Moto GP San Marino

Lorenzo Completes Back-to-Back Victories

The defending world champion took the lead on the opening lap and was never headed again as he left the Repsol Hondas battling for second.

Pole sitter, Marquez, dropped to third by the end of lap one and faced a race-long battle with teammate Dani Pedrosa after briefly dropping to 4th, after going too deep into one corner, allowing Rossi to gain a place, but the championship leader did eventually regain position and get the better of Pedrosa to take second and reduce the damage done to his championship lead, which is now 34 points.

Pedrosa's third place means he is now level on points with Lorenzo, behind Marquez. Valentino Rossi was well off the pace in fourth and Cal Crutchlow could only manage sixth.

Lorenzo had commented that his title chances were slim after his victory at Silverstone and his tone had not changed at the chequered flag, despite his delight at the win.

“It is important to win, but we have only recovered five points, so it is the same as Silverstone,” he told broadcasters.

“It doesn’t make a big difference to the championship. But I’m very happy for this victory, because we struggled a lot during the weekend, especially on braking.”

It was a comfortable victory for Lorenzo as the battle between the Honda teammates allowed him to pull clear.

Despite losing out on the race win, Marquez outlined the importance of taking solid points as the championship heads into the final five rounds.

“The second place is important, especially because with the fuel tank full, I was struggling,” he said.
“I did go wide twice and that penalised me a lot in the race but we had a good race to take points for the championship. That is important.”

MotoGP returns in two weeks' time as the championship heads back to Spain for the Aragon Grand Prix.

Result

1. Jorge Lorenzo
2. Marc Marquez
3. Dani Pedrosa
4. Valentino Rossi
5. Stefan Bradl
6. Cal Crutchlow
7. Alvaro Bautista
8. Andrea Dovizioso
9. Nicky Hayden
10. Michele Pirro