Jorge Lorenzo was unstoppable at the TT Circuit Van Drenthe at Assen in today’s MotoGP race.
‘Porfuera’ now has four victories in five races, including today, and has 140 points and is leading by 47 points from second place Dani Pedrosa.
Check out what the riders had to say after the race:Jorge Lorenzo – 1st“This race was a bit more difficult than Silverstone because Dani was so fast with the softer tyre early on in the race and I had to really keep my concentration to stay in front of him at that point.
I was confident that my harder Bridgestone tyre would help me later on and this was the case, so we made the right choice.
It wasn’t easy though and at the end I was sliding quite a lot, in fact I made a mistake at the chicane and nearly crashed so I was quite glad to finish! I am really happy that I have won here in all three classes because it’s such a historic place and the football I had in Parc Ferme was to celebrate this ‘hat-trick.
’ Thanks to all my Yamaha guys and also to Bridgestone for this win, we have a big lead in the championship so we can afford to stay calm and relaxed.
Now we go to my home in Barcelona and I am excited about another chance to race in front of the Spanish fans.
” Dani Pedrosa – 2nd“Well first of all I have to say I’m surprised by this result because, I tell you, in practice we had a lot of problems and we tried so many things that didn’t work, so I wasn’t expecting to get second today or to have this pace.
For the warm-up we found something which gave us a better lap time and my rhythm improved a lot, which gave us the chance to fight in the race.
I knew with the soft rear Bridgestone tyre that I would have more of an advantage in the first part of the race and so I pushed really hard from the start to catch up.
But then I began losing a little bit of time in the first section of the circuit and lap-by-lap we lost touch.
Anyway, this is a good result for us and I’d like to say thanks to my team because they never gave up.
I’m back into second in the World Championship but actually I’m more pleased with second in this race.
Now we go straight to Catalunya for my home GP and I hope we can have a good race there too.
”Casey Stoner – 3rd“This is the first race this season we have come away from with a decent result.
It shouldn’t be our first podium of the year but that’s the way it is and it was nice to finish a race, not just a qualifying session, and head to parc ferme.
The team has been doing a fantastic job, especially over the last two weekends, when we have established a good base setting that has allowed us to fight for the podium, if not the win yet.
Unfortunately at Silverstone we had the start we had but here it was me that struggled more than the bike with arm-pump from about mid distance – it was the same problem as Silverstone and I guess we didn’t have time to recover.
It is another setback we have to deal with now but I think we can get over it.
Anyway all in all it was a positive day and I want to thank the team for the work they have done”.
Ben Spies – 4th “I got a good start and was happy with that.
I ran the soft rear tyre because it made the front load better for turning and the track temperature was hotter than all weekend.
But it didn’t work as well I’d hoped in the first ten laps and then when Dani and Casey came by I knew I was holding them up.
But I was sticking with my game plan.
I tried as hard as I could and 12 laps in Andrea passed me.
But then his tyres dropped down to where I was with mine and I reeled him back in.
The podium battle had gone away and then over the last three laps I heard Andrea and Randy putting the pressure on.
I put my head down hard and managed to open a gap.
I was sliding a lot but I managed to stretch away and I could cruise the last lap.
I wanted at least fourth place today and I’m happy but I didn’t have the pace for the podium like in Silverstone.
I’m happy with the result and we go to Catalunya next week not knowing the track and I think we will be a little bit on the back foot again.
But I’ll do the same as the past two weeks and push as hard as I can.
”Andrea Dovizioso – 5th“We had higher expectations for today’s race and so I’m a little disappointed with how things went.
I made a good start and moved up to fourth but I couldn’t ride the laps under 1m 35s that were needed to stay with the leaders.
We weren’t at 100% with the front-end feeling which meant I couldn’t ride as aggressively as I wanted.
Having said that, we could have finished in fourth today, but in the battle with Randy we lost time and Spies took advantage of our duel to get a gap.
Considering how Dani’s and Casey’s soft tyres worked, our choice of the hard compound Bridgestone was perhaps not the perfect one today.
Anyway, we have to learn from this and I’m looking forward to Barcelona – it’s a track that I really like.
Today’s race was disappointing, but with only five days before we get back out on track we won’t have to wait long before we can make amends.
”Randy De Puniet – 6th“After a positive qualifying lap time, I took a bad a start from the second spot because I dropped the clutch too quickly having a big wheelie but after that I overtook many riders in the first run.
Unfortunately I had some issues on the front tyre at the beginning of the race so I decided to change my riding style a little bit to keep the pace.
Then in the middle of the race I caught Dovizioso and Spies starting a close battle and I had fun.
In the last lap I tried to overtake Dovi again but went too wide in the last corner.
Anyway we are very pleased about this result and this week end because we maintain our sixth position in the classification”.
Nicky Hayden – 7th“Seventh place isn’t exactly the best but as always I’m trying to look at the positives: after making a good start on Thursday we had a difficult session on Friday morning with a breakdown and a crash, when we also wrecked a set of tyres, and that obviously made things hard for us.
Whilst the rest made progress with their set-up we lost ground.
