Jerez, Spain: MotoGP Round 4 Post-Race Report
Jorge Lorenzo started off his campaign at Jerez on a mission to win the Spanish Grand Prix and put his name back in title contention for the MotoGP World Championship. The Spanish rider was flawless from the start of practice earlier in the week and took off like a rocket heading for the moon when the lights turned green at Jerez. Lorenzo felt that he could brake late into the corners, found a rhythm and felt 110% on his Yamaha M1. The 123,000 fans in Jerez were cheering very loudly for the Spanish rider and his smile could not have been any bigger. Lorenzo jumped, cheered, fist pumped and wiggled his fingers like there was no tomorrow. This is the confidence booster that he needed in order to be competitive for the rest of the season. This was Lorenzo’s 55th win in his career.
Marc Marquez did everything in his power to stay with Lorenzo as long as he could regardless of the injury he was nursing. Marc was relying on the use of his right arm more than his left, which left him with a numb and sore arm after the end of the race. There was a point in the race where Marquez couldn’t change gears as a result of the numb feeling. It was a solid effort from the current World Champ! Rossi did not have the picture perfect weekend that he wanted as he struggled with set up and felt that he could not ride to his maximum level. Rossi was chasing down Marquez but had to give up towards the end of the race because the risk was too high. Valentino did not want to end up in the gravel trap with a dent to his Championship lead so he settled for third place. Marquez showed a sign of relief when he came into pit lane and was thankful that the race was not a repeat of Argentina. Rossi did celebrate 200 podiums surpassing the record from Giacomo Agostini and becoming the first rider in history to do so.
The Ducati riders did not have a great weekend as they struggled to find the optimum set up and Iannone made a big mistake by hitting the ‘wet’ mapping system by mistake before the start of the race. His race performance was undermined as a result of the electronic management system on his GP15 not functioning for the race conditions. Dovi was never really in contention for a podium after having a terrible start and ending up chasing down to finish 9th after being in last place. In the Moto2 category, Jonas Folger took a second victory for the season ahead of Johann Zarco and Tito Rabat. It was the famous Lorenzo corner that turned into a disaster for Alex Rins who came in too hot to try and take second place whilst clipping the back of Rabat’s bike. This allowed Zarco to push forward and go from fourth to second. The Moto3 category saw Danny Kent win his third race of the season ahead of Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder. The Honda rider celebrated his victory after Fabio Quartararo went into the Lorenzo corner too hot and hit Danny Kent to finish fourth. It was a risky move from the rookie rider and just goes to show how gutsy he is to try and win at all costs.
