Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) was dominant at Brno with a wire-to-wire victory today. No one could match his pace, and at the checkered flag he had roughly 4-1/2 seconds in hand over second place Marc Marquez (Honda). Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) finished third.
This result leaves Lorenzo and Rossi tied in points for the championship, although Lorenzo technically leads with more victories on the year so far. Marquez trails both riders by 52 points. For additional details, results and points, visit the official MotoGP site.
| Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Team | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | 25 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 42’53.042 |
| 2 | 20 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +4.462 |
| 3 | 16 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | +10.397 |
| 4 | 13 | 29 | Andrea IANNONE | Ducati Team | Ducati | +13.071 |
| 5 | 11 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +15.650 |
| 6 | 10 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | Ducati | +15.725 |
| 7 | 9 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | +21.821 |
| 8 | 8 | 44 | Pol ESPARGARO | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | +23.240 |
| 9 | 7 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +43.784 |
| 10 | 6 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Octo Pramac Racing | Ducati | +45.261 |
| 11 | 5 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Octo Pramac Racing | Ducati | +49.973 |
| 12 | 4 | 45 | Scott REDDING | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | +50.174 |
| 13 | 3 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | +54.437 |
| 14 | 2 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | +54.624 |
| 15 | 1 | 76 | Loris BAZ | Forward Racing | Yamaha Forward | +1’00.316 |
| 16 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | +1’01.595 | |
| 17 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | Aspar MotoGP Team | Honda | +1’02.388 | |
| 18 | 63 | Mike DI MEGLIO | Avintia Racing | Ducati | +1’05.944 | |
| 19 | 43 | Jack MILLER | CWM LCR Honda | Honda | +1’11.407 | |
| 20 | 71 | Claudio CORTI | Forward Racing | Yamaha Forward | +1’50.033 | |
| 21 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | AB Motoracing | Honda | +2’02.655 |
Shocking. JL, MM, and VR on the podium on Yamahas and Hondas.
The best riders on the best bikes. Who else would you expect to see up there?
Well, at the beginning of the season at least, Ducati was on the podium regularly and Suzuki was 1/2 pole and such which made Motogp far more interesting for me. I know Dorna is trying, and no, I don’t want the NASCAR flags. I wasn’t near a computer over the weekend so I missed the race, but after reading about it, no real loss.
Yet again an obnoxious Jorge celebrates in a most obnoxious manner. I might not mind him taking Rossi’s championship QUITE so much if he showed a little more tact and graciousness. Fist pump podium launches are seem ridiculous, at least to me. Maybe if this was his first championship?
Or am I being overly sensitive? I’m open to change.
Most of his celebrations are ridiculous but I’d have to give him this one, new lap record, perfect race leading from pole to flag, beating Marquez, taking over the lead in the Championship, first time since 2013. This time he actually deserves to fist pump and jump.
I do find it silly with all 3 riders wearing Bridgestone hats on the podium, when that’s the only tire you are allowed to run.
You are being overly sensitive. I once saw Rossi try to hump Collin Edwards after a race win.
I think that was a DIFFERENT channel you were watching!
“Awkward” is the word I think fits best. Look at Rossi in the photo – it’s like he’s shielding his face so no one links him to what’s going on.
I thought that was a great race, watching Lorenzo ride perfect lap after perfect lap, Marquez usual on the edge trying to stay with him, Rossi not able to run the pace, some battles back down the running order, that is racing, Lorenzo’s championship to lose.
I know this is kind of obvious, but I think Rossi knew he had nothing for Lorenzo on the same tire. His only chance was to introduce another variable. It didn’t work, but I like to see people trying different strategies.
This was the tire Lorenzo likes. How do they decide which tire will be used at which track? I think it is possible the rubber could decide the championship.
I was leading Lorenzo for full 3 laps once in a European race in Germany and I actually got team orders let him pass me so he could win the championship.
Then the alarm clock went off.
Leading him on your Buell, were you? 🙂
Of course! You must have seen the race the race footage – ha ha. Good to hear from you!
The Buell wouldn’t even spin Lorenzo’s wheel starter.
