Catalunya, Barcelona: MotoGP Round 7 Post-Race Report
Jorge Lorenzo has been rewarded with #4Aces after winning his fourth straight MotoGP race. It is the first time in his career that Lorenzo has been able to have such an incredible run with victory after victory. In Lorenzo’s eyes this was one of the hardest wins of his career as he battled the heat, tyre temperature changes and bike performance. The Spanish Champion kept his rhythm and was so focused to keep Valentino Rossi at bay. Rossi did his best to finish second after starting in seventh position on the grid. The Italian rider did an exceptional job to chase down Lorenzo and close the gap to under one second on the last lap of the race. It was an emotional race for many of the riders and a disaster for so many others including Cal Crutchlow, Pol Espargaro, Andrea Dovizioso, Marc Marquez and Aleix Espargaro.
The biggest mistake of the weekend came from reigning World Champion Marc Marquez who crashed out of the race. Marc has since spoken with the media and informed everyone that he was pushing too much at all costs and that these things happen. Marquez rode three laps and just missed Jorge Lorenzo. It is another DNF for the Repsol Honda MotoGP Team and a terrible end for the fans that were hoping for an epic battle between the top riders. Marquez will need to reset and re-focus in order to come back stronger in two weeks time when the riders arrive for the Dutch TT at Assen.
Team Suzuki Ecstar started off the weekend with a historic one-two and the weekend did not end as expected. Aleix had a slow start and ended up chasing down a number of competitors. Unfortunately, Aleix made a mistake as a result of rushing to recover his positions lost at the start. When he crashed, the Suzuki rider was on the limit and moved off his ideal racing line causing him to hit a bump and crash. This is racing. His Suzuki teammate Maverick Vinales finished in sixth position, which was a happy result though his race pace was comparable to the factory riders at the front.
In the Moto2 and Moto3 classes it was a fierce battle at the front from start to finish. Danny Kent came out victorious in the Moto3 category after an intense battle with fellow riders Enea Bastianini, Efren Vazquez, Niccolo Antonelli and Miguel Oliveira. It was a sprint to the finish and Kent’s strategy paid off. In the Moto2 class everyone thought Tito Rabat was going to pull off another win. The Spanish Champion did the complete opposite and ended up finishing third. Johann Zarco the current Championship leader put his bike and body on the line to pass Tito with one lap to go and was the race winner. In a last minute chance to win, Tito tried to pass Zarco and made a big error allowing Alex Rins to pick up second place. Rabat was angry and disappointed with his performance. Zarco was stoked and managed to perform a backflip off one of the air barriers in front of his French fans who travelled all the way from the South of France. It was a superb weekend of motorcycle racing!
