Lorenzo striving for home GP victory

Jorge Lorenzo hopes to follow in the footsteps of Dani Pedrosa by achieving a second consecutive Grand Prix victory as MotoGP™ heads to Barcelona this weekend.

Thanks to his second win of 2013 last time out in Italy, the Yamaha Factory Racing rider and reigning world champion has jumped up to second position in the championship and moved to within 12 points of Repsol Honda Team’s Pedrosa.

"I’m quite satisfied after our great result at Mugello that completed an almost perfect weekend," Lorenzo says on Tuesday.

"Winning again was very positive for me and for the team and we now go to Montmelo and my home Grand Prix. Some parts of the track are quite suitable for us but the doubt is always if the track conditions and the temperature can benefit us.

"I am very optimistic for the race and we will keep on working on the bike in the same way that we did in Italy. Compared with Mugello, Montmelo is a little bit slower, but at least there are no first gear corners and hopefully that will help us a lot. This is a good track for us and we have to profit from it and try to repeat the victory.

"It could be great for the championship. As far as I’m concerned, I will push 100% to achieve it."

Lorenzo has triumphed twice at the Circuit de Catalunya over the past three years, having won his home event in his title-winning seasons of 2010 and 2012.

Lorenzo celebrates second win of 2013

Jorge Lorenzo’s third successive victory at Mugello was his second of the season and raises the World Champion to second place in the Riders’ Championship.

The Yamaha Factory Racing rider started second but took immediate advantage of a mistake by pole-sitter Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), who ran wide at Turn 1.

“I knew it was going to be a really hard race because it got much hotter than it had been in the morning,” the Mallorcan said after the race. “In the morning we were quite fast; we were also fast in the afternoon, but not the same – three or four tenths slower.

“Dani was following me for about 13 laps, but on the 13th I pushed a little bit more – to be about three tenths faster - and it seems he gave up a little bit, so it was much easier from then.”

Heading to Round 6 in Barcelona, Lorenzo has moved to within 12 points of Pedrosa atop the standings, jumping Honda’s Marc Marquez who crashed at Mugello on Sunday.

Rossi faster than Lorenzo on Friday

Valentino Rossi was upbeat following the opening day of practice for the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France, although Yamaha Factory Racing teammate Jorge Lorenzo was somewhat less content with his day’s work.

Rossi, who is striving to become the fourth winner in as many races so far this season, ended the day in third place and was just over a tenth of a second off the top time registered by Repsol Honda Team’s Dani Pedrosa. This also marked the first time in the 2013 season that he had finished ahead of teammate Lorenzo.

“I’m very happy with today,” the nine-time world champion told motogp.com. “Right from the morning my speed was good and in the afternoon we were working with the bike. We had two different settings and in the end I decided to follow one way; it’s been modified in order to save the tyres and not lose too much traction under acceleration.

“The modification worked because I did my best lap and the rhythm is quite good; I’m third but very, very close. I hope for a dry race because I think we can be more competitive with the Yamaha in the dry.”

Jorge finished fourth at Le Mans, just 28 thousandths off Rossi who in-turn was only four thousandths in arrears of Honda’s championship-leading Marc Marquez.

“I’m not really, really happy but I’m not disappointed because we are there, very close,” the Mallorcan commented. “We just need to work a lot to find a good way for tomorrow, but if it rains it’s going to be difficult to improve the bike for dry conditions…”

A 70% chance of rain has been predicted for Saturday and showers are also expected to be in the vicinity on race day, as they also were last year.

Preview of Le Mans: Can Lorenzo Get Back the Momentum?

Three races into the 2013 MotoGP season, and the Yamaha Factory Racing team have been forced to tear up the script they had written for themselves after pre-season testing. Their original goals were for Jorge Lorenzo to win as often as possible in the early part of the season, building a lead at the tracks at which Yamaha is supposed to be strong, then defend that lead in the second half of the year. Valentino Rossi, meanwhile, was to finish adapting to the Yamaha once again, and get on the podium ahead of the Hondas as much as possible, to help build out Lorenzo’s lead in the championship.

The plan worked perfectly at Qatar. Lorenzo was untouchable in the race, and won easily. Rossi showed he still had it by getting on the podium and taking second, while the first Honda was Marc Marquez in third. This worked out even better than expected, as although Marquez is clearly an exceptional talent, the real title threat, Yamaha believed, would come from Dani Pedrosa.

