A great result at Mugello circuit for Jorge Lorenzo, who perfectly controlled the race from its start.
After dominating each session of Free Practice and Warm-up, Lorenzo took second position in Qualifying on Saturday, let down by the electronics of his Yamaha, and thus giving away Pole position to Pedrosa. But like the poisonous snake represented on the livery of his Mugello special edition X-lite X-802 helmet, he didn’t get demoralized but just waited for the right moment to take his decisive bite.
With a furious start, Lorenzo immediately overtook Pedrosa, who made an error at the first corner, and began his solitary ride to the highest step of the podium.
Stoner, after starting in eighth position, gained a good fifth position, but unluckily ran off the track at lap 13 due to a trivial mistake that forced him to try and recover his position in the ranking, chasing the group that contained Pedrosa and Dovizioso who were fighting for second place.
Lorenzo, who during the race took the Mugello track record at 1'47 .584, raced undisturbed under 1.47” with no contest and no competition from the rest of the field and crossed the finish line 5.2 seconds in front of Pedrosa.
The "Black Mamba took his bite", taking his fifth win of the season; Stoner finished in eighth place.
World ranking: 1st Lorenzo with 185 points; Stoner third with 37 points behind.
Next race on July 29th at Laguna Seca.
Here are the statements of the rider in the post-race.
Jorge Lorenzo (X-lite X-802)
“From the beginning I felt great on this track, the asphalt was completely different to Sachsenring which was a nightmare for us. From the first practice here I felt very strong, very good on the bike and a fast constant pace. It was a pity that we had the problem in the last lap of qualifying but the important thing was the race. Today I was hammering a lot to open a gap at the beginning of the race as I thought my competitors would have problems on cold tyres. Unfortunately I couldn’t do it immediately. Only hammering every lap and going faster and faster from 1’48.1 then into the 47s could I open a bit to Pedrosa then little by little it got better and I could start to breathe. It’s been a great win for the whole team’s efforts and for Yamaha who have given me such a good bike.”
Casey Stoner (Nolan X-802)
“It's definitely not the way we planned it. We thought today we could be fighting for the podium and maybe have the pace to stay with Dani. Jorge has ridden fantastically all weekend and hasn't really put a foot wrong but I think third position would have been good today. However, we just couldn't get the bike working. During our last attempts in warm-up we couldn't get anything to work, we weren't very happy with the bike today and I just didn't feel comfortable. I made a mistake in the race, I had a bit of a shake exiting turn 11 and when I arrived at turn 12 I had no brakes. I was squeezing them as hard as I could and thought I had enough brake power to stop before the edge of the track but I had too much momentum and had to ride through the gravel trap which wasted a lot of time. I'm sorry for the incident with Alvaro, I went to make the pass into turn two and he started to close my front off and I couldn't do anything. It's a disappointing end to a difficult weekend. I thought I might be able to salvage something from but unfortunately not.”
