The Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez won’t be remembered for the winner - it was Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo in a perfect ride in changing conditions - but for the number of riders who couldn’t cope.
Chief among them was Valentino Rossi, the nine-time World Champion whose ambition outweighed his talent as he entered the first turn on the eighth of 27 laps. Rossi cleaned Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner out of second place with most of the race to run. Stoner was finished and furious, while Rossi remounted to begin a process that would eventually take him to a fifth-place finish.
As soon as the race ended, Rossi, trailed by a huge media horde, made his way to the Repsol Honda garage, where he apologized to Stoner, who, through a wide grin and already in street clothes, was overheard to say that “your ambition outweighed your talent.”
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The apology didn’t change the order, which was Lorenzo by nearly 20 seconds over Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, with Ducati Marlboro’s Nicky Hayden another 10 seconds back in third. Hayden had a steady ride on a track that began wet, but ended dry, allowing him to secure his second Ducati podium and first since last year’s race in Aragon. While Hayden didn’t put a wheel wrong, most of the field couldn’t keep upright in a race which was thoroughly entertaining for the drenched crowd of 123,750.
“Well, I think everyone wanted a dry race, but at the end it rained, so we had to race,” Lorenzo said after finishing with completely shagged tires. “Has been really difficult to keep the focus, the concentration. Every lap the tires were more broke, in more bad conditions. So every corner you have to slow down a little bit more, every lap. Cycle News
Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) was one place away from the rostrum, taking fourth position, his best result in MotoGP. The Japanese rider’s previous best finish had been seventh.
Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar Team) built on his performance in Losail to finish sixth, ahead of Karel Abraham (Cardion ab Motoracing) who after crashing during the race, was able to remount to take seventh place and pick up points in his second MotoGP race. Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was able to take eighth place after similar fate as the Czech rider, when he crashed in a solid top five place. This was the British rider’s first race at the Jerez circuit in his rookie season.
Spanish Moto2 World Champion Toni Elías (LCR Honda) brought his bike home in ninth place with the final place in the top ten going to Rizla Suzuki’s John Hopkins, replacing the injured Álvaro Bautista, after a long gap away from the series. Loris Capirossi (Pramac Racing) was 13th.
Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) who started from sixth made a promising start picking up a few places, but started to go backwards and then made a costly error when he slid off track into the gravel. The Italian finished last in 14th after coming into the pits to change his wet tyres. Motogp.com
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