Jorge Lorenzo took victory in the wet MotoGP race at the Gran Premio bwin de España after Marco Simoncelli crashed whilst leading. It was a Spanish one-two with Dani Pedrosa claiming second position and Nicky Hayden in third. In a race which was run in wet conditions, making it very slippery, Simoncelli was on his way to his first victory in the premier class with a three second advantage over Lorenzo.
Jorge Lorenzo reigns in Spain
The Italian suffered a nasty highside at turn one, losing a potential debut win. Pedrosa had made a tentative start to his race but managed to get back in the hunt for the win. Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) had passed the Spaniard for second in the dying laps, but made a mistake and ended up in the gravel, losing 20 points. It was the same story for Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) who due to Spies’ error, was on course to take a rostrum place behind Pedrosa. However the American also ended up visiting the gravel trap and was unable to restart. It was Hayden who finished in third to take the first podium for Ducati Team this season and his second of his career with the team.
Qatar race winner Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda) was victim to a mistake from Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) which ended his race prematurely. The Ducati rider who started from 12th, was up to fourth within the early laps and then joined the leading group. After passing Lorenzo, Stoner was his next target and as he made his manoeuvre on the Australian, he made it through on the inside and then lost control of his bike. His error caused a collision with Stoner, sending them both off. The Repsol Honda rider was unable to restart his bike, whilst the Italian was able to continue, albeit further down the field. Due to incidents further ahead, Rossi picked up 11 points for fifth place.
Rossi and Stoner crash
Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) was one place away from the rostrum, taking fourth position, his best result in MotoGP. The Japanese rider’s previous best finish had been seventh. Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar Team) built on his performance in Losail to finish sixth, ahead of Karel Abraham (Cardion ab Motoracing) who after crashing during the race, was able to remount to take seventh place and pick up points in his second MotoGP race. Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was able to take eighth place after similar fate as the Czech rider, when he crashed in a solid top five place. This was the British rider’s first race at the Jerez circuit in his rookie season.
via MotoGP
