Australian Motorcycle News - June 21, 2018

110 amcn.com.au

race report

YOUR FORTNIGHTLY FIX

Lorenzo’s landed

Finally comfortable on the Ducati, Jorge is back

to his blisteringly quick and crazily consistent ways

H

ead and

shoulders.

That’s what

Jorge Lorenzo

had over the

rest of a scattered GP field in

Catalunya.

After 23 difficult races

with Ducati, the 24th and

25th have been a revelation.

Or perhaps better to say a

confirmation. He’s one of the

greatest riders of all time. His

talent has just been obscured

for a while. Even from his

Italian employers.

And now, coincidental with

being dropped by the team

and signing up with their

greatest rivals, Honda, he’s

won two in a row.

Only one rider was able

to run him close, and to

keep the pressure on for

the first nine of 24 laps of

the slightly reprofiled and

fully resurfaced 4.627km

Barcelona circuit, outside the

Catalan capital.

That was Marc Marquez,

the culmination of a

weekend of spectacular

brinkmanship for the Repsol

Honda rider and Lorenzo’s

future teammate.

Marquez not only crashed

twice in practice, he also

accomplished the best-ever

save of a career where they

have become a speciality.

That was on Saturday, when

for only the second time in

four and a half seasons he

had to go through Q1, before

qualifying on his usual front

row – alongside Lorenzo,

who scored his first pole on

a Ducati.

For the rest, second Ducati

rider Andrea Dovizioso

looked as though he might

at least share the podium.

Until the hitherto achingly

consistent rider made a

second unforced error for

a third costly crash in the

last four races, putting

a considerable dent in

his hopes of a second

consecutive title challenge.

Instead it was Mr

Everlasting, Valentino Rossi,

who took a strong if lonely

third, his third successive

podium, once again

confounding his critics and

exceeding expectations. He

complained that he hasn’t

been able to do better than

third, but he is still the

closest challenger to title

leader Marquez.

It was an afternoon of

many crashes in all three

classes, w ith only 14 MotoGP

finishers, meaning points

for all (even two for rookie

Franco Morbidelli, who

crashed, remounted and

retired to his Marc VDS pit,

but was sent out again to

finish 14th).

There were also

mechanical problems on a

REPORT MICHAEL SCOTT PHOTOGRAPHY GOLD&GOOSE

unn uuuunynynyn a 15-17 June 2018 MotoGP World Championship