I got a decent start but got held up by De Puniet and was passed by a lot of riders.
I managed to pass Colin and Simoncelli but lost time and even though I tried to close the gap the front end tucked a couple of times and I had to settle for seventh.
It’s a shame because it’s our worst result of the year apart from the crash at Mugello but we go racing again next week and we’ll be trying to get back to the front.
Colin Edwards – 8th “I can’t be disappointed or upset with eighth place and wonder why I didn’t get a better result when I rode my heart out.
There was nothing else I could have done today but I know what we can improve.
We’ve been experimenting with some different front-end settings and we’ve made it better, but I just lose a bit of time when I release the brakes and can’t turn the bike how I want.
And losing that little bit everywhere adds up by the end of the lap and makes it difficult.
I know I rode harder than last year when I finished fourth, but I’m eighth.
I guess that proves that those guys at the front are running an unbelievable pace.
I was behind Nicky for a long time but I could never get close enough to put a pass on him.
Looking at Ben it can be better and once again, I can’t praise him enough.
He’s riding really good and I have to congratulate him because at the last two races he’s been really impressive.
”Marco Simoncelli – 9th“It has been a particularly difficult day today.
After practice I was hoping for a different kind of race but it didn’t go to plan.
I knew something wasn’t right from the start because the feeling wasn’t as good as yesterday, the rear tyre didn’t have the same grip and from the first lap I was taking risks.
I decided to pull the oars into the boat and get to the line in the best position possible.
It is a top ten finish but we wanted more today.
It is a shame but on the plus side we did a good job just to get the bike to the finish.
Now we go to Barcelona and I hope we can build on the good qualifying practice we had yesterday.
”Aleix Espargarò – 10th“The result does not prove the full value I could give on this track.
Unfortunately the bad start had made me lost immediately the contact from the first riders, I had to fight to regain the positions I have lost.
After I had pass some riders I have had a good race pace that allowed me to recover the gap I had from Simoncelli.
In eight laps I managed reduce the three seconds gap I had from him and pass him.
I pushed as hard to try to detach him but I risk the falling into a couple of strokes.
At seven laps I made him pass me.
I studied the places where I could try to overcome him, but the last lap I could not be so close to beat him.
I’m also happy to had a so reduced gap from the Grand Prix winner, this is the minimum gap I had in this season.
In the next week we’ll race in Barcelona, my home Grand Prix.
I will do my best to obtain a good result for my team and my fans.
” Mika Kallio – 11th “I’m very happy for the excellent start I had that allowed me to gain three positions after the first lap.
Unfortunately my race pace has not allowed me to stay with the best riders, my bike was not very quick in some fast points of the track.
I fought with Capirossi and Barberà for the eleventh position.
In the last five laps I was able to drive the group to the end and I win the battle with Barberà that he could not pass me in the last corner.
I hope to get a better result next week on the Spanish circuit.
”Hector Barbera – 12th“After the way the practice sessions went, I knew that today would be a difficult race.
We made a change this morning to improve cornering, in particular on the first section, but there weren’t any big steps forward.
This class is very competitive, so you can’t lose your way in any session or you will be at a disadvantage.
I never felt comfortable on the Ducati this weekend, and the electronics had a lot to do with that.
I’m still not on top of it.
I went to give it my all in the race, despite the setbacks, and I can at least be satisfied with my performance and the battle with Capirossi and Kallio.
I found some solutions in the race, and I will look to put them into practice at Montmeló.
”Loris Capirossi – 13th “I just don’t know what to say after this weekend – when I try to go quicker than I did today I feel like I will crash and when I try to make a race I end up almost last.
The effort we are putting in is a lot and I am really angry and annoyed, because the whole team is trying really hard, we make so many changes to try to find the best solution and we just cannot find it.
We just had no feeling at the start today and we needed three or four laps to get any kind of feel in the tyres, but by then it was too late.
It is the same to finish 11th or 13th, both positions feel the same and it is just not good enough, we need to make some big changes for next weekend so we can try to be more competitive.
”Álvaro Bautista -14th“This has been a very bad race for us for a couple of reasons.
Yesterday in qualifying it looked like we had improved the bike, but when I woke up this morning I felt more pain in my left arm.
I think that yesterday I did too much and today my left arm was very tired and painful.
This was a bad start for a race, but I tried to be positive and have a good race.
From the first lap though it felt very difficult riding the bike, because it felt like the tyres were still not warm enough, so I tried to push and find my rhythm like in practice, but the bike just moved around much more than it did in practice – I don’t know why.
I struggled a lot in the race and I just tried to do the best I could.
I hope that the feeling is better for the next race because it is my home GP.
I have a week to get some more strength in my arm and try to recover a bit more and hopefully get a better result in Barcelona.
”Kousuke Akiyoshi – 15th“First of all I have to say that I wish all the best to Hiro and I hope he will come back soon.
In general this was a good weekend for me.
I am here as a replacement and to test the bike and to help the team.
The last time I was part of a race of the world championship was more than a year ago and once again I really enjoyed this experience.
I am looking forward to the race in Barcelona.
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