GP Motul de Valence : Une finale toute particulière…

Pastures new: an emotional Sunday awaits in Valencia

Pedrosa, Bautista, Lorenzo and Zarco spoke ahead of the Valencia GP as each says goodbye to their respective teams on Sunday afternoon

Ahead of the final round of the 2018 MotoGP™ season, four faces who are moving onto pastures new faced the media at the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), Alvaro Bautista (Angel Nieto Team), Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha MotoGP) and Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) will ride for their respective teams for the final time this weekend in what promises to be an emotional Grand Prix.

Ahead of the general pre-event Press Conference, a special ceremony was held to induct Pedrosa as a MotoGP™ Legend. But what are his feelings heading into his final weekend of racing action? “You feel like it’s not real, like it’s not happening,” admitted the ‘Little Samurai’, answering teammate Marc Marquez’ question to him during the ceremony. “Like you want to stop time, but time keeps running and goes through your fingers. It’s strange. I will realise after, when it’s finished. You don’t believe it’s happening.”

There will be tears shed when Pedrosa crosses the line for the final time in Valencia on Sunday, but there may also be a few watery eyes in the Angel Nieto Team box for Bautista. The latter will also be saying goodbye to the Grand Prix paddock next year as he heads over to WorldSBK, and Bautista was sad to be leaving after having such a strong second half of the season:

“My feeling is that it could be another ten or twenty races now because it’s a good moment,” answered Bautista, who says he will miss the feeling of a MotoGP™ bike. “In the last races we were quite competitive with the independent bikes and the factory bikes so I will miss this feeling but I will try and end the season and my MotoGP career with the best result possible and try to enjoy it with the fans, the team and these guys on track.”

One rider who we aren’t saying goodbye to though is Lorenzo. However, for the Spaniard, Sunday will see him compete on a Ducati machine for the final time before he joins Marquez in the Repsol Honda garage. After missing the last four races through injury, the five-time World Champion is hoping he can end his two-year relationship with the Bologna factory on a high, despite not being fully fit:

“The injury has improved a lot in the last ten days so now I feel good enough to try and achieve the best result possible for the team,” explained the number 99 rider. “It will be an emotional race because it will close an important chapter in my career. Maybe the rain will help me a bit to not stress the injury too much in the recovery too. I’m looking forward to getting on the bike.”

And then there’s Zarco, who leaves his close-knit French Tech 3 team to start a new chapter with Red Bull KTM Factory Racing. First and foremost for the Frenchman, Valencia is an important weekend; top Independent Team honours are his to lose, while he also has a top five finish in the Championship to fight for with Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Alex Rins – both of whom are locked together on 149 points.

But how does the double Moto2™ World Champion feel about saying goodbye to his Tech 3 team? “I’m so happy to have been with a French team for the first time, I didn’t have to go and see them to talk to them, I was in my own world!”

“Being in a 100% French team in the paddock helped me, I’m not so sad to leave them though because they’re also changing to KTM and I think we’ll still have a close relationship.”

Sunday at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo will be an emotional day, but there’s business to attend to first. Every rider will be gunning for the best result possible and with most having nothing to lose, the battle on track should be immense. Make sure you don’t miss any of the action from the 2018 finale in Valencia, with MotoGP™ FP1 kicking off at 09:55 local time (GMT +1) on Friday. 

Pour Zarco, Lorenzo, Bautista ou encore Pedrosa, ce GP Motul de Valence marque la fin d’un chapitre, qu’ils entendent conclure en beauté !

Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda Team), Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), Álex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech3), Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) et Álvaro Bautista (Ángel Nieto Team) étaient réunis ce jeudi, pour l’ultime conférence de presse pré-GP de l’année. Si tous auront à cœur de conclure leur saison en beauté malgré des prévisions météorologiques qui s’annoncent guère clémentes, cette finale revêtira tout de même une saveur particulière pour certains d’eux, à commencer pour Johann Zarco. 

Le représentant du team Monster Yamaha Tech3, qui avait manqué de remporter la précédente édition, dispute en effet sa tout dernière course au guidon de la Yamaha YZR-M1.

