Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) won a slippery, wet Le Mans race earlier today to re-take the points lead in the MotoGP championship. The wet conditions allowed Valentino Rossi (Ducati) to overtake Casey Stoner (Honda) and reach second place at the finish, with Stoner third.
For additional details, results and points, visit the official MotoGP site.
| Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time/Gap |
| 1 | 25 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 141.6 | 49’39.743 |
| 2 | 20 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 141.1 | +9.905 |
| 3 | 16 | 1 | Casey STONER | AUS | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 141.0 | +11.298 |
| 4 | 13 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 140.2 | +29.361 |
| 5 | 11 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | GER | LCR Honda MotoGP | Honda | 140.0 | +32.477 |
| 6 | 10 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | USA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 140.0 | +32.842 |
| 7 | 9 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 138.8 | +59.759 |
| 8 | 8 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 138.5 | +1’05.152 |
| 9 | 7 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Pramac Racing Team | Ducati | 138.4 | +1’07.846 |
| 10 | 6 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 138.2 | +1’13.193 |
| 11 | 5 | 77 | James ELLISON | GBR | Paul Bird Motorsport | ART | 137.6 | +1’26.663 |
| 12 | 4 | 54 | Mattia PASINI | ITA | Speed Master | ART | 137.5 | +1’27.633 |
| 13 | 3 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | 135.8 | 1 Lap |
| 14 | 2 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | ITA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | FTR | 135.4 | 1 Lap |
| 15 | 1 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | COL | Avintia Blusens | BQR | 135.0 | 1 Lap |
| 16 | 11 | Ben SPIES | USA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 133.1 | 1 Lap | |
| 17 | 7 | Chris VERMEULEN | AUS | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | Suter | 131.3 | 2 Laps | |
| 18 | 22 | Ivan SILVA | SPA | Avintia Blusens | BQR | 126.8 | 2 Laps |
The rain took the bike out of the equation and let the rider do his thing. Rain shows who has the biggest guts and Rossi still does. He may bitch about his bike but we only here about him bitching more than other because he is at the top of the food chain. I bet other riders do the same but it is not front line news. I hope he figures out the bike so he can get competative again.
Ben Spies is probably lacking confidence. His bike is set up shockingly badly – anyone note how it was tucking the front at Qatar when the other three Yamahas were on rails? That is set-up (or lack of it). Houseworth doesn’t know what he is doing at this level. And Ben has not been helped by the attitude of the team boss – check this out: http://www.kiwiridernews.com/2012/05/whats-up-with-ben-spies.html
A few good points there.
I see the Rossi naysayers have awakened. Amazing what taking the gimmicks out of the equation can equal, huh?
Rossi is the 2nd best ever. Joey is the GOAT (ask Vale and he’ll agree.)
OH, and before the dirty guys comment, I love RC. I watched him grow up racing here in The Sunshine State and he could never make the transition to road racing speed. A fast motocross bike feels S-L-O-W by comparison.
Ben is learning the hard way that MotoGP is populated by a number of great riders. He needs a different crew top-to-bottom. He’s lost his confidence. Back in the day (before AMA NASCAR racing) Ben/and Crew only had to race one guy, really. Europe is an eye-opener for many, many riders American riders (and Crews) both on the track and on the street. Good luck, Ben!
Just my humble $00.02 worth.
I agree that Joey is the GOAT – saw him race in person in 2000 at the TT and he was majestic – looked slow, but was fast. A few laps of the Mountain Course left me in awe of all of them to be honest….
Re the equation being leveled by water, well all I can say is it helped my countryman Chris Vermuelen a few years ago to a win by a mile, and that led to…….
Spies will be a Tech 3 rider soon if he doesn’t get his act together.
Spies will win the Championship…of 2014 WSBK. As I’ve said before, time for Spies sycophants to root elsewhere.
Ben Spies goes from bad to worse. At this rate, he won’t even see out this season, never mind next year. hard to explain.
re: “Ben Spies goes from bad to worse. At this rate, he won’t even see out this season, never mind next year. hard to explain.”
no, easy to explain. support is everything at the grandprix level.
Spies’ level of support is unknown and unknowable to the general public. Anyone with actual first hand knowledge signed binding non-disclosure contract. Violating such would cost dearly in civil court (the defense alone is costly even if they prevailed), plus they’d be permanently unemployed in their chosen field. Can anyone name an actual individual who violated such contract?
Rather than make unknown, unproven, and unprovable excuses, fans should just root elsewhere and forget about Spies for now. No one cries about loser Biaggi inhaling Vale’s exhaust for years.
I stand corrected, Rossi still has it. He just needs the right bike. Wet tracks have a way of showing the best riders. I dont put much stock in Stoner finishing behind Rossi, because he would have been silly to risk a crash. Lorenzo was his usual genius self.
I would love to see Rossi get With Honda his last couple of years so we can watch more epic Lorenzo-Rossi battles.
Great ride by Rossi. Now he just needs to figure out how to do that under ideal conditions.
Just add water?
Clearly, Rossi still has “it”. Just need to get that Ducati figured out.