Jorge Lorenzo won from pole position for the third year in succession at Estoril as he took victory at the bwin Grande Premio de Portugal on Sunday, finishing ahead of Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso.
The Fiat Yamaha rider, for whom this was an eighth win in his title-winning 2010 campaign, got the better of his rival and team-mate Rossi as they battled early on and when he took the lead on the 17th of 28 laps he did not look back, eventually taking the chequered flag 8.629s clear of the Italian. It was Lorenzo’s first win since the Brno round, and leaves him on course to still be able to beat Rossi’s 2008 record points haul (373) in a single season in MotoGP with one round to go.
The Italian brought home his factory M1 in a lonely second position for his tenth podium at Estoril in 11 visits as he finished almost 18 seconds ahead of Dovizioso, who had engaged in a thrilling battle to the very finish with Marco Simoncelli for the final podium position. It was the Repsol Honda rider who edged it – by just 0.059s – to take his seventh podium of the season and leave the San Carlo Honda Gresini rider still looking for his first rostrum in the premier class. Simoncelli will not be disappointed with a season’s best finish of fourth however.
Ducati Team rider Nicky Hayden placed fifth after coming close to the podium, the American just 0.620s behind Simoncelli, whilst Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) and Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) completed the top seven, both within three seconds of Hayden.
On his return to racing after missing the past three Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) came in eighth, with Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar) inside the top ten. Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki), Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda MotoGP) and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) were the final three riders to finish the race.
Casey Stoner (Ducati Team) suffered the bitter disappointment of crashing out at turn 13 on lap five as he pushed hard while in third position, whilst Pramac Racing pair Aleix Espargaró and Carlos Checa both failed to finish too, the former crashing on lap one and the latter pitting in with an arm pump problem with 15 laps remaining.
Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was unable to take his starting grid position of fifth after crashing on the sighting lap and dislocating his left ankle. The American is hopeful however of being fit to race in the final round of the season at Valencia next weekend.
Pos. Points Num. Rider Nation Team Bike Km/h Time/Gap
1 25 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 151.7 46'17.962 2 20 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 151.3 +8.629 3 16 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team Honda 150.3 +26.475 4 13 58 Marco SIMONCELLI ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 150.3 +26.534 5 11 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 150.3 +27.154 6 10 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 150.2 +28.297 7 9 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 150.1 +30.109 8 8 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 149.3 +44.947 9 7 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 147.8 +1'13.649 10 6 40 Hector BARBERA SPA Paginas Amarillas Aspar Ducati 147.6 +1'17.721 11 5 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 147.6 +1'17.908 12 4 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Interwetten Honda MotoGP Honda 146.8 +1'33.025 13 3 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 146.5 +1'39.752 Not Classified 71 Carlos CHECA SPA Pramac Racing Team Ducati 144.9 15 Laps 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Team Ducati 147.0 24 Laps Not Starting 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Pramac Racing Team Ducati 0 Lap 11 Ben SPIES USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 0 Lap