« Je garderai de bons souvenirs de ces deux années passées au sein d’un team tricolore. Ça a un peu été comme une révélation, explique-t-il. Ceci étant je ne les quitte pas totalement, car eux aussi partent chez KTM. Autrement dit, nous resterons très proches. »

Requinqué par ce récent podium, auquel il n’avait plus goûté depuis Jerez, le Français n’en oublie pas pour autant ses objectifs…

« Ce n’est pas toujours évident quand les résultats ne sont pas au rendez-vous, alors que vous donnez tout. Mais ce récent podium m’a véritablement redonné confiance, ajoute-t-il. Au bout du compte, je suis plutôt content de ma saison car, même en ayant plus de mal à la mi-saison, je reste en bagarre pour le Top 5 final face à Álex et j’occupe la place de meilleur indépendant. »

Autre pilote, qui changera de team dans tout juste quelques jours : Jorge Lorenzo ! Et le Majorquin, qui fait son retour de blessure, mettra un point d’honneur à aller chercher un bon résultat, pour lui comme pour Ducati !

« Ce dimanche, je devrais être en mesure de rouler, ou du moins de rouler pour un résultat décent, pas comme à Sepang, indique-t-il. En l’espace de deux semaines, la situation s’est en effet grandement améliorée et puis les conditions météo annoncées pour ce dimanche pourraient au passage me faciliter la tâche… En tout cas, je me sens suffisamment en forme pour tenter de décrocher un bon résultat. À vrai dire, c’est quelque chose qui me tient particulièrement à cœur car c’est un tout chapitre qui est sur le point de se refermer ! »

L’émotion promet d’être tout aussi grande dans le clan Álvaro Bautista et pour cause ! Après 16 années passées en mondial, l’Espagnol est sur le point de rejoindre les rangs du WorldSBK.

« J’aurais pu encore disputer quelques courses, affirme-t-il. Il faut dire que sur les dernières courses nous étions très compétitifs. Ce feeling me manquera, c’est certain. Mais je vais tâcher de terminer de la meilleure des façons, de profiter avec mes fans, ainsi que mon équipe, afin d’en garder un bon souvenir. Difficile d’en retenir un en particulier. Peut-être mon titre en 125cc et mes deux podiums du MotoGP™ ?! Mais les mauvais moments sont tout aussi importants à mes yeux car c’est là où on apprend le plus. »

Quelques minutes plus tôt, Dani Pedrosa était pour sa part érigé au rang de MotoGP™ Legend. Le Catalan prendra ce dimanche son 295e et dernier départ… un moment dont il aimerait pour sa part juste profiter !

« C’est ma dernière course alors je vais juste tâcher d’en profiter, de ne pas penser aux chiffres ou à d’éventuels records. Je voudrais en garder un bon souvenir. »

Lorenzo remporte la grande finale de Valence / Lorenzo wins #TheGrandFinale to become champion

Le Majorquin a décroché son troisième titre MotoGP™ en s’imposant devant Marc Márquez, Dani Pedrosa et Valentino Rossi à Valence.

                

Opposé à son coéquipier Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), qui était arrivé avec sept points d’avance mais une pénalité qui le contraignait à partir en dernière position, Jorge Lorenzo a fait la maximum pour remporter son troisième titre de Champion du Monde MotoGP™ au Grand Prix Motul de Valence. 

Le Majorquin avait lancé son offensive dès le samedi après-midi et s’offrant une très précieuse pole position, qui lui a permis d’imprimer son rythme devant Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) et Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), qui partaient aussi de la première ligne, dès le début de la course.

              

Parti du fond de la grille, Rossi a lui aussi fait tout son possible dès l’extinction des feux et a réalisé un excellent départ pour gagner une dizaine de places en l’espace d’un tour et ensuite progressivement remonter jusqu’à Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) et prendre la quatrième place à son compatriote dans le douzième des trente tours de la course, lorsque les trois premiers étaient déjà trop loin devant pour espérer les rattraper.

En tête depuis le début, Lorenzo a bien tenu devant Márquez et n’a pas commis la moindre erreur lorsque la tension est montée en fin de course et que Pedrosa s’est joint au duo de tête. Le Catalan a tenté de dépasser Márquez mais a tout de suite été repris par ce dernier et a dû se contenter d’une troisième place qui marquait cependant son 100e podium en catégorie reine.

Vainqueur pour la septième fois de la saison, Lorenzo remportait son troisième titre MotoGP™ avec cinq points d’avance sur Rossi et un palmarès comprenant 40 victoires, 87 podiums et 35 pole positions depuis son arrivée dans la catégorie en 2008.

              

Derrière Rossi, qui a fini à 19 secondes du podium, Pol Espargaró (Monster Yamaha Teh3) et son coéquipier Bradley Smith ont respectivement pris les cinquième et sixième places, devant Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), Aleix Espargaró (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) et Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing). 

