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Jorge Lorenzo gave the Fiat Yamaha Team a
reason to smile in Mugello yesterday as he
brought his M1 home in second position,
extending his MotoGP World Championship lead
after two wins and two seconds so far this
season. |
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Jorge
Lorenzo gave the Fiat Yamaha Team a reason to smile in
Mugello yesterday as he brought his M1 home in second
position, extending his MotoGP World Championship lead
after two wins and two seconds so far this season.
Lorenzo took to the podium wearing a yellow number 46
shirt as a nod to his team-mate Valentino Rossi, who
watched the race from his hospital bed after breaking
his leg in practice yesterday.
Lorenzo got a good start behind Dani Pedrosa but soon
realised he was not able to keep yesterday's blistering
pace, quickly losing ground to his fellow Spaniard as he
became embroiled in a fight with Andrea Dovizioso. The
Italian passed Lorenzo on lap three but the Mallorcan
got his nose back in front three laps later, the pair
then remaining locked closely together until
three-quarter race distance, when Lorenzo managed to
stretch his lead to over half a second. By then Pedrosa
was several seconds clear and the 23-year-old had no
choice but to settle for a safe runner-up spot, meaning
he has taken an impressive 90 points from a possible 100
so far this season. His lead is now 25 points over
Pedrosa in the championship, with the injured Rossi in
third.
This was the first time Rossi has not started a race
since he began his illustrious career over fourteen
years ago in Malaysia at the age of 16, and the Italian
holds the record of 230 consecutive starts. He is
currently recuperating at the Centro Traumatologico
Ortopedico in Florence following surgery yesterday to
repair his broken right leg.
Dr. Roberto Buzzi of
the CTO, who performed the operation, gave the following
update on Sunday morning: "Valentino is recovering well
following yesterday's operation and his morale seems to
be high in the circumstances. Tomorrow we will wash and
stitch the wound. He has been moved to a more normal
room in the hospital and the only requests he has made
are for peace and quiet, privacy and a television on
which to watch today's race!"
Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 2nd Time: +4.014
"Unfortunately my pace today wasn't as good as yesterday
and I could only finish second; something happened and I
couldn't ride in the same way but in the circumstances I
am happy with my result. Anyway Dani had a perfect race
today; he had an amazing pace and I don't know if I
could have beaten him even if I had been as fast as
yesterday! To take 90 points from 100 is great and I am
leading the championship, so I cannot ask for more. I
need to make some improvements to my riding style and
Yamaha needs to try to improve the power of the bike a
bit so we have some things to work on, but I am
confident about the next weeks. It was very strange
today without Valentino, I am so glad the fans honoured
him so well. I wanted to win to dedicate the victory to
him but that wasn't possible so all I can do is say ‘get
well soon!'"
Wilco Zeelenberg - Team Manager, Lorenzo
"After the weekend our team has had with what happened
to Valentino this was a good result for us, we have 90
points, two wins and two seconds and we are happy with
our season so far. Jorge had some issues today and we
need to analyse why it happened and why he couldn't keep
the same pace, but we are not too worried and he rode a
good race today. We are 25 points clear in the
championship which is great but we all know why, because
Valentino isn't here, and it's a sad situation. We all
wish him the best."
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