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Jorge
Lorenzo topped off an incredible opening month in MotoGP
with his maiden premier class victory today, his first
ever career win at Estoril. After three pole positions
and two podiums, the Fiat Yamaha Team rookie went one
step further to win the Portuguese Grand Prix in fine
style, taking joint first in the championship standings
in the process. It was also the second double podium of
the season for the team, with Valentino Rossi finishing
third.
The first lap was a close battle between Lorenzo, Rossi
and Dani Pedrosa with Lorenzo just prevailing over the
line. Rossi however then passed him into turn one and
pushed on ahead, leaving his team-mate to defend second
position from Pedrosa, who was right on his tail. It
began to spot with rain but Lorenzo kept his head and
kept in touch with Rossi, despite pressure from Pedrosa
behind him. On lap 11 Pedrosa made it past Lorenzo and
stayed in front of him for two laps, but the Mallorcan
was clearly cruising and, after setting the fastest lap
of the race so far on lap 12, the Michelin-shod rider
passed Pedrosa into turn one and set off after Rossi. He
made his move later that lap in typically flamboyant
fashion with a bold pass at the chicane and from then on
it was a one-man-show as he extended his lead and
eventually crossed the line 1.817 seconds in front of
Pedrosa, who had passed Rossi on lap 15.
At just 20 years of age, Lorenzo’s victory today makes
him the youngest rider in premier-class history to take
three successive podiums and he now shares the
championship lead with Dani Pedrosa on 61 points. Rossi
consolidates third with 47 points whilst Fiat Yamaha top
the Team’s table and Yamaha the Constructor’s.
Jorge
Lorenzo 1st - 45'53.089
“I feel like I’m in heaven! First of all I have to say
thank you to Yamaha and to Fiat because without their
confidence in me I wouldn’t be here now. I can’t believe
it and it’s really impossible for me to describe my
feelings, I’m so happy for everyone! My team did a
fantastic job and my Yamaha and my Michelin tyres worked
very, very well today. The start of the race was quite
crazy because there were some drops of rain and it
looked like it might get worse. Anyway I just carried on
and really I can’t remember the details of exactly what
happened…I remember making my pass on Valentino; I know
it was quite a risk so I’m sorry to him but at that
point I felt that I could make it and get away from him,
so I took the chance and it worked. I’m so proud of
everyone, to be here after just three races and at the
top of the championship as well is something that I
could never have even dreamed of. We can’t afford to
relax now however because Pedrosa and Rossi are here as
well and they are two very fast and clever riders. I had
some pain again in my arms today so tonight we will make
a decision about whether or not I will have the
operation before China, but for now I’m just going to
enjoy this moment!”
Danielle Romagnoli - Team Manager
“This is a dream come true for all of us; Jorge rode an
unbelievable race. Watching him fight with the others it
was impossible to believe that it is only his third race
and now here he is, already a winner! Thanks to the team
because they did a fantastic job to set the bike up and
Yamaha and Michelin together gave us a fantastic package
to work with. We had planned a test tomorrow but this
will depend on the decision about Jorge’s operation.
There are three weeks until the next race so there is
plenty of time for him to recover if he chooses to go
ahead with it. Now we’re looking forward to another
exciting weekend with Jorge in China!”
Valentino
Rossi extended his Estoril podium record with third
place today, meaning he has now finished on the podium
at all of his nine career visits to the Portuguese
track.
Valentino
Rossi 3rd +12.723
“At the end of the day this isn’t a bad result for us
because we expected this to be quite a difficult track
for us. My M1 worked well today; I got a good start and
was able to stay at the front to begin with and have
some fun. My Bridgestone tyres were working well but I
was thinking about trying to conserve them as much as
possible because I knew 28 laps was going to be hard.
Unfortunately I couldn’t stay with Lorenzo and Pedrosa
in the later stages and I started to slide a little bit,
but anyway to have two podiums in a row with Bridgestone
is very important because we’re still in the learning
stages of our relationship. I think we’ve made another
step forward this weekend and we have an important test
tomorrow – I hope in China we will be able to fight for
the win!”
Davide Brivio - Team Manager
“Valentino defended very well today despite difficult
conditions for us and we took a good podium and some
important points. We expected it to be hard and I want
to thank the team and our engineers for working hard all
week and keeping the level of our Yamaha-Bridgestone
package at the maximum. We’re looking forward to another
15 races and we hope that in China we’ll be in attacking
form and able to get our first win with Bridgestone! We
will work on tyres and settings for China tomorrow and
then everyone will have a good rest before the next
challenge.”
Masahiko Nakajima - Team Director
“Very impressive! This weekend Jorge has been very
consistent and to get a third pole position and then go
on to win is fantastic. He showed a strong drive in the
race and proved that he can keep his concentration at
the maximum for the entire race. I want to congratulate
him for a great achievement and thank him on behalf of
everyone at Yamaha. Unfortunately for Valentino we are
still struggling a bit in some areas but anyway the
combination between our chassis and the Bridgestone
tyres is improving race by race. Step-by-step we are
making progress and for sure here in Estoril everything
went even better than in Jerez. This is a very unusual
track; it requires a very delicate chassis balance
because it has the slowest average speed in the world
championship but also some very high-speed areas. In
conclusion, I am happy with Valentino’s podium in these
difficult conditions and I am confident that next time
we will improve even more together with Bridgestone.
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