              

Le titre de la catégorie Open est revenu à Héctor Barberá (Avintia Racing), seizième de la course, alors que son principal rival, et futur coéquipier, Loris Baz (Forward Racing) a terminé dix-neuvième et donc lui aussi hors des points. Mike Di Meglio (Avintia Racing) n’a de son côté par rallié l’arrivée, à l’instar d’Andrea Iannone (Ducati), tombé en début de course.

Cliquez ici pour accéder aux résultats.

               

Lorenzo wins an incredible race to lift his fifth world title with Marquez and Pedrosa on the podium and Rossi fourth after an amazing ride.

Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo led from flag to flag to become the 2015 MotoGP™ World Champion in one of the most dramatic races of the year at the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana. In the process Lorenzo became only the third rider in the premier class to overturn a points deficit in the last GP to become champion and the first since Giacomo Agostini in 1966 to win the final race to clinch the title.

His teammate and title rival Valentino Rossi, who started from 25th on the grid after Cal Crutchlow was forced to start from the back of the grid, rode one of the races of his life to cross the line in fourth, but despite his best efforts, the ‘Doctor’ could do nothing to stop Lorenzo becoming champion in the end. Lorenzo eventually took the race win by just 0.263s from Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, with his teammate Dani Pedrosa in third after thrilling finish that could have seen a very different outcome to the title battle.

#TheGrandFinale certainly lived up to the hype as 110,000 fans at a sold out Comunitat Valenciana – Ricardo Tormo circuit bore witness to one of the most tense and thrilling conclusions to a MotoGP™ season ever.

When the lights went out it was pole man Lorenzo who led into the first corner, a lead he would not relinquish for the duration of the race. Immediately he set off at the front, closely followed by the two Hondas of Marquez and Pedrosa plus Andrea Iannone on the Ducati Team GP15. Rossi enjoyed an amazing start, making up 7 places off the line, and the Italian was up to 16th by after the very first corner.

                

Rossi was a man on a mission and while the four riders at the front started to open up a gap, he carved his way through the field. The ‘Doctor’ was into 15th by the by the end of the first lap and 12th after lap 2. He then passed Stefan Bradl (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) for 11th on the third lap, before swiftly disposing of wildcard Michele Pirro (Ducati Team) to move into 10th. 

Still on lap three, Iannone lost the front at turn 12 and crashed out of the race, meaning Rossi was now into ninth and the crowd was going wild as they could not believe what they were seeing. At the front, Lorenzo was riding brilliantly, managing the gap to Marquez at around the 0.4s mark. Pedrosa had started to fall back from his teammate, but the front three had now opened up a 3.5s gap to the fourth placed Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team).

Rossi continued his charge, and by lap five he was embroiled in a battle for sixth with the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 duo of Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro along with Danilo Petrucci on the Octo Pramac Racing Ducati. On lap six he overtook Smith for 8th, a lap later Petrucci ran wide and Rossi was up into seventh, but by this point Pol Espargaro had escaped 1.2s further up the road. Rossi set off in hot pursuit.

             

By lap nine he had closed down Pol Espargaro, and there was contact as he passed the Spaniard on lap 10 for sixth, but nothing was going to slow Rossi’s progress. On lap 12 Rossi made his move on Aleix Espargaro on the Team Suzuki Ecstar GSX-RR in to turn 1, but Espargaro fought back, with Rossi having to wait until turn 5 to make it stick. Unbelievably he was now into fifth and a few corners later he took Dovizioso for fourth, but by this point he was 11 seconds behind Pedrosa in third.

               

It would turn out to be as good as it got for Rossi, as he didn’t have the pace to run with the front three as by this point he was lapping 0.3s slower than the men in front of him. Rossi, in fourth, needed Lorenzo to finish third if he was to become champion and only Marquez or Pedrosa could stop Lorenzo winning his fifth World Championship now.

At this point Lorenzo was still managing the gap at the front beautifully, and every time Marquez appeared to close him down, he opened up a 0.4s lead once more and the duo were starting to pull away from Pedrosa. It was not over yet though, not by a long way.

                 

With 8 laps to go Pedrosa, in third, started to close down his teammate, reducing the gap to the second placed Marquez to under 2 seconds. Suddenly Pedrosa was the fastest rider on track by far. While Marquez put Lorenzo under constant pressure at the front, it was Pedrosa who had the momentum and amazingly with three laps to go, only half a second separated the front three.

Rossi was now 18 seconds behind the trio and hoping for a miracle. With two laps to go, Pedrosa made a move on Marquez into second, but Marquez fought back immediately. This swapping of places allowed Lorenzo to open up the tiniest of gaps at the front and as he crossed the line to start the last lap, he had a 0.347s lead over Marquez.

