The inaugural Aragon
Grand Prix was a disappointing affair for the Fiat
Yamaha Team today, with Jorge Lorenzo losing out in a
last lap battle and finishing off the podium for the
first time this season and Valentino Rossi coming home
in sixth. It brought to an end an impressive run of 47
consecutive podiums for Yamaha, with the Factory having
had at least one of its riders on the podium at every
race since Valencia 2007 until today.
Championship leader Lorenzo got a good start from second
on the grid but it was soon clear that he lacked the
pace to stay with eventual winner Casey Stoner as the
Australian quickly began to open out a gap, while the
Yamaha man came under pressure from compatriot Dani
Pedrosa behind. On lap three Pedrosa passed the
Mallorcan and, hampered by a lack of grip, Lorenzo was
unable to run with him and spent most of the remainder
of the race in third, just ahead of Nicky Hayden. He did
everything he could to hold onto the final podium spot
but a determined Hayden mounted a strong last-lap
challenge and Lorenzo, not wanting to put his
championship lead in jeopardy with too many risky moves,
was powerless to keep the American from passing him on
the final part of the track and missed out at the line
by less than a tenth of a second.
Rossi's problems were evident all weekend, as his
shoulder issues meant he unable to run the best set-up
for this track. He had hoped he might be able to improve
a little under race conditions but it was not to be,
dropping to ninth at one point before clawing back to
his starting position of seventh by passing Hector
Barbera and then fellow Italian Marco Simoncelli. A
last-lap crash from Andrea Dovizioso elevated him to
sixth but it was a disheartening weekend for the
nine-time World Champion and his crew.
Despite today's result Lorenzo's championship lead still
stands at a healthy 56 points from Dani Pedrosa, with
five rounds remaining. Rossi is still in fourth, one
point ahead of Dovizioso and 15 behind Stoner. The next
round comes in two weeks in Japan, the first of three
consecutive race weekends in the Far East and Australia.
Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 4 Time: +9.580
"My start was very good, but during the race I struggled
a lot with Nicky always behind me, very close! We can't
be happy with the result and I am disappointed to finish
my podium run, but the most important thing is that we
did finish and we still took points for our
championship. We have five more races to go and,
although this is a complicated moment for us and we have
some things to address, I am confident that we can
improve again. Now we go to Motegi and I am looking
forward to a good result at the home of Yamaha."
Jorge Lorenzo
Valentino
Rossi - Position: 6 Time: +27.330
"This was a very difficult race for us; we had a lot of
problems all weekend and I was very slow today. I had to
try to arrive to the end but I couldn't do better than
sixth. All the Yamahas have suffered here but my
shoulder problems made it even worse for me and this,
combined with the problems with our package at this
track, made it extra hard. We're very sad this afternoon
and we hope for better in Japan."
Wilco Zeelenberg - Team Manager, Lorenzo
"Over the last couple of races we have struggled a bit
to keep up with some of our rivals, so we were quite
worried about this race and today wasn't great for us.
We're at a point in the championship when we can't
afford to take risks but there are other riders who have
nothing to lose, and this was the story today. Jorge
didn't have enough grip and in those last few laps he
didn't have the confidence in the front to push hard and
get away from Nicky, who clearly had a good feeling
here. Finishing off the podium for the first time we're
obviously disappointed, especially because he had to
push to even finish fourth! It's definitely time to make
a change so we will think hard about Motegi, which is
luckily a track which Jorge likes and where the Yamaha
goes well."
Jeremy Burgess - Crew Chief, Rossi
"We ran into troubles from the start here and
unfortunately we couldn't find a way to put a
competitive package together. Valentino's shoulder is
causing him problems too and this, together with the
set-up issues, meant we couldn't finish any higher up
the order today. We're disappointed but we have some
ideas and we hope for a better weekend in Japan."
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