Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) took his second race win in a row at Catalunya earlier today. In somewhat typical fashion (at least from his Yamaha days), Lorenzo took the lead early in the race and was never headed. Although Marc Marquez (Honda) followed Lorenzo closely for much of the race, Lorenzo’s pace proved withering and Marquez faded in the final laps and settled for second place. Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi came home third.
Marquez extended his championship points lead over Rossi. Follow this link to full race results. For additional details and points, visit the official MotoGP site.
See more of MD’s great photography:
Half the field crashes. Marquez had to make another “god-like” save. Lorenzo riding Soft-soft.
The tires are crap. Oh, my wife just pointed out the tires are Michelin. Never mind.
What I want to know: WHO was the clown at Ducati that kept telling him ‘No’ about that gas tank mod, and what is he doing now? Cooking pasta in hospitality?
The one who made “Monster”
The rest of the GP season and next year will be very interesting for sure. Hopefully Yamaha wakes up and catches up with the Duc and Honda. Suzuki and Aprilia look like they’re making great progress on their bikes… KTM not so much.
KTM is trying to bring new bits in a month or so. If I remember correctly I think it is a new engine.
ENOUGH of the boy hero racer reporting ! ! ! Time to get back to motorcycles, real motorcycles. Remember the real world ?
Ha! Fortunately nothing prevents any of us from enjoying BOTH (following racing AND riding our real motorcycles in the real world). In fact, watching racing can actually make you a better rider… even when simply commuting to work on your bike like I do 3-5 days per week.
Check your calendar, RVB. It’s the middle of June. This is racing season, not New Bike Intros season. Dirck covers the crap out of all the new bikes, but those are announced towards the end of the year, not in late spring and early summer.
What do you expect him to do? Post yet another Gold Wing review? Perhaps you would prefer that he devote a week’s worth of new stories describing all the new paint schemes and useless farkles to last year’s batch of ten identical Harleys?
Yep, you might just want to go ahead and check back in November.
This site never seems to lack for people with the temerity to whine about completely free content. There aren’t even any auto-run videos!
Well the name is “Van Blunt” so….
Oopsy daisy, just asking for a little balanced interest in motorcycling. If Dirck needs some suggested topics give me a call. I never imagined there was a season for machines, or that every motorcycle has been reported on.
Have a nice day.
Lorenzo and Marquez and the young guns will duke it out for the rest of the season and we will be suitably entertained. But I have to give props to Rossi. The guy continues to get on the Podium, albeit in third, when he should be moving on – maybe to four wheels, like say, the late great John Surtees.
I’ve seen no reason to think that Rossi couldn’t be fighting for wins if the Yamaha weren’t a step behind the Honda/Ducati.
Indeed – Yamaha really is flailing in cow excrement at this point.
I’m happy for Lorenzo to see him regain his old winning form, but more importantly, I’m glad to see that MAYBE Marquez won’t be able to run away from everyone and make for a boring remainder of the season. To the contrary, I’d love to see Lorenzo keep chipping away at, say, 5 points per race against Marquez which would make for an exciting second half of the season. Let’s see, 7 races completed, 11 to go, 115 points to 66, 49 points behind, get my calculator out here… it’s possible ! Truth be told, I’m still rooting for my hero Rossi, and I’m thrilled to see him get another podium. But I’m a realist, and unless he finds another gear, it looks like his quest for his 10th championship is a real longshot, even if down “only” 27 points (115 vs. 88).
Question: How is it that Lorenzo is now able get his tires to last the entire race ? Especially considering that he was on soft/soft. I understand the gas tank modification helped immensely, but that doesn’t explain the longer tire life. There were numerous earlier races this season and last where he led for a while at the beginning, only to fade as his tires did likewise. What changed ?
I’ve read several times over the years from his competitors and others that Lorenzo is exceptionally smooth on the controls and can usually keep more life in a given tire compound over the race distance. Apparently, the Ducati GP bike itself also contributes to being able to run softer compounds.