Race two, at Austin in Texas, went a little better and a little worse than anticipated. That Marquez would win there had been expected, after all, the Repsol Honda rookie had been quickest at the test. But Marquez’s advantage over Lorenzo – and especially the gap from Pedrosa to Lorenzo – was much smaller than they had feared, putting Lorenzo within striking distance of the Repsol Hondas.

For Valentino Rossi, on the other hand, things did not go so well, the Italian never feeling comfortable on the bike, and finishing behind two satellite riders, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow and the LCR Honda of Stefan Bradl.

Race three is where the plan started going horribly wrong. The Yamaha men arrived in Jerez supremely confident, after having dominated pre-season testing there. Jerez was the start of a run of Yamaha tracks, where Lorenzo and Rossi – and maybe even Cal Crutchlow – would really start to shine, and put some clear blue water between themselves and the Repsol Hondas.

It did not work out that way: the Yamahas struggled against the mighty Hondas, and Dani Pedrosa took a very easy victory. Adding insult to injury, Marc Marquez bumped Jorge Lorenzo out of second place, robbing the Yamaha man of the lead in the championship, and putting both Repsol Hondas ahead.

And now MotoGP heads to Le Mans, yet another track that is supposed to favor the Yamahas. Given Jorge Lorenzo’s utterly dominant win in the soaking rain at the French circuit in 2012, it is easy to think that the Yamahas should have an easy time of it here. The danger is that riders, teams, and fans follow the comfortable assumption that Le Mans is a Yamaha track, disregarding recent history there.

It is true that Yamaha riders have won four of the last five races at the track, with Valentino Rossi taking one win and Jorge Lorenzo taking three victories at the track. But the idea that Yamaha dominates at Le Mans seems to stem from further back in history then many people think.

In 2008, Yamaha took a clean sweep of the podium, with Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo taking the top two spots, and Colin Edwards, riding for the satellite Tech 3 team at the time, securing third. In 2010, they managed a one-two, with Lorenzo winning ahead of Rossi. But that one-two finish in 2010 and Lorenzo’s 2012 win are Yamaha’s total podium haul from the last three years.

Though they have only had one win at the circuit – Casey Stoner’s 2011 victory was even more convincing than Lorenzo’s in 2012 – Honda have had four podiums in the last three years, one more than that of Yamaha, while Ducati has been on the podium twice.

Those Ducati finishes are more reflective of the reality of Le Mans than the simple anointing of the French circuit as a ‘Yamaha track’. For those two Ducati podiums in fact belong to Valentino Rossi, and were two of the lowly three rostrum finishes he secured during his dismal two-year spell at the Italian factory.

It is not that the Yamaha is strong at Le Mans, it is very much a track at which riders can excel, rather than suiting a particular machine.

Valentino Rossi has been on the podium four times in the past five years; Jorge Lorenzo has been on the podium four times in the past five years; but Dani Pedrosa has only had a single podium at the circuit in all his time in MotoGP, a third place back in 2008.

Of course, the real star at the Le Mans circuit is the weather. The only thing that can be relied upon at the track is that at some point during the weekend, it will rain, and probably quite heavily. And probably not just once: the fact that Chris Vermeulen’s only victory in MotoGP came at the Le Mans circuit speaks volumes about the weather there.

The location of the track – halfway between Paris and the Atlantic coast, set in soft, undulating hills – means that it is right in the tail end of the spring storms that tend to roll in from the ocean, bringing wind, rain, and an arctic chill to the circuit. The wind, though, is good, as it means that the rain is blown out again just as quickly as it came in.

This year looks to be no exception, with some rain expected on every day of the race weekend, the big question being exactly when it will be wet and when it will be dry. The forecast at the moment – though by the time you read this, it may have changed once again – is for there to be a mixture of wet and dry sessions, with the mornings looking the most promising.

The race, meanwhile, looks set to take place on a damp, but not wet, track, making it the worst of all possible surfaces.

Who does that favor? Not Yamaha or Honda, or even Ducati or one of the CRT teams, the weather at Le Mans looks set to favor the team and rider who can get close to a usable set up as quickly as possible.

That, you would have to say, favors Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, as the two men with both the most experience with their current bikes and the closest thing to a set up that works out of the box, as their victories at Qatar and Jerez respectively show.

