Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi dominated with a lights-to-flag victory at the Jerez MotoGP round today, crossing the line with a two-second advantage over out-going team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.
Rossi started from pole position for the first time since Assen last year and was unstoppable, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap three to take the gentleman’s set while championship leader Marc Marquez could do nothing about the pace of the Yamahas, coming home seven seconds behind the leader.
In the opening laps, it looked like Lorenzo had the pace to stay with his old nemesis as Marquez fought with the Repsol Honda, running wide and missing apexes, but The Doctor slowly opened a gap to two seconds after nine laps.
Lorenzo started to fight back as Rossi relaxed but pit signals told the Italian the gap was closing, so the hammer went back down and Rossi hauled the difference back to the best part of four seconds, only knocking it off on the final circulation. Lorenzo said afterwards that he had no grip in the top three gears, the rear spinning in a straight line and felt like a wet.
All the factory Yamaha and Honda men raced on the hard front and medium rear tyres but Dani Pedrosa again couldn’t do what team-mate Marquez - who ran out of fuel on the slowing down lap - is capable of but Marquez said he had a couple of front-end slides so opted to settle for third.
Pedrosa got away well and stuck it under Marquez on the first lap to grab third place but his problems with corner-exit grip and acceleration proved to be too much again and he ended three seconds behind Marquez but with fuel left in tank.
The tiny Spaniard eventually fell back into the clutches of Aleix Espargaro on the leading Suzuki. Espargaro got to the rear of Pedrosa at half distance but then fell away as the tyre wear started to take effect.
Maverick Vinales had a lonely ride to sixth place while Andrea Iannone had to come through from 11th on the grid for seventh. The Italian was struggling with spin but still managed to pass Pol Espargaro for seventh place.
Espargaro, on the Monster Yamaha, had to contend with Eugene Laverty who had opted for a soft front Michelin and a new clutch saw him charge into ninth place on the opening lap, hopping into eighth on lap two.
The Irishman then lapped consistently with only Espargaro coming past with 16 left to go but he didn’t pull a huge gap, and Laverty finished only 1.5s behind the Spaniard. Hector Barbera tried a last-lap attack on Laverty but couldn’t make it stick, rounding out the top ten.
Cal Crutchlow finally finished a race in the points ending in 11th, one ahead of the struggling Bradley Smith while Scott Redding, who didn’t find a solution to his wheelspin problem, was dead last and 12s behind Tito Rabat.
Luckless Andrea Dovizioso had to retire with 18 laps to go with a rear tyre problem. He slowed and then some gesticulations from Laverty convinced him to pit.