LOL you win the internet today. Hilarious thread, man.
When you think about gaps… We are talking a difference of 2/10 of one second difference over 3 1/3 miles and 16 turns. In 27 laps that’s over 5 seconds difference at the end or a little more than the gap between Lorenzo and Marquez and Marquez and Rossi. Doesn’t take much over a 27 lap race to make a 5 second difference between riders.
That is true, but 2/10s down on average EVERY lap is a lot – though in reality Marquez held on to Lorenzo for a while before accepting that it wasn’t going to happen and settled in for 2nd. That also means that Rossi was 4/10s behind Lorenzo on average. That is a lot for a top-tier professional racer on the same bike.
In the case of this race, the gaps were established fairly early and would only widen as the riders realized that they didn’t really have a chance at closing up on the next closest competitor. Eventually, Pedrosa and Lorenzo were the only ones really running a race. Everyone else decided to settle for what they had and just managed the gap with the rider behind them.
Out in front Lorenzo can put in as many laps as he wants within a tenth or even a few hundreths. same with Marquez. i don’t think Rossi is as consistent lap after lap. things get interesting is when they get in traffic. rossi gets faster, Lorenzo gets slower…Marquez stays about the same.. Pedrosa generally gets slower, although yesterday he stepped it up a notch.
Yes in traffic is where things get interesting. Rossi is a master at forcing mistakes when pressuring his prey. Some riders seem to lose composure just knowing Rossi is behind them. On the flip side, Rossi generally stays pretty cool when being nipped at himself and rarely leaves an opening for an aggressor to take advantage of. Marquez appears to just gobble competitors up as if he doesn’t have the time to wait on them to make mistakes. I’m still not really sure how he does it.
I think Rossi often banks on tire performance after the midway point. Honestly, with the pace Lorenzo was running, I thought both he and Marquez might use up the tires and allow Rossi to start reeling them in after 18th lap or so. Lorenzo never faded, though.
Also to their rational, if Rossi ( or anyone) learns he is 1 1/2 seconds behind and thinks maybe he can step it up and run 1/10 of a second faster than the guy in front of him per lap, it’s going to take 15 laps to reel the guy in.
I think strategies (or resolutions) to step it up also come with a gamble that the guys you are trying to reel in will also fade 1/10 to 2/10 per lap as well.
It’s all a gamble isn’t it? Each one thinking I can go faster and my adversary is going to go slower so I will eventually beat him. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work out that way. Even for guys like Marquez chasing Lorenzo…
“It’s all a gamble isn’t it?”
Truly.
I just accidentally reported Jeremy inTX with a stray thumb tap. Sorry bout that.
Reply and report post are way too close together if you are working with fingers and not a mouse on a pc. I’ve reported posts multiple times by accident. probably why I. Am in moderation so much lol
Hey Jeremy
these stats were just given over on motogpdotcom regarding Lorenzos performance Sunday
From laps two to nine in Brno, his times deviated by just 0.335s.
And between laps 14 and 21 when the race was long over as a contest, just 0.376s split his laps.
He did two more laps in the 1.56s than Marquez, but more telling was that he managed five sub-1.57s more than Rossi.
Wow. That is consistent.
Sorry Jeremy went to hit reply to your post and must have hit report post instead..anyhow some of our conversation disappeared and I apologize for that.
If you remember the gist of your post my reply would be crashdotnet has all the lap times all the qualifying times all the practice times. At Brno Lorenzo qualified 4/10 faster than Rossi with both doing their best on that day on that track. Also interesting they list top speed and Rossi had the second slowest top speed IN THE TOP 10 QUALIFIERS, only Vinales Suzuki was slower than Rossis Yamaha.
Yeah like everyone is saying, Rossi blew the start- but I disagree with Ron H. that he wouldn’t have been able to keep up.
A duelling Rossi is able to wear down anybody, and his tactics are 2nd to none- think Stoner, Biaggi, even Gibernau. Shame he couldnt get a chance to have a go today.
