Lorenzo Cruises To 60th GP Win In Aragon

Sep 27, 2015
4 min read

Jorge Lorenzo took his sixtieth Grand Prix win of his career and a big bite out of Valentino Rossi's championship lead after a devastating ride in Aragon.

The Spaniard had been on top form all weekend long, and practice pace pointed towards a race where the Spaniard was going to run away early doors. Getting the hole shot at the start, he did just that, extending his advantage to second placed Marc Marquez to half a-second by the end of the first lap.

Marquez had been roughed up at the start by the Ducati of Andrea Iannone, but soon disposed of the Italian at turn seven. The Honda rider blitzed the field in qualifying with a storming lap of 1:46.635 and felt confident that he could run the pace of Lorenzo during the race. Breaking away from the chasing pack by the start of the second lap, Marc went on the hunt for his compatriot – an endeavour that ended disastrously for him. He pushed too hard on the brake into turn twelve and tucked the front, with the bike rolling in the gravel and destroying the handlebars. Instead of racking up his fiftieth Grand Prix win, Marc Marquez was left to contemplate his fifth DNF of the season.

This was good and bad new for Lorenzo; the heat was off and he was left to cruise to an easy sixth win of 2015, but one less rider behind meant one less buffer between himself and team-mate Rossi. The outcome in which Jorge left Spain with a fourteen-point gap or nineteen hinged upon the shoulders of his old arch-rival, Dani Pedrosa.

Pedrosa's pace had been fairly similar to that of the other main podium contenders for much of the weekend, and this allowed him to stick with Rossi for the entire twenty-three-lap contest. Lapping identical times, Rossi just sat behind the Honda and waited for the right opportunity. It became clear that the Italian had to pass the Spaniard early in the lap as so he could break the RC213V and avoid being passed on the back straight between turns fifteen and sixteen.

With five laps to go Rossi had a go at Pedrosa into turn one, but ran it a touch deep and Dani ceased the position back immediately. Another attempt into turn four was once again countered by the Spaniard and this ensued for the remaining laps. Rossi had one more go at turn four on the final lap and made it stick, Pedrosa fighting back straight away, forcing his Honda up the inside of the YZR-M1 at turn seven to stamp his authority in this battle. A futile lunge at turn fifteen bore no fruit for the Doctor and the outcome for Lorenzo was sorted – he heads into Japan with fourteen points to claw back.

Andrea Iannone gritted his teeth to come home a very respectable 4th despite the pain he is suffering as a result of a dislocated shoulder. The Italian ran third in the opening few laps before dropping back to fourth. There he was able to manage the gap to the gaggle of bikes behind. This result moves him to within twelve points of Marquez in 3rd in the standings.

Team-mate Dovizioso's weekend began horrendously after a bad qualifying saw him down in 13th. But a great, aggressive ride at the start saw him up to 5th. Dovi managed to hold off the hard charging satellite bikes of Smith and Crutchlow, as well as a surprisingly quick Aleix Espargaro for the second half of the race. A crucial result in the Italian's quest for fifth in the standings as he is now just four points off.

The aforementioned Bradley Smith also had a fairly bad qualifying in 10th, but was 6th early on. Looking set to take fifth from Dovizioso and finish top satellite once again, Bradley's hard work was undone when he was forced to run his Tech 3 Yamaha on at turn one in avoidance of the GP15. He dropped back to 8th but still finished ahead of team-mate Pol Espargaro who was 10th after making a mistake at turn seven earlier in the race.

Top Open class honours went, for the first time this season, to Eugene Laverty. The Aspar rider has had one of his best weekend's of his rookie season; he qualified top Open in 15th, and held off team-mate Nicky Hayden in a race-long scrap for position.

Karel Abraham's race ended prematurely when he peeled off into the pits with eleven laps still to run. The Czech rider has been suffering awfully with the foot injury he picked up during FP4 in Barcelona, the prognosis of which states a possible one-year recovery time. The physically demanding nature of the circuit was too much for Abraham and he just couldn't continue. He joined Alex De Angelis and Danilo Petrucci on the sidelines.

2015 Aragon Grand Prix – Result:

1st Jorge Lorenzo, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

2nd Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team

3rd Valentino Rossi, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

4th Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team

5th Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

6th Aleix Espargaro, Suzuki Team Ecstar

7th Cal Crutchlow, LCR Honda

8th Bradley Smith, Monster Yamaha Tech 3

9th Pol Espargaro, Monster Yamaha Tech 3

10th Yonny Hernandez, Octo Pramac Racing Ducati

11th Maverick Vinales, Suzuki Team Ecstar