Lorenzo Wins Portuguese MotoGP, Closes Points Gap

Jorge Lorenzo was untouchable once again in Estorial, Portugal where he took a stunning fourth win of the season on Sunday, Oct. 4. In contrast, Fiat Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi had a disappointing day and came home a distant fourth, although his efforts helped Fiat Yamaha secure the 2009 Team Championship. Meanwhile Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards put in another strong performance to finish fifth with teammate James Toseland claiming ninth. Importantly, Fiat Yamaha is assured of one of its riders being crowned World Champion but with Rossi's lead cut to just 18 points over Lorenzo, the tension is mounting. MotoGP now takes a two-week break before starting the final three rounds in Australia, Malaysia and Spain.

Rossi struggled to match his teammate's pace all weekend, and a problem with rear grip compounded his difficulties on race day. He dropped to fourth on the first lap after starting from second and was unable to close the gap to Stoner and Pedrosa, eventually coming home some 13 seconds behind the Spaniard. The day nonetheless marked the Italian's 100th start for Yamaha, with whom he has won an incredible 43 times. "It was a very difficult race for me,” he admitted. “It is a pity that I am off the podium, but we still have three more races on great tracks. We must now think race by race, and also work to understand what the problem was today in order to make sure that we fix it in time for Phillip Island."

Another World Superbike Win for Spies in France

Despite winning one of two races, the 13th round of the 2009 World Superbike Championship proved a tough one overall for Yamaha World Superbike rider Ben Spies at Magny Cours, France on Sunday, Oct. 4. In front of a record crowd of 81,000, the penultimate round of this year’s championship saw Spies fight to a narrow victory in the first race, then hang on desperately for points with a front tire that struggled to perform in race two. Spies now heads into the final two races of the season at Portugal’s Portimao circuit on Oct. 25 trailing championship leader Noriyuki Haga by a narrow 10 points, but a double win there would secure the title for the greatest rookie in World Superbike history.

The American rider took the lead from the start of the first race, hotly pursued by championship rival Haga and holding onto the lead until the last lap, where Haga managed to pass. His lead was short lived, however, as Spies retook the front position a few seconds later to cross the line and claim his 13th win of the season by just 0.181 sec. “The whole first race had some good parts and bad ones,” Spies said afterwards. “We made some small mistakes costing us a tenth here and a tenth there, letting the other riders come up to us and not really taking advantage of the lead. I made a mistake on the last lap and let Nori through, so I had to get on the outside and get back past.”

Race two saw Spies chasing Max Biaggi and Haga into the first corner. It soon became apparent that the R1 rider was finding it hard to lay down power in the corners as his front tire hampered his attack. Jonathan Rea made a pass at the end of the first lap to drop the Texan to fourth, a position he managed to hold until the finish, despite dropping nearly a second a lap from the front group in the last few laps. “Honestly I’m disappointed with the second race,” Spies admitted. “We made a rear tire choice which was neither better nor worse, but the front tire was hard to go at a pace with. I was consistently half a second off what we were doing in practice. But even if we had won today we would still go to Portimao having to win both races so it doesn’t really change too much.”

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