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Lorenzo Takes Third Win at MotoGP Catalunya

Written by Brendan Brehm June 04, 2012 0Add

Lorenzo wins 2012 MotoGP Round 5 at Catalunya
Photo © MotoGP.com

Sports Info

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) picked up his third win of the 2012 MotoGP season after battling it out with the second place finisher, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda). Crossing the finish line in third, Andrea Dovizioso (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) stepped onto the podium for the first time this season. In doing so, he was able to hold off Casey Stoner who missed the podium for the first time since Jerez 2011. Circuit de Catalunya

Gran Premi Aperol De Catalunya

The 4.727-mile track was a little wet during the warm-up session, but by the time racing started, the skies cleared and the track dried. With its numerous long straights, the Circuit de Catalunya gave riders plenty of chances to overtake one another. As we saw in the battle between Pedrosa and Lorenzo, any mistake on the straight will cost you.

MotoGP Catalunya

It was American Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) who got the best start out of the gates and quickly snatched up the lead. However, he wasn’t able to keep it together for very long as he soon ran wide on a corner and ended up in the gravel. Pedrosa then took over the lead, with Lorenzo hot on his tail.

Pedrosa & Lorenzo

The two Spaniards dramatically swapped places in front of their home crowd throughout most of the race. In Lap 19, Pedrosa had just passed Lorenzo again when he threw up a big wheelie that spelled the end of his lead. This slowed Pedrosa down enough for Lorenzo to regain the lead and run with it until the end of the race.

Pedrosa was understandably frustrated with the outcome of the race.

"A second place is always a second," Pedrosa said. "I really wanted to win today, I cannot feel happy. We've worked very hard during the practice sessions to be ready to win but finally we couldn't make it, so it's a little bit disappointing."

Not that Pedrosa hasn’t performed well this season. He has four podium finishes so far and ranks third in points. Andrea Dovizioso trailed close behind Pedrosa and Lorenzo throughout the first ten laps of the race, but faltered a bit in lap 14. This dropped him into a duel for third with Stoner who put the pressure on, but never made the pass. Although disappointed at losing his bid for first or second, Dovi was thrilled to score his first podium for Yamaha.

Bautista's Comeback

Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow held his own in fifth, while Alvaro Bautista (San Carlo Honda) and Valentino Rossi (Ducati) duked it out for sixth. Despite a slow start off the third row, Bautista eventually worked his way around Rossi to take sixth place just four seconds behind the podium finishers.

Bautista was particularly happy with his pass on Rossi

“The most pleasing thing about the fight with Rossi was that I passed him in the same place he passed Lorenzo for the win in 2009," said Bautista.

After running wide early in the race, Spies was able to remount and make his way back up to tenth place behind Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) in eighth and Nicky Hayden (Ducati) in ninth.

MotoGP 2012 Round 6

At the end of the day, Lorenzo continues to lead in points. He now stands 20 points ahead of Stoner in second, while Pedrosa remains third. MotoGP heads next to Britain for Round 6 at Silverstone on June 15th.