On paper, Le Mans would appear to suit the Honda slightly better, as the track has so many tight corners followed by short straights, but Pedrosa’s mediocre record at the circuit must surely weigh against him.

That does not mean this race is Lorenzo’s to lose, however. If Valentino Rossi and his team finally solve the issues they have been having with braking, the Italian could be very close to the front, given his record at Le Mans. Likewise, if Marc Marquez and his crew get a base set up early on, it is easy to imagine his meteoric rise to the front of the MotoGP pack will continue. Given how quickly Marquez learns, and the depth of experience supporting him, it would not be safe to bet against him.

Then there’s the satellite riders. While Bradley Smith continues to adapt to riding a MotoGP bike – a time-consuming business, unless your name happens to rhyme with ‘Arquez’ – his teammate Cal Crutchlow will once again be chasing glory.

Crutchlow is balancing on the verge of leaving ‘best of the rest’ behind him, and challenging to belong to the ‘best of the best’. The Monster Tech 3 Yamaha man’s record at Le Mans is not good, having crashed out in his first year and run off the track in his second, but his main focus so far has been to stop making so many mistakes. If Crutchlow can put together a perfect race, then he might just make the breakthrough he has been waiting for.

The satellite Hondas are in a similar position to Crutchlow, with Stefan Bradl finding himself most under pressure at the moment. The LCR Honda man had a great race last year, finishing in fifth just ahead of Nicky Hayden and not far behind Dani Pedrosa.

So far in 2013, Bradl has failed to live up to expectation, and though were are only three races in, he will have to start delivering soon if HRC is not to start losing faith in the young German. Alvaro Bautista, meanwhile, must continue his lonely work on the Showa suspension, and hope that the recent improvements found will carry over to Le Mans.

And then there are the Ducatis. Le Mans is a track at which Andrea Dovizioso has always shone, scoring podiums here in both 2010 and 2011. The layout of the track helps, too, with shorter, slower corners meaning that the bike does not suffer lose too much time with the understeer which continues to plague it.

Both Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden will regret not having the updates developed on the ‘lab’ bike being tested by Michele Pirro, though, as the improvements which that design offers are mainly in corner entry, a key factor in riding the Bugatti short circuit layout at Le Mans.

But in difficult conditions, which look likely in France, the Ducatis are always quick, finding the limit made much easier when the conditions bring the limit in from beyond the very edge of performance.

Michele Pirro will also be at Le Mans, making a return after his wildcard ride at Jerez. This time, however, he will not be riding Ducati’s lab bike, but racing aboard Ben Spies’ Ignite Pramac machine, the ‘standard’ Desmosedici which Spies raced in the first two races of the season.

Those races aggravated muscles and tendons in the Texan’s chest, as he attempted to compensate for the weakness in his shoulder from surgery at the end of last year, and is the reason Spies is not present at Le Mans.

The other side of the Pramac garage is not in much better shape, with Andrea Iannone only recently recovered from surgery on his arms for arm pump, and his knee to close up a nasty gash he suffered in a crash.

Whatever the weather at Le Mans, the French Grand Prix is the race where Jorge Lorenzo needs to get his title defense back on track. His task has not been made easy, with the strength of the Hondas and the advent of Marc Marquez, but in France, Lorenzo needs to make a stand. Momentum – the great virtue of Yamaha’s MotoGP bike – is swinging away from him. Time to turn it around.

Marquez and Lorenzo put Jerez clash to bed

The Le Mans weekend kicked off on Thursday with the official pre-race press conference for the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France. It was not a great surprise to those present that the hot topic remained the last-corner clash of the Spanish Grand Prix between Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez, who sat together on their flight back from Jerez.

Once the riders expressed their feelings ahead of what could be a somewhat wet weekend in France for the second year in a row, attention soon turned back to the Jerez coming together at the newly-named Jorge Lorenzo corner. Earlier today, Race Direction held a rider briefing (already planned before the collision in Spain), although the moment was discussed.

