Lorenzo moves closer with Misano win

MotoGP News

Date: 15/September/2013

Jorge Lorenzo took another nibble out of Marc Marquez’s MotoGP title lead with a start to finish victory at Misano on Sunday.

Over half-a-second slower than Marquez in qualifying, reigning World Champion Lorenzo pulled off the commanding victory after a late set-up breakthrough on his Yamaha in morning warm-up.

Rookie sensation Marquez suffered a small fall in that session, and dropped to a low of fourth after mistakes early in the race, before fighting his way through to second position.

However it was too late to challenge Lorenzo, who took his second win in as many races and joins Marquez on five victories so far this season.

Lorenzo, who had a seamless shift Yamaha gearbox for the first time, said: “I was a little upset all weekend because I felt the seamless gave us some advantage but we couldn’t make the most of it because we had problems in other areas.

“All weekend we’d struggled, especially in braking and I was angry because we had changed a lot of things. Luckily we improved the bike a lot in the warm-up. The secret was a stronger front fork, which made me much faster and much more confident.

“I made a good start. Overtook Marc and tried to push to the limit from the first corner and achieved my goal to go out front alone.

“After the big advantage at the beginning, I had to keep concentrated and not make any mistakes because Dani and Marc were really strong. Almost the same pace as me. So it was a very demanding race, physically and mentally.”

Lorenzo finished 3.3s ahead of Marquez, whose Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa completed the podium. The result means that Lorenzo is now tied with Pedrosa for second in the championship, but a sizable 34 points behind Marquez.

“Five victories is a lot to still be in second place but you know I made a mistake, crashing [and breaking his collarbone] at Assen and also Sachsenring,” said Lorenzo.

“It was my own fault and now I’m paying a little bit for it. The past is the past, we cannot change it and have to look to the future. Improve the bike more and try to win the remaining grands prix.

“If we want to win the championship we have to win races. That is the only thing we can do.  Marc is really strong. He’s always first or second. So he’s a really hard rival to beat but we have to keep trying and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Round 14 of 18 will take place at Aragon in Spain on September 27-29.