Czech MotoGP: Lorenzo follows up pole position with win

Two-time champion levels teammate Rossi in current standings

BRNO: Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo won the Czech Republic MotoGP race in Brno on Sunday to level Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi at the top of the overall championship standings after 11 out of 18 races.

Fellow Spaniard Marc Marquez, the reigning champion and winner of the previous two races, finished second ahead of Rossi.

Lorenzo clocked 42mins 53.042secs on the 22 laps, finishing 4.462secs ahead of Honda’s Marquez and 10.397secs clear of Rossi.



Both Lorenzo and Rossi have 211 points at the top of the overall standings but Lorenzo has won five races this season against three wins for the Italian superstar.

Marquez in third has 159 points following a lacklustre start to the season.

“Luckily I had a little more pace than Marc and I won this very important victory for the championship,” said Lorenzo, the 2010 and 2012 champion.

On the hot, dry Sunday afternoon, the 28-year-old led all the way from pole position, with Marquez nestled in right behind him.

But unlike at Indianapolis last weekend, Marquez never got a chance to get past Lorenzo, who gradually started to broaden the gap.

Marquez admitted that “it was really difficult to win the race” given Lorenzo’s pace. “But my target was try to finish in front of Valentino and I did,” added the 22-year-old 2013 and 2014 champion.

Rossi, who has made it on to the podium in all races so far this season, got off to a poor start, losing two positions from third on the grid as Lorenzo and Marquez sped ahead.

“Unfortunately my start was bad and I lost some time in the first laps,” said the 36-year-old, who has won nine championship titles across all categories.

Andrea Iannone on a Ducati finished fourth ahead of 2014 Brno winner Dani Pedrosa on a Honda and fellow Italian and Ducati teammate Andrea Dovizioso.

Pedrosa worked his way up through the pack from ninth at the start following a heavy crash in Friday’s practice in which he injured his left foot. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th,  2015.

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