Perhaps, but up until the last two races, Lorenzo would be leading a race for several (sometimes many) laps, and then fade backwards through the pack, usually explained as being due to his Ducati’s deteriorating tires. Now he doesn’t fade, and the tires seem to last the entire race. Something’s changed (more than just a new gas tank).
“There were numerous earlier races this season and last where he led for a while at the beginning, only to fade as his tires did likewise. What changed?”
He says it wasn’t the tires fading, it was his own endurance fading, from having to hold himself up under braking with nothing but his upper body. Now, with the modified fuel tank, he’s able to get his legs involved, distributing the braking load more evenly.
No idea why Dovi, Petrucci, and Miller have no physical-fatigue issues with the standard tank, but that’s Lorenzo’s explanation for his own early-season fades.
Oh, got it, thanks. Pretty amazing that simply changing the tank design has made such a huge difference.
It is curious why the other Ducati riders don’t suffer the fatigue like Lorenzo. Or maybe they do, and that is why we don’t see them making all that much of an impact? Or maybe Lorenzo is just braking harder? Dovi has traditionally been considered the latest braker in GP, but I don’t think he has been able to pass Lorenzo on the brakes this year.
The thing is, most of Dovi’s success last year came late in the races. He would bide his time for the majority of the race, conserving his tires, before pulling the pin at the end. Always, he was one of the hardest brakers in the series. Despite using the very same tank with which Lorenzo apparently struggles so mightily, Dovi had no problems with late-race endurance.
Whatever Lorenzo’s issue is with the need for a wider, more supportive tank, it’s obviously only a Lorenzo thing.
They program the electronics to take each corner differently. Nicky went out with every corner wrong one time. That’s amazing. What did they do to the tank on Lorenzo’s bike? It’s really something to see him win TWO races in a row on the Ducati. BIG respect from Rossi! The Honda will be a different beast, but Stoner won on that too!
“What did they do to the tank on Lorenzo’s bike?”
They added this large, gray piece to the back of the tank, to which they affixed an additional layer of grippy material…
https://cdn-7.motorsport.com/images/mgl/0mNvJXA2/s8/motogp-catalan-gp-2018-jorge-lorenzo-ducati-team-fuel-tank.jpg
His tank is now wider and deeper, which provides more surface area upon which to anchor his legs for support under heavy braking. He claims that no longer is he forced to use nothing but his upper body to support himself under heavy braking, as he was forced to do with the stock tank, which caused him to succumb to fatigue late in races.
Anyone who has ever ridden an older GSX-R or ZX-9R knows what he’s talking about, with those huge, wide tanks. Still, none of the other Ducati riders complain that the shape of the stock tank causes them to fatigue late in the race, so this has to be chalked up to being strictly a quirk of Jorge Lorenzo.
I think Lorenzo just need a pad between him and the tank so he wouldn’t slide as far forward? Amazing to think such a small change would make such a difference in body control. It is a whole body work out, to monkey around with arms and legs, just to maintain control at speed!
If it was just that easy, I would have packed a couple extra socks in my cup.. Impress the ladies, and faster on the track!
I’d love to see photos of the new tank next to the old tank. Should be pretty easy to find I suppose.
Stock 2018 tank…
https://2yrh403fk8vd1hz9ro2n46dd-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/2018-ducati-motogp-bike-dovizioso-lorenzo-gp18-19.jpg
Lorenzo’s modified 2018 tank…
https://cdn-7.motorsport.com/images/mgl/0mNvJXA2/s8/motogp-catalan-gp-2018-jorge-lorenzo-ducati-team-fuel-tank.jpg
notice the thumb brake
Perfect. I asked and you delivered. Thanks.
It’s possible. BTW, there are 12 races left, so winning every remaining race would give Lorenzo the championship.