“My opinion?” Yamaha Factory Racing’s Lorenzo began with a smile. “Well, I think I still believe that the action from Jerez was too hard. I still believe that today. I am not against Marc; I don’t have anything against him because he is young and when you are young, you try - when you see a space, you try. In Jerez, he saw a space and he tried. But I do think that this year we have got the (new) license points and we are not using them at the moment, so in the future I would like Race Direction to use this new system. In my opinion, at least a minimum of points should have been used. So it would be some points, a yellow card or whatever you want, but something should have been used because, in my opinion, in a race it is possible to touch another rider but when you actually hit another rider it is a different thing. In my opinion, you should at least be penalised somehow.”

Lorenzo also described how he had left the meeting slightly early:

“I thought the briefing was over and I left. Someone has to leave first, so I was the first one to leave.”

Marquez was also asked to share his version of events, with almost a fortnight having now passed since the occurrence took place.

“For me, it’s the same as I said in Jerez,” commented the Repsol Honda Team rider. “If you do that on the first lap that is one thing, but in the end this is racing, it was the last lap and these are motorbikes. On many occasions we have seen things like that and in the end, when you see that, that is when the fans like it a little bit more. There is always a limit, but: last lap, last corner, if I see some space I will try. Okay, I braked a little bit later than the lap before, but these things happen sometimes.”

The other riders present were also asked to share their views.

Dani Pedrosa, who was ahead on the track and taking the chequered flag:

“It was the last corner of the last lap. Jorge didn’t close the door as he should have on the last lap and Marc maybe tried a little too hard…so they ended up being in the same place (at the same time). I have had some experiences before, with crashing and touching, so I think for the riders it is much better to have a feeling (idea) of where we can move and so on, because at the moment it is not so clear when you will be penalised and when you will not be.”

Valentino Rossi, who had battled hard with Marquez in the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix as well as winning in Jerez in 2005 following a similar clash with Sete Gibernau:

“I think Marc rode very aggressively for all of the race, from the beginning. He was very aggressive also on the last corner, for sure. I also understand why Jorge is upset, for sure, because Marc touched him. But for me and in my point of view, something can happen at the last corner of a race and Jerez is also a classic point; not just between me and Sete, but also in the past between Doohan and Criville (1996) and some other hard battles on the last corner, because you arrive from a fast part and the hairpin is very tight, so the speed is very low and it’s not very dangerous to touch each other. So I think it can happen on the last corner.”

Cal Crutchlow, who finished fifth behind Rossi:

“It never really affected my race, so I don’t really have too much of an opinion on it. They passed each other and Marc made a hard move, but at the end of the day I think it’s very difficult to police this kind of thing and have penalty points, when every incident is different. There are many things that the championship and Race Direction are trying to do and I believe they are, but it’s just difficult to understand where the limit is. But we’re racing motorcycles and there are 25 guys riding around, so at some point in the year the main guys are going to hit each other - or at least touch. Was it over the limit? I don’t know. I understand Jorge’s point because at the time he lost second position, but I understand Marc is going for a space and a position. It’s a difficult one from everybody’s point of view and, also, Race Direction have a harder job than the riders because we just go for the gap that is there. Last year I did the same to Nicky on the first lap and, together, we said that ‘Rubbing’s racing’ at that point. So, yes, there is a line, but nobody crashed, nobody was hurt and I think it needs to be forgotten about and carry on racing.”

Randy de Puniet, who is racing in his home Grand Prix this weekend:

“For me, it’s 50/50. Jorge was in front and he opened the door a little bit too much at the last corner. Marc was behind and he braked a little bit late; sure, he was aggressive all the race, but it’s a race and this guy is fighting for the World Championship. For me it was a racing incident, nothing happened and that’s it.”

Marquez and Lorenzo went on to laugh about the fact that, by sheer chance, they were allocated seats just two apart on the flight back to Barcelona from Jerez

“We were on the plane and it was a coincidence that we were in the same row,” the 20-year-old continued. “He was sitting on the window, with my mechanic in the middle and me on the aisle seat. Then, when we finished the flight and everything, I tried to shake his hand and he gave me his hand, so we shook hands and that was the most important thing.”

“I was the last one, as always,” Lorenzo added. “I always wait for others to get off the plane and leave last - with any flight. But it was funny because the plane has 200 or 300 seats and we were in the same row, so it was funny. We didn’t speak about the incident, we just spoke about unimportant things, and then finally I accepted Marc’s handshake for the first time since the incident. But, I repeat, I do not have any problem with him personally. I just want to improve the safety of my sport and that must be the first priority.”

