Jorge Lorenzo
The incredible story of Jorge Lorenzo’s 2009 campaign took a distinct turn for the better this weekend with a repeat of his maiden MotoGP win at Estoril - from pole position - to top off a brilliant weekend.
The Spanish star was the main man on all three days at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal and he cruised to a 6.3s win over Casey Stoner to the delight of his Fiat Yamaha crew, whilst on the other side of the pit-box there were stern faces as Valentino Rossi for once lacked competitiveness and saw his title lead dropped to 18 points as he come home fourth. Lorenzo was 10 seconds in front of Dani Pedrosa and a huge 23.4s ahead of Rossi.
Afterwards, Lorenzo stated, “I didn’t expect to win with such a gap. It was a perfect weekend as we dominated in practice, feeling great on the bike and also in the race I think it was one of the best performances in my life. At the beginning it was a little bit difficult to open a big gap because I could only do it one tenth of a second at a time, but then Casey’s rhythm dropped and I was able to maintain my pace.”
On what the result means to his quest for the 2009 MotoGP title, Lorenzo added, “It will still be very difficult but now we can say that it is not impossible. I think I can take a few risks because I don’t have anything to lose. Valentino has to win the championship and we just have to keep trying.”
Valentino Rossi said a rear grip issue prevented him from challenging for the podium at Estoril.
Rossi frustrated by Portuguese result
Having concluded Sunday’s Portuguese MotoGP contest 23 seconds behind his team-mate and championship rival Jorge Lorenzo in fourth place, off the Estoril podium for the first time in his premier class career, Valentino Rossi cited rear grip problems for his lack of competitiveness at round 14.
The Italian star was in an unfamiliarly downbeat mood as he reviewed a race which saw his championship advantage cut to 18 points. “It was a very difficult race for me,” Rossi said. “I was never able to be fast because I did not have enough grip in the rear and our tyre did not work well, but I think it was more a problem of setting. After a few laps I was in great difficulties and I immediately understood that this was not going to be our race.”
He continued, “Throughout the practice sessions I had some problems but I thought that today I would be able to at least stay with Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, but they made another step forward for the race and then there was no chance for me. On Friday I was three tenths off the pace and unfortunately this stayed the same all weekend and in the race today.”
Concluding his post-race assessment the World Champion commented, “Here in Estoril we struggled last year as well, so it might be that, with our setting, the rear tyre gets very hot and this causes a lack of grip. It is a pity that I am off the podium, but we have three more races. We must think race by race and we must work to understand what the problem was today in order to make sure that we fix it in time for Phillip Island.”
