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04/07/2011

Mugello MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo king of Italian GP

With a great overtaking manoeuvre,  Jorge Lorenzo took one of the finest victories of his career  yesterday in front of 90,000 spectators, many of whom would have preferred to see him defeated so that one of  their Italian heroes could take the victory.
Jorge (X-lite X-802) “played his cards close to his chest“ staying in second place for 2/3 of the race, as leader Casey Stoner (Nolan X-802), who started from pole position,  set a relentless pace.   A striking decline in his performance (due to tyre pressure error) towards the end of the race gave the chance to Lorenzo who didn’t hesitate and with a lightning attack took the lead.  Casey, at this stage, had no chance to challenge him and then went on to lose second place as well finally having to settle for a third on the podium.

“For a long time it has been one of the sweetest victories”, said Jorge. “The victory in Jerez was not ‘real’ because it was raining. It’s been a tough race because of the hot conditions without water in the camel back. I pushed and tried to be there with all of my heart! I tried to overtake Andrea in the downhill at the chicane and then I did the same with Casey because I thought it was the perfect corner for it. Now we have a competitive bike and I hope to keep this pace. Now I am more motivated and confident for the future, after this great result. I think it was one of my most demanding races in my career. It reminded me a bit the 125cc times, with many overtakings. I did a good start again and now I just want to watch the race again on TV. Congratulations to all of my team, they never gave up. I knew it would have been difficult today, but the ‘martillo’ is back!”

“I can't say I'm totally happy with the result today", explained Casey. “We started the race very strong and everything felt fantastic on the bike, however, we had a problem with the tyres after a few laps. We believe this was related to incorrect tyre pressures for today's track temperature and we should have probably reduced them a little compared with what we used in warm-up because as soon as the tyres got up to a certain pressure, I lost all the grip in the rear and this led to me starting to close the front. I think this is why we were able to be so fast in the beginning of the race, as the tyres were able to warm up very quickly, but then the tyre overheated and I lost all the grip. I'm disappointed as our potential to win today was high, I thought I might still have potential to fight with Jorge and Andrea, but Jorge came past and he was too fast for me. Then Andrea came past and I thought I could respond, but I didn't have any traction. It's still a podium, and important points but I'm here to win races.”
Stoner still leads overall standings with 152 points and Lorenzo is second at 133. Next race on July 17 at Sachsenring.

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