The Yamaha squad of Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies suffered joy and misery in Estoril this weekend. The joy went to Jorge Lorenzo, after starting from pole position, the current world champion led for the vast majority of the 28 lap race. However, with only 3 laps to go, he lost out to Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, who went on to win the race, leaving Lorenzo to claim 2nd place and stay at the top of the championship table, but only by 4 points from Pedrosa.
Speaking after the race, Lorenzo said, “I made a good start and I'm really happy for that then I pushed to my maximum to try to open the gap to Dani. Unfortunately today was not the day for that, he was too strong and consistent and at the end he was maybe fresher to push. Second is a good result, we have a lot of points from three races so I think we are in a good way to keep fighting for the championship. I want to thank my team who worked really hard this weekend to make sure we were as competitive as we could be.”
Yet again Spies was unable to complete the race at Estoril. A procedural failure on the grid meant a tool used to temporarily block the overflow fuel pipe was left on the bike, and as this is next to the front brake lever, this broke his concentration, and 15 laps into the race, Spies ended in the gravel.
“I am bitterly disappointed with today.” said Spies “After a lot of hard work by the crew this weekend we started the race with a very competitive set up and I was feeling good. When I noticed the tool hadn't been removed I tried to do it myself because it was right in there next to my brake lever. I managed to get it off but then this loose tube was flying around which was pretty scary. It really messed with my concentration as I was worried about taking out another rider in one of the corners and then I crashed. After the DNF at Jerez this was really frustrating as it was completely out of my control, nothing to it now but to move on and come back strong for Le Mans.”
