World Champion Jorge
Lorenzo signed off his victorious season in style today,
taking his ninth win in front of his home fans at
Valencia. Valentino Rossi finished third on his 117th
and final appearance for Yamaha, bringing to a close a
wonderful seven-year partnership with his YZR-M1.
Lorenzo and Rossi both dropped places at the start, the
Mallorcan slipping to fifth and the Italian right back
to ninth in the race to the first corner. Lorenzo soon
began looking for a way past Marco Simoncelli but almost
crashed in the process, somehow making a spectacular
save but dropping several places to ninth. Rossi
meanwhile made it up to fourth by the end of the third
lap and was on the hunt for third, trying to get by his
determined fellow Italian Simoncelli.
On lap six Rossi moved into third and Lorenzo, who had
brilliantly recovered his composure after his near-miss
to gain back the places he had lost, followed him
through next time around to take fourth, with Dani
Pedrosa and Casey Stoner in front of the Yamaha pair. At
one third of race distance Rossi and Lorenzo dispatched
Pedrosa and then it was Lorenzo's turn to pass his
team-mate, moving into second behind Stoner. Rossi tried
his best to go with him but the shoulder that has
plagued him all season stopped him riding at the maximum
on the twisty track and he dropped off, content to at
least finish on the podium for one final time with
Yamaha. Lorenzo was unstoppable by this stage and the
cool-headed 23-year-old stormed ahead of Stoner on lap
23 to take a final win on home soil. His win today
brings his season points-tally to 383, a new record for
a rider in a premier-class season.
Rossi's final podium for Yamaha secured third place in
the standings and the Italian bid an emotional farewell
to his beloved M1, stopping on the cool down lap to kiss
his bike in an echo of the first of his 46 Yamaha wins,
at Welkom back in 2004 when the ‘Yamaha and Rossi' story
first began.
Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 1st Time: 46'44.622
"Coming here to Valencia I really wanted to win one more
time in this fantastic season, in front of my home fans.
In the practices I was fast all weekend, but it seemed
like Casey was even faster. I made a good start today
but in the second corner trying to pass Casey I got
overtaken by three or four riders, then I had a hard
fight with Simoncelli when I nearly fell! I kept calm
after that and concentrated and then lap-by-lap I
recovered. I had a wonderful fight with Casey at the
end. Winning here in front of my home crowd at this
special track is one of the happiest moments of my life.
We are proud to have got the record for the most number
of points with 383, I used to be known as a crazy rider
who crashed too much so to demonstrate consistency in
this way makes me proud. Thanks to Yamaha and everyone
involved for a fantastic season - now we have time to
celebrate tonight before we start working for 2011 on
Tuesday. Finally I want to say goodbye and good luck to
Valentino - I am looking forward to racing him next
year!"
Valentino Rossi - Position: 3rd Time: +8.998
"Honestly I'm happy with this final result with Yamaha,
because we had a difficult weekend here. I didn't get a
good start but I realised straight away that I was much
faster today and that my bike felt good. At one point I
thought I might be able to win but in the later part of
the race I just didn't have enough strength to stay with
Lorenzo and Stoner, this is a very hard track when
you're not completely fit. I started to make a few
mistakes because I didn't have enough power to stop the
bike so after a bit I decided it was better to slow down
and keep my third place. Arriving on the podium was my
way to say thank you to my bike, to Yamaha and to all
the people who have worked with me in these seven
seasons. It's been a great experience and I have enjoyed
it so much. 46 is a great number of wins - of course I
wanted more but I think I can be happy with what I have
done here. We have finished the season strongly with
five podiums in a row and after such a difficult season
we can feel happy about how we have ended. It's been a
wonderful seven years, great fun with a special
atmosphere, many fantastic victories and four world
championships. I stopped with my bike after the race
today just like I did at Welkom when this story began,
it was the right way to say goodbye to ‘her'. Thank you
to everyone, we have wonderful memories."
Wilco Zeelenberg - Team Manager, Lorenzo
"Number 99 with nine wins in 2010 - it sounds a bit
strange but we are so happy with that! I think it was
the best race of the season for us. It proved that Jorge
is the rightful champion because he beat everybody after
slipping to ninth place, like his team-mate Valentino
has done in so many races. What can I say except that we
have the best rider on the best bike! Well done to Jorge
and to all the team for a great job this season."
Davide Brivio - Team Manager, Rossi
"I think we had a very good race with Valentino after a
difficult weekend. The team worked really hard and we
finally found a good setting for the race. Unfortunately
Valentino's physical condition, when all the riders are
on the limit, meant he had to pay the price today and
couldn't fight right to the end but we were very
competitive and that's what we wanted for our last race.
This is the last race with Yamaha for many of us,
including me; my nineteen-year experience with Yamaha
finishes here. I just want to thank Yamaha and everybody
who worked together with us, they have been years that I
will never forget."
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