Jorge Lorenzo - Photo Credit: Yamaha
Jorge Lorenzo was ecstatic after winning his home Grand Prix at Catalunya but emotions were mixed in the Yamaha camp after Ben Spies missed the chance to join him on the podium. Lorenzo played it cool before overtaking Dani Pedrosa with six laps to go, extending his championship lead to 20 points, and admitted his calm approach was key to the victory.
“I'm really happy with this victory as it was a very tough weekend. We performed a lot better than yesterday as in qualifying it was very hot. The grip on the track after the rain this morning was also not so great. At the beginning of the race when I was following Ben and Dani it was very easy to make a mistake under braking and touch them so I waited calmly for my opportunity. When Ben made a mistake I moved up. I followed Dani and watched him, he slowed his pace and eventually made a mistake so I was able to pass him then give it full throttle. Thank you so much to Yamaha and my team for working hard to make a great bike for today's victory.”
Spies was kicking himself after his aggressive strategy cost him dearly. The American dived past Pedrosa on the third lap, only to run wide and drop the Yamaha, and fall to the rear of the field. Spies recovered to tenth but accepted the damage was already done after his mistake.
“I'm more disappointed for the team than for me because I felt good with the bike and we definitely had a bike to be on the podium today. I just made one mistake in the race and blew our chance. We were going good in the beginning but I was getting impatient with Dani. He was holding me up but I couldn't make the pass on the straight so I had to go for it on the brakes and unfortunately got out onto the edge of the track. I got up and we got back into it and our pace was pretty good, unfortunately it was too late to get back to the front.”
Team Manager Wilco Zeelenberg feels the performance of the two riders was further proof of the Yamaha's championship-winning potential and hopes upcoming revisions to the YZR-M1 will make them even quicker at Silverstone next time out.
“This is our third victory and a very important win for Jorge at his home track. It's also a very important moment of the season to have three victories and two second place finishes under the belt. It looks like we have a very strong package for the rest of the season and we will test new items tomorrow to make it even stronger. Jorge rode brilliantly and his team also worked extremely hard over the weekend to deliver the win.”
