  Yamaha  GBR  35
 6  Alvaro BAUTISTA   Honda  SPA  28
 7  Andrea DOVIZIOSO  Ducati  ITA  26
 8  Nicky HAYDEN  Ducati  USA  24
 9  Aleix ESPARGARO  ART  SPA  17
 10  Andrea Iannone  Ducati   ITA  13
     
2013/5/4

Jorge Lorenzo clinched his second pole position of the 2013 MotoGP™ season at the Gran Premio bwin de España today, topping an incident-packed qualifying session in on his 26th birthday ahead of Dani Pedrosa, Marc Marquez, Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi, who will fill positions two to five despite all four riders suffering falls this afternoon. 

With the sun shining and thousands pouring into the Circuito de Jerez for the first European qualifying session of the year, the front row was locked out by riders from the home nation, with Yamaha Factory Racing¢s Lorenzo delivering a best lap time of 1¢38.673 to see off Repsol Honda Team¢s Pedrosa by just under three tenths of a second. Although Lorenzo has looked extremely strong since the start of the weekend, he was aided by high-speed crashes, which either disrupted or terminated his closest rivals¢ sessions. Pedrosa¢s teammate Marquez had tumbled in the final free practice session, whereas Yamaha Factory¢s Rossi and Pedrosa¢s errors came at almost the same moment as qualifying reached its climax. 

Monster Yamaha Tech 3¢s Crutchlow visited gravel traps in both sessions and was fortunate to re-join the action and qualify fourth quickest. He visited the medical centre for further checks at the end of the day for precautionary checks. Behind Rossi, the second row is completed by GO&FUN Honda Gresini¢s Alvaro Bautista, who out-qualified Ducati Team¢s Nicky Hayden, LCR Honda MotoGP¢s Stefan Bradl - who progressed to the pole shootout from Q1 with a trilling last ditch effort - and Ducati¢s Andrea Dovizioso. Hector Barbera led the CRT riders and impressed with a top ten position, but he too would be a crasher by the time the chequered flag flew.


GRAN PREMIO bwin DE ESPAÑA MotoGP Qualifying Nr. 2 Classification 2013 
Jerez de la Frontera, Saturday, May 04, 2013 
Pos. Num. Rider Nation Team Bike Km/h Time Gap 1st/Prev. 
1 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 288.2 1'38.673
2 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 290.8 1'38.920 0.247 / 0.247 
3 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 290.9 1'38.971 0.298 / 0.051 
4 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 287.0 1'39.262 0.589 / 0.291 
5 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 287.1 1'39.300 0.627 / 0.038 
6 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 290.6 1'39.509 0.836 / 0.209 
7 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 285.8 1'39.654 0.981 / 0.145 
8 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 290.5 1'39.847 1.174 / 0.193 
9 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 286.4 1'39.848 1.175 / 0.001 
10 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Blusens FTR 280.0 1'39.980 1.307 / 0.132



2013/5/3

Standings  MotoGP  2013                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
 Pos.   Rider  Bike  Nation  Points
 1  Marc MARQEZ  Honda  SPA  41
 2  Jorge LOREZO  Yamaha  SPA  41
 3  Dani PEDROSA  Honda  SPA  33
 4  Valentino ROSSI  Yamaha  SPA  30
 5  Cal CRUTCHLOW  Yamaha  GBR  24
 6  Alvaro BAUTISTA   Honda  SPA  18
 7  Andrea DOVIZIOSO  Ducati  ITA  18
 8  Nicky HAYDEN  Ducati  USA  15
 9  Andrea IANNONE  Ducati  ITA  13
 10  Stefan BRADL  Honda   GER  11
        
Back on home soil, Yamaha Factory Racing¢s Jorge Lorenzo was in World Champion form as he led proceedings on day one in Jerez at the Gran Premio bwin de España ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech 3¢s Cal Crutchlow and Repsol Honda Team compatriot Dani Pedrosa. 

There was off-track drama in the second session of the day as a power cut resulted in the session starting seven minutes late. However once it did get underway, with ambient temperatures in the high twenties and a track temperature of 49 degrees Celsius, Lorenzo reduced his morning lap time by two tenths of a second to post a best of 1¢39.562. 

Pedrosa was one of only two riders in the top ten to have recorded his fastest time in the significantly-cooler morning practice, whilst Crutchlow put in yet another good display on his satellite M1 to go third in the warmer afternoon. Whilst his Yamaha counterparts stuck with the hard option front and softer option rear tyre, factory rider Valentino Rossi, fourth quickest, also tried the harder option rear, however citing that it lacked enough edge grip. Repsol¢s championship leader and last-race winner Marc Marquez could not quite reach the heights of Austin, however put in a solid ride for fifth, ahead of GO&FUN Honda Gresini¢s Alvaro Bautista, who was struggling with issues with the rear of his bike. 

Energy T.I. Pramac Racing¢s Andrea Iannone was impressive on the Desmosedici as he finished the overall standing¢s in seventh, ahead of factory Ducati Team rider Nicky Hayden in eighth. Hayden however was the other rider to set his fastest time in the morning, citing that he did not progress as expected in the afternoon. In ninth place, it was someone else¢s turn to occupy top CRT spot, as Avintia Blusens¢ Hector Barbera edged out Power Electronics Aspar¢s Aleix Espargaro into tenth.


GRAN PREMIO bwin DE ESPAÑA MotoGP Free Practice Nr. 2 Classification 
2013 Jerez de la Frontera, Friday, May 03, 2013 
Pos. Num. Rider Nation Team Bike Km/h Time Gap 1st/Prev. 
1 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 286.0 1'39.562
2 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 287.5 1'39.733 0.171 / 0.171 
3 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 289.0 1'39.757 0.195 / 0.024 
4 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 284.9 1'39.874 0.312 / 0.117 
5 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 287.7 1'39.889 0.327 / 0.015 
6 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 287.9 1'40.507 0.945 / 0.618
7 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 283.8 1'40.574 1.012 / 0.067 
8 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Blusens FTR 275.0 1'40.736 1.174 / 0.162 
9 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Power Electronics Aspar ART 272.5 1'40.738 1.176 / 0.002 
10 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 282.8 1'40.837 1.275 / 0.099