Even under ideal circumstances, that is highly improbable. I expect/hope that Jorge will win several more races this year, and will finish 2nd in the championship.
With the silly season talk mostly concluded, we can get back to enjoying the rest of this championship season. Even though Marc is still the clear favorite, we now have had 4 race winners in 7 races. There should a bunch of great races this year.
I fully expected Jorge to beat Dovi in the championship this year, even three races ago when there was a 30 point difference. I just didn’t expect him to catch up so quickly.
It’s been good to see Lorenzo’s maturity grow and determination pay off after the challenges of the last year and a half. Marc’s abilities are still astounding in riding a bike that seems to want to keep falling down or bucking riders off. As an older guy, it’s also great to see Rossi still putting in competitive performances. Until Rabat’s bike blew up, he was putting in a great performance. And the list goes on.
Lorenzo hasn’t won at Assen for a long time, but his 2013 race with the broken collarbone was amazing.
Marquez didn’t fade. He said he didn’t want to crash again from pressing when he had championship points on the line. So he did the mature thing for once in his life and backed his pace off to finish a safe and secure 2nd place.
Normally Marquez throws caution to the wind and he would have been taking big risks on hard tires and would have crashed because Lorenzo’s pace was so good.
But for once in his life, Marquez looked more like a mature championship leader, racing for a safe 20 points.
Having said that, nobody was going to beat Lorenzo. He was dialed in. It’s nice to see him back.
I just wished Lorenzo would leave the hammer in his toy box at home. Others with back to back wins don’t do such silly celebrations. His celebrations ego is the biggest reason he’s not my favorite rider.
Anyone want to bet that Marquez moves to medium tires next race? Lol!
Marc has been doing that (playing it safe and smart, when necessary) for the past couple of seasons now.
The hammer. It’s MotoGP. Some guys never win.
exactly.
if marc had earned a podium position last race (or some points at least) he would have lett’r fly for this race and not settle in for the smart choice/points.
jorge would have occupied a lower rung of the podium.
“I just wished Lorenzo would leave the hammer in his toy box at home. Others with back to back wins don’t do such silly celebrations. His celebrations ego is the biggest reason he’s not my favorite rider.”
DITTO.
The gas tank was the final piece of the puzzle. But not the whole puzzle. That wouldn’t affect tyre wear, for instance, which was JL’s biggest issue last year.
Jorge talked last year in a detailed manner about changes that HE needed to make as well as Ducati. But he didn’t want them to compromise Dovi’s charge for the title.
Rightly so, Ducati would comment ‘why would we change a winning machine?’
Jorge isn’t going to challenge Mm for the title five-points-at-a-time, but he is now a contender and his ominous win will make others sit up and take notice of him. and if they know they can’t let him lead from the off, they will be pressurised into making mistakes.
The Jerez coming together might well be the season’s defining moment. Which would be a crying shame.
The JL Ducati experience might just have made JL the most capable combination of rider and developer on the grid.
Well, if he tells Honda he needs a new gas tank, I’ll bet they get right on it.
In all serious, though, he seems to be already riding the Ducati the same way he will need to ride the Honda: late on the brakes, flop it over, then pick it up to squirt out of the corner. There will be a learning curve, but as not steep as the transition from Yamaha to Ducati if I had to bet.
+1 He may even figure the Honda out before Qatar.
The Honda will be like an old shoe. He will be fast with it first off.
Glad to see Lorenzo riding the bike like he can and getting the results he’s known for.
Incredible that the missing ingredient was an ergonomic change to his fuel tank.
I don’t doubt it at all, just incredible that’s what it reportedly was and that it took so long to discover that.
So, now that he seems to have FINALLY got his Ducati dialed-in and is winning, again, what if, when he gets on the Honda RC next year, he’s back to square one with a new bike that he needs another 1.3 seasons to sort-out?
A race of attrition because if one more rider would have retired from the race, half the field would have DNFed.