Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo delivered a masterful performance today to win the San Marino Grand Prix in stunning form. The victory, his sixth successive Italian Grand Prix win, was delivered after a 28 lap race of inch perfect riding from the reigning world champion.
Starting from second on the grid, Lorenzo out dragged championship rival and pole sitter Marc Marquez to the first corner, taking the hole shot into turn one. He proved immediately impossible to follow, opening up a gap of just over a second on the first lap and keeping the pressure up as the race wound on. He was quick to build a comfortable gap to the chasing pack that was unbroken to the line, allowing him to claim his fifth Grand Prix win of the season.
Valentino Rossi initially dropped a couple of places to fifth off the start line but was quick to re-pass Aleix Espargaro on the first lap to slot into fourth chasing Marquez and Dani Pedrosa ahead. The Local hero was hot on the tail of Marquez and took advantage of an error by the young Spaniard to dive past up the inside and move into third place chasing Pedrosa. Unfortunately some issues with braking cost some valuable time and Marquez was able to re-pass, leaving Rossi in a lonely fourth position for the remainder of the race to the finish line.
Lorenzo’s stunning victory moves him up into second place in the championship, tied on points with Pedrosa at 219, 34 behind Marquez with five races remaining. Rossi’s fourth place finish keeps him in fourth place in the championship on 169 points, 23 ahead of Cal Crutchlow in fifth.
Jorge Lorenzo
Position 1st- Time 42.39.802
“Luckily we improved the bike a lot in warm up, especially in braking so we improved the lap time and the pace quite a bit. I was convinced to follow my strategy of the last couple of races which was to try to break away and finally I could do it. The first two laps I had a big advantage so I had to keep pushing to maintain a distance because they never gave up and wanted to catch me. I’m happy, we recovered five points and we are closer to Marc. I need to be constant and try to win races and stay focused.”
Jorge Lorenzo
Valentino Rossi
Position 2nd- Time +5.990
“All the weekend our performance was quite good, I stayed with the top three and I raised my level, especially in qualifying, I could push stronger with the new tyres and make the first row. The expectation for the race was very high, after the start the top guys were very fast but my fastest lap was close to theirs. Unfortunately after some laps I was in trouble in braking and entering corners. I was struggling in hard braking and made some mistakes going wide and step-by-step they pulled away. I made a small mistake on turn seven and lost two seconds and by then already I had too much disadvantage. It’s a pity because we wanted to try for the podium here in Italy in front of all the fans in Misano. We hope the weather remains good for tomorrow as we have to try some new parts.”
Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing – Team Manager
“Day number three here and an incredible race in Misano, our first seamless gearbox victory of the season. Yesterday we didn’t really believe we could do this but after warm up we found a better package. Jorge felt it too and it gave him a lot of motivation. He pulled out the first four or five laps at an incredible pace and I think that made the difference towards the end of the race.”
Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing – Team Director
“It was a great work from Jorge and the whole team this weekend. We started on Friday with problems and have improved step by step in each session. This morning we found in the warm up the best solution to get the feeling back and then Jorge made the difference. He delivered an amazing output with 1.5 seconds after two laps, he maintained a constant pace and dominated the other riders. We were unable to get the podium with Vale. After yesterday afternoon we thought to have both riders on the podium but it was not to be. Tomorrow will be important to test the material we could not test at Brno.”
Crutchlow battles to super sixth in San Marino
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team rider Cal Crutchlow stormed back into the top six today at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli to remain firmly on course to be the leading non-factory rider in 2013.
And it was almost a double top 10 finish for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad, with rookie Bradley Smith missing out on claiming 10th spot by the narrowest margins at the end of a 28-lap race that was played out in front of a crowd of 50,949 fans.
Crutchlow bounced back from a tough home race at Silverstone earlier this month in typically determined fashion, the British rider brilliantly leading Stefan Bradl in fifth position for the majority of a race that took place in cloudy and windy conditions.
A faultless performance from Crutchlow seemed certain to be rewarded with a top five result, as he brilliantly defended from a hard charging Bradl right down to the final lap.
The German was not to be outdone though and a calculated move at Turn 8 dropped Crutchlow back to sixth. The British rider was unable to retaliate despite a determined late attack but Crutchlow’s battling performance keeps the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team in control of third spot in the all-important Team World Championship standings.
Today’s result, which was a ninth top sixth finish of an impressive 2013, means Crutchlow remains comfortably the highest ranked non-factory rider in the World Championship standings on 146-points.
Smith was less than 0.2s away from continuing his outstanding run of top 10 finishes in his rookie premier class campaign. Locked in a fight for long periods with Andrea Dovizioso, Nicky Hayden and Michele Pirro, Smith almost overhauled the latter with a tremendous last lap attack.
