Jorge Lorenzo - Assen TT 2009

Jorge Lorenzo took the victory in the Portuguese Grand Prix of Estoril yesterday for the Fiat Yamaha team followed in second place by the returning Marlboro Ducati rider Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda in third.

The Spanish rider has now slashed his team-mates lead from 30 to just 18 points after claiming his fourth win of the season.

It was Pedrosa that took to the front of the pack as the race got underway but by the end of lap 1, Lorenzo took the number one slot and stayed there until the end of the race to take the chequered flag.

Stoner had moved back to fifth spot as the riders went into turn one but was soon past the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Colin Edwards, before chasing down Rossi and finally slotting into third place.  On the following lap, the Marlboro Ducati rider made his move on his fellow Spaniard Pedrosa, and was into second place behind Lorenzo.

By mid-race point, Lorenzo had managed to build-up a lead of 2.3 seconds over the Australian, followed by Pedrosa and Rossi an unbelievable 7.7 seconds behind his team-mate.

Rossi finally took his Fiat Yamaha across the line in fourth place, 23.428 seconds after Lorenzo having suffered with  no grip on his rear wheel.  Rossi had been off the pace all weekend with his Yamaha and thinks the problem may also have been to do with the set-up of his machine.

Colin Edwards finished in fifth with Toni Elias on the San Carlo Honda Gresini followed in sixth as he battled the challenging Andrea Dovizioso on the second Repsol Honda.  Nicky Hayden took eighth on the second Ducati Marlboro bike followed by James Toseland on the second Monster Yamaha Tech 3 and Chris Vermeulen on the Rizla Suzuki in tenth.

The Pramac Ducati rider Mika Kallio, who was on his return to the series, crashed out early in the race at the long final turn.  Loris Capirossi suffered engine problems on his Rizla Suzuki and was forced to retire from the race along with Alex de Angelis on the second San Carlo Honda Gresini who also suffered a mechanical problem.

Lorenzo celebrated his race with a mock moonwalk as he placed his flag in the Estoril gravel pit.  The Fiat Yamaha team were sporting a special silver/white livery on their machines to promote the Fiat Punto this weekend and Lorenzo had a specially designed crash helmet in the style of an astronaut.

Here are the results;

250CC

The  reigning 250cc World Champion Marco Simoncelli took the win in the 250cc category yesterday for the fifth time this season for the Metis Gilera team.

It was Hiroshi Aoyama on the Scot Racing bike that took to the front as the race got underway but before the end of the lap he was going backward and had moved down to eighth place by lap 3, while Alvaro Bautista led the pack on the Mapfre Aspar bike.

On lap 4, Bautista was dramatically thrown from his bike after an apparent engine seizure as he was under braking heading into turn 6.

Simoncelli was followed by Hector Barbera on the Pepe World Team bike and Mike di Meglio on the Mapfre Aspar machine, with only 1 second between them until mid-race when Simoncelli began to widen the gap.

The Italian rider finished the race 5.317 seconds ahead of the photo-finish battle for second place, given to di Meglio with Barbera in third.  Barbera was initially given the place but after a review of the finish it was given to the Frenchman instead.

Aoyama finished the race in fourth place ahead of the Matteoni Racing rider Jules Cluzel in fifth and Ratthapark Wilairot on the Thai Honda PTT SAG machine in sixth.  In seventh place was Thomas Luthi on the Emmi-Caffe Latte bike followed by Mattia Pasini for Team Toth Aprilia, Alex Debon on the Aeroopuerto-Castello-Blusens in ninth and Karel Abraham on the Cardion AB Motoracing machine in tenth.

Here are the results;

125CC

The Derbi Racing Team rider Pol Espargaro, took the victory at the Estoril circuit yesterday after championship leader Julian Simon crashed out.

Bradley Smith on the Bancaja Aspar bike was leading the race when he ran wide heading into turn six, forcing him to the outside of the track as other riders went through.  Nicholas Terol on the Jack & Jones machine clipped the back of the British riders machine and was sent flying across the circuit but rejoined at the back of the pack before retiring.

Simon had increased the gap to almost 5 seconds at the front of the pack when he made his error under braking on lap 16, leaving Smith, Sandro Cortese and Espargaro to fight for the lead.

On the final lap of the race, it was Espargaro who led followed by Smith and Cortese.  Cortese snatched second place from Smith into turn one leaving the British rider to take the third and final step on the podium.

Stefan Bradl finished in fourth place for Viesmann Kiefer Racing ahead of Joan Olive for the Derbi Racing team, Sergio Gadea on the Fontana Racing machine and Esteve Rabat on the Blusens Aprilia in seventh.  Dominique Aegerter finished in eighth for the Ajo Interwetten team followed by Johann Zarco on the WTR San Marino Team bike in ninth and Randy Krummenacher on the Degraaf Grand Prix Aprilia in tenth.

The Red Bull KTM Motorsport rider Marc Marquez crashed out early on in the race along with previous championship leader, Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. rider Andrea Iannone.

Here are the results:

Andrea Iannone - Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. - British MotoGP 2009

It was an exciting 125cc race at Misano on Sunday, with the two front runners Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. rider Andrea Iannone and Bancaja Aspar Team rider Julian Simon, fighting for victory.

With three laps of the race to run, the leading pair were joined by Derbi Racing Team rider Pol Espargaró, who after a terrible start, put in some fast laps and some impressive overtaking before passing of the leading  riders.

On the penultimate lap, Iannone and Espargaró switched the lead several times, however, on the final corner of the final lap, Iannone attempted to pass the Spanish rider on the inside, which is where  it all  went wrong and both riders crashed out of the race and gifting the top step of the podium to Julian Simon.

The two had some heated words in the gravel trap before Iannone appeared to headbutt Espargaró.  On returning to the pits Iannone continued his anger at waiting journalists and has since been fined $5,000 by the Race Direction because of his conduct and has now issued an apology to Pol Espargaró.

A press release was sent out on Monday by the Ongetta Team on behalf of Andrea Iannone which said;

“I had been waiting for the Misano race for a long time and I had dreamed about achieving a good result in front of the Italian fans, but the dream turned into a nightmare a few metres from the finishing line.

It was a great race, with both of us riding very correctly and with Pol Espargaró riding bravely, imposing his rhythm right until the end. But on the last corner I felt confident and certain I could get past him. I broke really hard, went on the inside, arrived at the apex and then when I thought I had got through the angle changed. I couldn’t do anything at that point to avoid the crash and I took Pol out of the equation as he was going around the outside and he had no fault in the crash. We hit the ground and all I could think of was that a big chance had been lost.

Then when I went to apologise to Espargaró he understandably reacted with some strong words and punched my bike.  As Valentino Rossi said later I should have gone to apologise again but instead I lost my temper and I did something which I will always regret for the rest of my life. When I went back to the pit-box there were several journalists waiting for me and I made another mistake by saying some things in the heat of the moment which I really did not think. It was something that happened because of the intensity of the moment, after such a dramatic end to an amazingly close race.

On Sunday night, thinking through everything that had happened I was ashamed about what had happened with Pol and the things I said to the media afterwards. I have to say that I really appreciate Pol’s qualities as a rider, he is very fast and, like me, he tries to do the very best job he can. I want to apologise to everyone, to my team, to my sponsors and all fans of motorcycle racing. I am sure this will not happen again”.