The tensions was unbearable, but Lorenzo kept his cool to ride smoothly through the last set of corners and despite Marquez throwing everything at him on the last lap, Lorenzo held on to take the race win by less than three-tenths of a second from Marquez. It was the 28-year-old Mallorcan’s seventh win of the season, 40th in MotoGP™ and 61st of his illustrious career.

               

It was in incredible finish to one of the most epic seasons in the history of the World Championship and it meant that Lorenzo (330pts) had overturned Rossi’s (325pts) seven-point lead to lift the title by a slender five-point margin, in the process lifting his fifth World Championship title (250cc – 2006, 250cc – 2007, MotoGP™ - 2010, MotoGP™ - 2012, MotoGP™-2015).

With Marquez and Pedrosa completing the podium, Rossi crossed the line 19 seconds behind Lorenzo in fourth, and despite a simply astounding ride, Rossi will have to wait to lift that elusive tenth title.

                   

Pol Espargaro was fifth as the leading Satellite rider, 2.8s ahead of his teammate Bradley Smith in sixth, with the British rider securing sixth in the championship standings in the process and the honour of top Satellite rider in 2015.

                   

Dovizioso finished in seventh as the leading Ducati, ahead of Aleix Espargaro in eight. LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow was forced to start from the back of the grid after experiencing issues with his bike before the race started. The British rider pulled off a great race to ride form 26th through to 9th, with Petrucci completing the top ten.

EG 0,0 Marc VDS Scott Redding took the last points scoring spot in 15th, with Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera in 16th as the leading Open Class rider, with the Spaniard securing the Open title in the process as his rival Loris Baz (Forward Racing) could only finish in 19th.

                    

Nicky Hayden (Aspar MotoGP Team) bowed out of the MotoGP™ class by finishing as the leading Open Honda in 17th with Australian Jack Miller (LCR Honda) crossing the line in 21st. There were DNF’s for Broc Parkes, Mike De Meglio and Eugene Laverty.

The riders and team return to the Valencia track on Tuesday & Wednesday to kick off the 2016 season with the first official test.

Check out the full MotoGP™ race results and the final 2015 MotoGP™ World Championship standings.

Lorenzo signe le meilleur temps du vendredi à Sepang / Lorenzo strikes first in Sepang

Le Majorquin est parvenu à passer devant les pilotes Repsol Honda lors d’une chaude après-midi en Malaisie.

                

Suite à ce que Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) ait dominé la première séance d’essais du Grand Prix Shell de Malaisie vendredi matin à Sepang, Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) a été le pilote le plus rapide l’après-midi et a surtout réussi à battre le chrono de son compatriote de près de deux dixièmes de seconde pour finir la journée en tête. 

                    

Pedrosa était cependant lui aussi en progrès et finissait à seulement à 0.047s du Majorquin tandis que Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) se maintenait dans le Top 3, à 0.226s du leader. 

Andrea Iannone (Ducati) a profité de l’après-midi pour se rapprocher des premières places et finir quatrième, à un rien de Márquez et malgré une chute dans le virage 8. Son compatriote Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) a de son côté été l’un des quelques pilotes qui n’ont pas amélioré leurs meilleurs temps personnels l’après-midi et a terminé la journée à plus de six dixièmes de son coéquipier, qu’il devance de onze points au classement général avant l’avant-dernière manche de la saison.

                     

Tombé le matin, Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) a démontré une certaine compétitivité l’après-midi et a pris la sixième place sur le classement combiné, devant Aleix Espargaró (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) et Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing).

                      

Héctor Barberá (Avintia Racing) a impressionné et a fini onzième, devant Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) ainsi que les pilotes du team Monster Yamaha Tech3, Pol Espargaró et Bradley Smith. L’Espagnol était de loin le premier pilote Open tandis que son coéquipier Mike Di Meglio (Avintia Racing) et Loris Baz (Forward Racing) ont pris les 21e et 22 positions, respectivement, sur le classement combiné.

Cliquez ici pour accéder au classement.

Jorge Lorenzo ends Friday on top of the combined timesheets to lay down a marker to his title rival Rossi who finished in fifth.

