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Yamaha Duo Reflect On Different Fortunes

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Factory Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo produced a dominant display of skill to keep his M1 machine upright in rainy conditions to claim a win in front of his home crowd, and to also take the lead in the championship. After competing with the Repsol Hondas of Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, and also Marco Simoncelli, Lorenzo was gifted the lead after Stoner was taken down in an accident with Valentino Rossi and Simoncelli overcooking it and ended in the gravel.

After the race, Lorenzo said, “It has been one of my most patience races. It's a great victory, which we needed and I feel so good. This is also the first time I have won in wet conditions, the first time ever! Now we are working to improve our bike, taking as much points as possible on the way. The King of Spain said to me that he would bring me good luck after our meeting last February in Madrid, he was right! With the competition so high this year I never imagined I would be leader after two races. I am so happy to have won this weekend, especially as my friends from Yamaha Indonesia came all the way here to support us; 'Semakin di Depan' means 'One Step Ahead' which was true today!”

For teammate Ben Spies, a podium finish looked to be on the cards. After a weak start the American climbed up to 6th before dueling with Pedrosa for 2nd after being gifted places by fallers ahead of him. However, 3 laps from the finish, his worn wet tyres and the slippy conditions became too much and he slid into the gravel.

“I don't think of it as a race today, it was more attrition.” said Spies.

“Once we moved into fourth behind Nicky I knew I could get past so just waited for the right moment. Dani was only a few seconds ahead of me and I thought for sure we could get on the podium. I slowly started to catch him, Jorge was obviously going to win but we could go one two. I put it all out there and caught Dani. As soon as I passed him I knew that we had second place under control, he wouldn't be able to get back by but I needed to not make any mistakes. Every corner after I passed him I slowed down, taking it easy then all of a sudden I was on the floor. Obviously it was my mistake, but looking at the data I was going slower than I had all race. It was one of those things; I think the tyres were the limiting factor today. I think it was a great show for the crowd though!”

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Scott is TCF's 2 wheeled nut in a 4 wheeled world. You can follow the calamity on Twitter at @thescottwilkes
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