Valentino Rossi is the most successful rider here with a staggering nine wins at the Circuito de Jerez, seven of them in the premier class, and one each in 125cc and 250cc.
VALENTINO ROSSI is well and truly back! He's WON the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez today.
FINAL LAP! Rossi masters Turn 4 in precise fashion and making this look absolutely effortless. It’s obviously not!
It’ll be Rossi's first win in a long, long time. He last won the 2015 British MotoGP at Silverstone; that was rain-soaked, the kind of race Rossi absolutely relishes. His win today will give him the 113th race victory of his career – and his second podium this year.
Thirty-seven. Repeat that to yourself. The Doctor is 37 years old and racing out of his skin today. He was painfully disappointed not to have won last year’s championship and he’s coming up tops today!
Final four laps! Maverick Vinales has moved up to fifth, and Iannone successfully pulled off that P7 move against Pol Espargaro! In attendance is the legendary Giacomo Agostini.
And we’ve got only 7 laps to go! Good battle in P7 between Andrea Iannone of Ducati, who's looking to take over from Pol Espargaro of Monster Yamaha Tech; it appears there are far more battles lower down the order! 2.7s gap between Rossi and Lorenzo now though, with the Italian’s getting wider
12 laps to go and it’s looking like Rossi’s first victory of 2016! Lorenzo’s gaining time though, and appears to be using his tyres far more smartly. Top 3 still the same, with Dani Pedrosa in 4th and looking to catch up Marquez. It’s much closer together lower down the order, though, with a number of battles for the lower spots.
Rossi is absolutely running away with this! There’s 1.5s between him and Lorenzo in P2; Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso is having serious problems... he runs off track and back on again, but he’s having issues with his bike. Is this the end of the race for him?
It is! Andrea Dovizioso’s Spanish Grand Prix is over with technical issues; he cruises back to the pits.
AND THEY’RE OFF! Lorenzo takes the lead from Rossi but Rossi takes it right back! Lorenzo’s now right behind his teammate but Marc Marquez is RIGHT ON HIS TAIL! Can Marquez catch Lorenzo?
And it’s a battle of the Spaniards for 2,3 AND 4! Talk about your home races..
Eugene Laverty of Aspar MotoGP is losing a bit of time and Marquez is lagging behind Lorenzo a little bit for now.
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi is on pole position at the fourh MotoGP race of the year in Jerez, Spain. Reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo, who is Rossi’s teammate, won the year-opening Grand Prix at Qatar, with Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso finishing in second and double world champion Marc Marquez of Honda in third.
Rossi will start today’s race on the front row, followed by teammate Lorenzo and Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez.
Marquez went on to win the next two races, the Argentine Grand Prix and the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas, with Lorenzo retiring in Argentina and Rossi in America; Honda had a double podium in Argentina, with Marquez’ teammate Dani Pedrosa finishing in third.
Polesitter Rossi has won the Spanish MotoGP 5 times in the past, while the much-younger Marquez has been on the podium at every edition of the race since his MotoGP debut, winning the title in in 2014.
It’s a home race for Marquez, teammate Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo, brothers Pol and Aleix Espargaro of Yamaha and Suzuki respectively, as for Aleix’s teammate Maverick Vinales. A majority of the racers on the current MotoGP roster are Spanish – Hector Barbera of Ducati and Honda’s Esteve Rabat are also from the country.
In an interesting development, it was announced earlier this week that this would be Jorge Lorenzo’s final year at Yamaha; he will be moving to Ducati in 2017. It is unclear for now which Ducati driver he is replacing, or who will be his replacement at Movistar Yamaha MotoGP.
Given that Valentino Rossi, at 36 years old, is the oldest driver on the grid, there has been talk of the legendary Italian racer retiring, in which case the 2017 season may see an entirely new lineup for Yamaha.
The six-time MotoGP world champion will hope to add to his winning tally in Jerez today.
Rossi has been in good form lately, but it is Lorenzo who holds mutliple track records at the Circuito de Jerez. He set the track’s fastest lap of 1m 38.735s last year, also setting the best race time lap of 1m 37.910s. He also set the fastest time across practice sessions, with 1m 39.241s in practice.
The race begins at 5:30 p.m. IST.