This season, for me, Rossi has been very impressive on race day…. okay today wasn’t the best example, not bad though. Lorenzo coming on form is going to make this very interesting, Marquez has settled down for now: if these three get a chance to fight in close quarters in some of the remaining races it is going to be one of the best seasons in recent years and I can’t imagine everyone staying upright in those encounters. I hope the 15 min qualifying sessions don’t end up being the best part of the weekend racing.
it didn’t matter that Rossi blew the start. He wouldn’t have been able to keep up with MM or Lorenzo. Made we think… I wonder what MotoGP would be like if all the factory prototype bikes raced on the same tires. It’s leveled the playing field in some automotive racing venues.
Ummm. They ARE all running the same tires: Bridgestones.
Or do you want them all to run the same compound? Who would get to decide?
Ya they do all run on the same tires…have for years.
I’d say same compound (if as others point out that’s what you mean) could go either way. If it’s a part of their setup and they can’t change it, it may make one bike totally not work. Pretty sure this is what Chris is alluding to as well.
That would be true if you took a spec tire and thew them on the bikes right now. However, if the teams are given the tire ahead of next season to work with, then it is no different than having a weight limit or fuel capacity limit: it is just another spec that the teams have to adapt to.
Would it make for better racing? Who knows? I suspect those with the most resources will end up producing the bikes that work best with the tires through the largest number of circuits. In other words, things would probably look a lot like they do now.
At this level of competition someone or multiple someones are going to have near perfect performances every race. If you want to be standing on the top step, you had better be one of those someones.
Lorenzo was flawless. Marquez did all he could do, but it wasn’t enough. Rossi flat messed up again. Finally qualifies well and blows the start .
i’m sure he knows what he must do if he wants to tack # 10 on the wall, qualify well, start well, run a perfect race.
I think Rossi also regrets his choice of tires. The Medium tires held up well, so his choice of hard tires probably held him back as well. I think they were planning for much hotter track temperatures. I would love to see Rossi get championship #10… it’s gonna go down to the wire..
I have to agree that it was a pretty dull race, unfortunate as I really like this circuit. I thought Marquez would keep me on the edge of my seat as he chased Lorenzo around like at Indy, but even he had to give it up. Rossi couldn’t do anything.
The gaps at the highest level of racing shouldn’t be that big.
5 seconds or less between bikes at the end of a race that long? That’s about as good as it gets. It’s also easy to forget that the leaders used to lap riders fairly far up the order. It’s closer now than it’s been in years. The next rule change should help but until heavy spec regulations are put in place (sealed engines, think moto2..) I don’t expect we’ll see things tighten up much more, especially past the mid point of a season.
True. Even in Moto2 it isn’t uncommon to see some pretty wide gaps on occasion.
These guys are so good that a gap that looks close in other forms of racing is impossible to cross on a GP bike. That, and 5 seconds @ ~200mph is REALLY far.
I think it’s partially on us to be “better fans”. While we want to see battles, there aren’t too many forms of credible racing that really make that happen.
I agree that it is nice when they are grouped together, but be careful what you wish for. It could be like NASCAR. (Yes, I watch it. I grew up on it. Don’t worry, it’s cool. I can stop any time I want.) They have been manufacturing close racing for over a decade. Actually my interest has been on the decline for the last 10 year, as has most of those I know that follow it.
There is a lot of grouping together in Moto3, and it makes for very exciting racing. It isn’t like a bunch of Nascars grouped together.
And don’t fool yourself Pacer: Nascar is not cool. 🙂
“They have been manufacturing close racing for over a decade.”
More like four or five decades……although I guess that is technically over a decade. LOL!
They have always had favorites, but when money is involved there always will be. I am focusing more on the “debris cautions”. Btw, it is pronounced “da-bris”. 🙂
I am really going to date myself but I first became aware of their manipulation of the playing field when they banned the hemi! 🙂
Okay, now that one really was a snooze-fest. The only real race was for fifth place, and did anyone doubt that the Honda would eventually overtake the Ducati?
In terms of the bigger picture, I have a feeling that in order for Valentino to win the championship he is going to need Jorge to suffer at least one more DNF or similar catastrophic result.
The race was a disaster for the spectators because there was no racing. The riders followed each other around the track for 22 laps.