Jorge Lorenzo's Italian masterpiece at Mugello

from Twowheelsblog

Over 76,000 fans were at the spectacular Mugello circuit today to see Jorge Lorenzo break the current Repsol Honda hegemony and take a forceful and masterful victory in the Italian GP and take his third consecutive victory at the Italian track and his second victory of the season, with Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow completing the podium.

Pedrosa was the polesitter but at the the first turn at the San Donato ran slightly wide with Jorge Lorenzo taking the lead, but the first dramatic suprise of the race was when at turn 3 of the first lap at the Luco and Poggio Secco, Alvaro Bautista lost the front of his Honda and crashing involved a hapless Valentino Rossi who ended up slamming heavily into the air fence, with the incident being investigated.

At the front Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Marc Marquez broke away leaving a huge gap behind them. Halfway through the race Lorenzo changed speed and began distancing the Honda riders and on lap 13 he hammered out a stunning 1.47.929 that was the game changer, as the Yamaha rider speed away no longer contested, and would win with a highly comfortable 5.4 second margin.

With Pedrosa and Marquez left alone, the rookie began pressuring his veteran team mate who was suffering with technical issues and with just five laps to go Marquez passed his team mate with one of the easiest passes that we’ve seen the rookie do and then peel away only and seem heading for a second place podium only to crash out with three laps to go as he lost the rear and throw away a perfect podium record.

With Marquez out of action Pedrosa inherited the second spot and Cal Crutchlow who was riding in a lonely fourth, until the Repsol Honda’s riders crash, which let him take second podium of the season needed and if the race was just a few laps longer he might have caught Pedrosa as he was fastly closing in.

Stefan Bradl finished fourth spending the entire race with Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden on his tail, but the two Ducatisti never really worrying the LCR Honda rider. Dovizioso and Hayden swapped places twice, but Dovizioso was slightly faster as Hayden began to fade and the two factory riders finished fifth and sixth.

In a very distant seventh Ducati’s test rider Michele Pirro finished ahead of CRT rider Aleix Espargaro while injured Bradley Smith finished 9th and Hector Barbera closed out the top ten.

2013 MotoGP Mugello Race Results:

01- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – 23 laps in 41’39.733
02- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 5.400
03- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 6.412
04- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 19.321
05- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 19.540
06- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 26.321
07- Michele Pirro – Ducati Test Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 38.144
08- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 39.802
09- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 40.243
10- Hector Barbera – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 48.392
11- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 48.480