Smith set his best lap of the race on the final lap but just couldn’t find a way to make a clean pass on Pirro and he had to settle for 11th. The consolation though was the 22-year-old moved back into 10th place in the World Championship standings having joined Aleix Espargaro on 71-points
Cal Crutchlow
Position 6th – Time +22.599
“It is a shame that I lost fifth place on the last lap but it has been a very difficult weekend and I am happy to come away with this result. The top six is not what I am aiming for right now but I had no confidence with the bike all weekend, and it was important to get a strong finish. It was a very hard race because Stefan just sat on my back wheel from the first lap to the end and unfortunately he managed to find a way to pass me in the lasts corners. I tried my best to take fifth back but it wasn’t meant to be, but I think the whole of the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team showed a lot of fighting qualities this weekend. My crew have never given up and they have worked really hard trying to build up my confidence and I am grateful for their support.”
Cal Crutchlow
Bradley Smith Bradley Smith
Position 11th – Time +48.011
“The race pretty much panned out as I’d anticipated and I thought I’d stay close and race the Ducatis. I got an amazing start and that gave me a great opportunity to be in a battle but I just didn’t have the pace throughout. I wasn’t as fast as I’d hoped and again it was difficult at the start of the race on a full fuel load. But we have learned a lot all weekend and particularly in the race and now I am looking forward to tomorrow’s test where we can try a few things to improve our package. Our setting right now is pretty good but I can improve my riding position. I don’t think we are far away but small details can make a big difference when it comes to the race.”
Hervé Poncharal – Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team Manager
“We knew this weekend would be tough after such a difficult experience for both Cal and Bradley in Silverstone. Sixth place is not what we are looking for or what is the real potential of Cal. But he showed the whole race that he is a true fighter and it was unfortunate that Stefan was able to pass him right at the end. In the end it was a strong race and I want to thank Cal because he never gave up and as always he gave all he had, even though he has not been confident on the bike all weekend. Bradley had a tough weekend too. We knew Ducati would be strong here like always because they test on this track frequently and Bradley did a very good job. He set his fastest lap on the last lap and that shows there is still room for improvement but the whole team has demonstrated a lot of fighting spirit this weekend and I am proud of everybody involved. Finally I must pass on my congratulations to Jorge and Yamaha. Jorge was exceptional and he showed that this World Championship is not over yet. And I am also delighted to see the new YZR-M1 seamless shift gearbox make a winning debut, which bodes well for the future.”
2013 MotoGP San Marino
Misano, San Marino 15/09/2013
race I
1 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 44’05.522
2 Marc Marquez Honda ESP 0’03.379
3 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 0’07.368
4 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 0’15.062
5 Stefan Bradl Honda GER 0’22.355
6 Cal Crutchlow Yamaha GBR 0’22.599
7 Alvaro Bautista Honda ESP 0’31.059
8 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati ITA 0’42.702
9 Nicky Hayden Ducati USA 0’44.858
10 Michele Pirro Ducati ITA 0’47.818
11 Bradley Smith Yamaha GBR 0’48.011
12 Colin Edwards FTR Kawasaki USA 1’03.154
13 Aleix Espargaro ART ESP 1’07.600
14 Hiroshi Aoyama FTR JPN 1’15.528
15 Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Suter ITA 1’17.907
MotoGP World Standing
Rider Standings After Race 13 of 18
1. Marc Marquez Honda ESP 253
2. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 219
3. Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 219
4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 169
5. Cal Crutchlow Yamaha GBR 146
6. Stefan Bradl Honda GER 124
7. Alvaro Bautista Honda ESP 112
8. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati ITA 104
9. Nicky Hayden Ducati USA 95
10. Bradley Smith Yamaha GBR 71
11. Aleix Espargaro ART ESP 71
12. Michele Pirro Ducati ITA 50
13. Andrea Iannone Ducati ITA 41
14. Colin Edwards FTR Kawasaki USA 31
15. Hector Barbera FTR ESP 27
16. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Suter ITA 23
Circuit Length:
4226
Weather:
Dry
Fastest Lap Ever:
1’32.915
(Marc Marquez, 15-9-2013)
Last Years Winner:
Jorge Lorenzo
Manufacturer Standings
15/09/2013
1 Honda 291
2 Yamaha 270
3 Ducati 115
4 ART 73
5 FTR 33
6 FTR Kawasaki 31
7 Ioda-Suter 23
8 PBM 3
Team Standings
15/09/2013
1. Repsol Honda Team 472
2. Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Team 388
3. Monster Yamaha Tech3 217
4. Ducati Team 199
5. LCR Honda MotoGP 124
6. Go&Fun Honda Gresini 114
7. Pramac Racing Team 91
8. Power Electronics Aspar 91
9. NGM Mobile Forward Racing 38
10. Avintia Blusens 34
11. Came Ioda Racing Project 23
12. Paul Bird Motorsport 10
