Yamaha Race News: Lorenzo Storms to Victory in Grand Prix of Japan. With the MotoGP world championship on the line, Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo dominated both qualifying and the 24-lap Grand Prix of Japan at the Motegi Circuit on Sunday, October 27. Lorenzo’s perfect race weekend mathematically keeps him in the hunt for the 2013 world championship as the series heads to the final round in Valencia, Spain on Nov 10. Besides scoring his 51st career Grand Prix win in Motegi, Lorenzo also gave Yamaha it’s 200th premier-class GP win in spectacular style. Meanwhile teammate Valentino Rossi finished an impressive sixth after encountering brake issues and running off-track on two occasions, while Monster Energy Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith took seventh and eighth, respectively. In another exciting moment for Yamaha, next year’s new Tech 3 rider Pol Espargaro claimed the Moto2 world championship with his sixth race win of the season. With a typhoon and a 7.3-magnitude offshore earthquake both striking Japan prior to race day, for a while it was uncertain for a time whether a MotoGP race could even be held. Practice was scrubbed on Friday due to fog, and Saturday’s practice and qualifying brought a mixture of wet and dry conditions, leaving Sunday’s warm-up as the first fully dry session of the weekend. Fortunately Lorenzo and his YZR-M1 were ready for anything, and the Yamaha rider put in a remarkable qualifying performance to take his fourth pole of the year, with Marquez in second, American Nicky Hayden alongside in third, and Rossi poised on the second row in fifth. Once again, on Sunday Lorenzo got a lightning-quick start and sped into the lead, with Rossi impressively right behind, providing a buffer between Lorenzo and his title rivals Marquez and Dani Pedrosa. Although Rossi did everything possible to hold Marquez at bay, he ran out of brakes on lap two and slipped back to fourth, leaving Lorenzo closer to Marquez’s grasp. But the Yamaha rider mastered the situation, coolly withstanding pressure from both Marquez and Pedrosa all race long. And in the closing laps, Lorenzo even turned up the heat, dropping first Pedrosa and then Marquez in a commanding finish for Yamaha in the company’s home Grand Prix. “We chose the soft tire and the others chose the hard tire,” Lorenzo explained later. “We knew that at the end of the race we might have problems, but instead I found that I could push even more! Taking this win makes me very happy.”
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 14:14:32 +0000
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