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The 28-year-old scored his 4th victory in as many races. Following stunning victories at Jerez, Le Mans and Mugello, Lorenzo has won the Catalan MotoGP in absolutely dominant fashion. Lorenzo’s teammate, Moto legend Valentino Rossi was his only real competition for the race, and Lorenzo admitted as much in post-race interviews, saying the “last 10 laps were very difficult, Valentino was very fast.”
At one point, the Doctor reduced his 2-second lead over teammate Lorenzo to 1.4s, and this worried Lorenzo, who was convinced he would lose the race at the last moment, in a reflection of what happened at the 2009 Catalan Grand Prix.
Lorenzo was 6 points behind Rossi in the drivers’ standings, the Doctor with 118 and the Spaniard with 112. This victory, however, has made that lead miniscule – Lorenzo, now on 137, is only one point behind his teammate.
Rossi, who started the race in 7th, continues his podium run – he has been on it every single race this season, two of them wins – at the inaugural race of the year at Losail in Qatar, and at the Argentine Grand Prix. The Italian MotoGP icon has not performed well in Qualifying, but manages every single race to put in a stellar performance. It is perhaps his qualifying results that have been holding him back from beating Lorenzo.
The two Movistar Yamaha MotoGP teammates have been head and shoulders above the rest of their competitors, with 3rd place Dani Pedrosa of Repsol Honda a significant 18.5sec behind the duo. Pedrosa’s teammate, double World Champion Marc Marquez has had his woes continue into this race, had his third race retirement of the year, crashing out early on on third in his home race.
Suzuki, who got a 1-2 in qualifying with Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales, failed to capitalise on that lead – Vinales finished the race in 6th, with Espargaro crashing out of the race.
With this victory, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, with 166 points, consolidate their already significant lead in the constructors’ standings, with 166 points.