The press conference came to a close with Marquez and Lorenzo publically shaking hands to a chorus of camera shutters.

Kissing?

Dun worry girls, its just a photoshop. Both are straights!!

PS Pic

Original Pic

MotoGP Le Mans: 'Lot of motivation' for Lorenzo

Reigning MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo will try and turn the page on his Jerez disappointment by claiming a fourth victory from six Le Mans starts.

The Yamaha star took pole position in Spain but was unable to match the pace of Honda's Dani Pedrosa at their home race - and was then bumped out of second at the final corner by rookie countryman Marc Marquez.

All of which means Qatar winner Lorenzo arrives at round four having slipped to third in the championship, but just four points from leader Marquez.

“Now we travel to France, to Le Mans, a special circuit which is a very different track to Jerez. I am looking forward to racing there. I arrive with a lot of motivation after the Jerez results,” said Lorenzo, who was left fuming by Marquez's pass but conceded he should have been more defensive.

Lorenzo joined his MotoGP rivals for a day of testing after the Spanish race, when he addressed some of the performance issues suffered in the race.

“Perhaps we expected better [at Jerez] but we struggled much more than we expected because of the extreme heat on the track. Fortunately we worked a lot on the test day afterwards to solve little problems. That session helped us to understand what the main problems had been on the Sunday.”

The #99 also used the test day to make a decision on the M1 chassis options available and, unlike team-mate Valentino Rossi, looks set to use the latest design at Le Mans. Lorenzo won last year's wet race by almost ten seconds over Rossi, then riding a Ducati.

“I've always had very good results at Le Mans and it brings me good memories. Last year in fact, I got a victory in the wet by a great distance over the rest. I rode a perfect race, without making a single mistake and in terrible track conditions,” recalled Lorenzo.

“I have won many times in France and think it's a good track for both me and the Yamaha M1.”

Having been unexpectedly beaten by the factory Hondas at Jerez, at track favourable to the M1s in winter testing, Yamaha team manager Wilco Zeelenberg is eager to gauge their Le Mans level.

“Le Mans is also one of the tracks that the Yamaha suits really well. I think it will be interesting to see what the level is on that circuit and if we are able to fight for the victory,” said the Dutchman. “That's what we were missing for the last two races and we will try hard to seek this in France.”

Bikes of Lorenzo and Rossi to carry special logos at Le Mans

The logos, to be seen on both of the factory outfit machines, will serve as tributes to Yamaha legend Jean Claude Olivier who lost his life in a road traffic accident earlier this year. Known as ‘JCO’, Olivier worked for Yamaha for 45 years until his retirement in 2010. He competed in the Dakar Rally for the company between 1979 and 1989, finishing second in 1985. He also guided motorcycle racing for Yamaha Motor France when holding the role of President. Also in remembrance of Olivier, a display of images will be erected in the Yamaha team hospitality area this weekend.

On-track, both Lorenzo and Rossi are hoping for more positive weekends after struggling amid the high temperatures of Jerez two weeks previous.

“I am looking forward to racing there,” Lorenzo begins of Le Mans. “I arrive with a lot of motivation after the Jerez results. Perhaps we expected better there but we struggled much more than we expected because of the extreme heat on the track. Fortunately we worked a lot on the test day afterwards to solve little problems. That session helped us to understand what the main problems had been on the Sunday.

“I've always had very good results at Le Mans and it brings me good memories. Last year, in fact, I got a victory in the wet by a great distance over the rest. I rode a perfect race, without making a single mistake and in terrible track conditions. I have won many times in France and think it's a good track for both me and the Yamaha M1.”

In 2012, Rossi may have finished almost ten seconds behind Lorenzo, but notched up his equal best finish of the year while competing for Ducati Team.

“Le Mans is a good track for me, not least because in the last two years I was able to reach the podium in both dry and wet conditions,” says the seven-time premier class world champion. “We hope to do the same and better with Yamaha because this is a good track for the M1.

“In Le Mans the weather will be very important because usually the weather is quite bad; it can be cold and wet, so we will see. We will have to work well, like always, and try to understand the weather and the track conditions. We will try to do the maximum, as always.”

Heading to Round 4, Lorenzo leads the Yamaha attack from third place in the championship which is headed up by Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa. Rossi sits fourth and is now hoping to become the fourth different winner from as many races this season – something that has not happened since 2008.