Jorge Lorenzo signalled the start of his 2015 championship challenge with a truly dominant victory in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. The Movistar Yamaha rider was in a class of his own in qualifying and led every lap of today’s race, proving once again what a magnificent frontrunner he is, easing away from Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi.
The biggest opportunity for anyone to put some pressure on Lorenzo would come at the start but the polesitter made a beautiful getaway to lead Marquez into turn one. The same couldn’t be said for Andrea Iannone though who bogged down dreadfully on the Ducati and to make matters worse for the Bologna squad, Andrea Dovizioso skated off at the final corner on lap two, falling to the back of the field.
Rossi benefited from Iannone’s slow start to take fourth but the championship leader had to wait until the end of lap three to make further progress with Pol Espargaro bravely defending third. The Tech 3 rider was finally dispatched at turn thirteen but Rossi already had two seconds of empty tarmac between himself and second-placed Marquez.
For a number of laps, the race looked to be following a similar pattern to Argentina with ‘The Doctor’ chipping away at the world champion’s advantage and with seven laps remaining, the writing looked to be on the wall for no.93 with Rossi just a second behind. This time though, Marc did come up with a response and despite the injured finger, the Spaniard counter-attacked to take the advantage back over two seconds and secure the twenty points.
The day belonged to Lorenzo though with his lead growing to 5.5 seconds by the chequered flag over Marquez with Rossi taking third to consolidate his championship position. Cal Crutchlow rode superbly to take a comfortable fourth while Pol Espargaro faded to fifth, only just holding off a fast-closing Iannone in the closing stages.
Aleix Espargaro also came under late pressure but held onto seventh at the expense of Bradley Smith while Andrea Dovizioso recovered from his disastrous second lap to finish ninth, nine seconds clear of a five-way squabble for tenth which was ultimately settled in favour of Yonny Hernandez.
2015 GRAN PREMIO BWIN DE ESPANA – RACE RESULT (27 LAPS)
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