               

In the hot and humid conditions (Track temp. 47˚C) at the Sepang International Circuit it was Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo who ended the day on top to send out a message to his title rival Valentino Rossi. All of the talk before the riders took to the track was about Rossi’s comments revolving around Marc Marquez from the Press Conference, but it was Rossi’s Movistar Yamaha teammate Lorenzo that stole the show amongst the haze at the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Lorenzo had played second fiddle to Dani Pedrosa in the morning’s FP1 session, but after spending most of FP2 working on race pace, the Spaniard stuck in some fresh rubber to set a 2’00.246. This time was less than half a second off Marc Marquez’s 2014 Pole Record (1’59.791) as the riders hit the ground running at Sepang due to the fact all of the teams get to test at the circuit during preseason. Lorenzo’s time was 0.669s faster than his title rival Rossi as he struck an important psychological blow in the epic 2015 MotoGP™ World Championship title fight.

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa had been quickest out of the blocks in FP1 but found himself 0.047s off the pace of Lorenzo at the end of the day in second overall. The Spaniard will be keen to be involved in the fight for the race win after having missed out on all the fun of the podium battle at Phillip Island.

                  

His teammate Marc Marquez (+0.226s) responded to Rossi’s criticism on Friday by ending the day third fastest overall. The reigning MotoGP™ champion took his 50th GP victory Phillip Island last time out and won last year’s race at Sepang from pole.

                  

Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone (+0.240s) followed up his podium at Phillip Island by ending the day fourth fastest despite crashing at turn 8 in FP2. Following his crash the Italian immediately went out and set his quickest time of the day, just 0.014s further back from Marquez at the circuit where his GP15 made its debut during the preseason test.

Rossi found himself down in fifth overall after an issue with his first choice bike at the end of FP2 prevented him from setting a flying lap on fresh rubber. Rossi, who has won six times in the premier class at Sepang, failed to improve on his time from the morning session but has shown before that he can recover from a poor Friday to be competitive come the race. The ‘Doctor’ currently leads Lorenzo by 11 points in the standings and has his first chance to lift that elusive tenth title if results go his way on Sunday.

                  

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow (+0.793s) carried on his run of good form that has seen him record three top ten finishes in a row to end the day in sixth as the leading Satellite rider. Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro had expected his GSX-RR to struggle at Sepang due to the two long straights and its lack of acceleration, but he finished the day in seventh overall.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) recovered from his worst finish of the season at the Australian GP to finish in 8th, with Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) and Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) completing the top ten.

                   

Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera was the leading Open class rider in 11th, while the man who finished in sixth at the Australian GP, Maverick Viñales, was over 1.5s off the pace in 12th. British rider Bradley Smith on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 M1 struggled on the opening day and finished down in 14th.

Irishman Eugene Laverty was 16th, 0.001s ahead of his American teammate Nicky Hayden in 17th, while Australian Jack Miller (LCR Honda) ended the session in 20th.

Check out the combined results from MotoGP™ FP1 & FP2; FP3 starts at 9:55am local time on Saturday.

Pedrosa triomphe devant les pilotes Yamaha au Motegi / Peerless Pedrosa takes his 50th GP victory at Motegi

L’Espagnol s’est imposé pour la première fois de la saison 2015 au Grand Prix Motul du Japon, devant Valentino Rossi et Jorge Lorenzo.

           

Contraint à renoncer à trois Grands Prix en début d’année suite à une lourde opération de l’avant-bras droit, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) aura mis longtemps à renouer avec la compétitivité mais s’est assuré de prolonger son record d’avoir remporté au moins une course à chacune de ses saisons en catégorie reine en s’imposant au Grand Prix Motul du Japon. 

Deux semaines après avoir remporté un superbe duel pour la seconde place face à Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) au MotorLand Aragón, le pilote catalan a été le plus fort sur la dernière partie d’une course disputée sur piste mouillée et que Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) menaçait de mener du départ à l’arrivée. 

                     

Devancé par Rossi au départ, Lorenzo, qui partait en pole, est vite repassé en tête de la course et a pris trois secondes d’avance pour ensuite gérer son avantage sur Rossi tandis que Pedrosa s’efforçait de doubler Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) pour ensuite se lancer à la poursuite des pilotes Yamaha. 

Alors que ces deux derniers commençaient à souffrir de l’usure de leur pneu avant, Pedrosa a pu imprimer un rythme beaucoup plus élevé sur la seconde partie de la course et rattraper ses quatre secondes de retard sur Rossi pour ne faire qu’une bouchée de l’Italien et faire de même avec Lorenzo deux tours plus tard, dans le 18e des 25 tours de l’épreuve. 

Plus rapide que Lorenzo en fin de course, Rossi est parvenu à remonter à la seconde place en doublant son coéquipier à cinq tours du drapeau à damier et s’assurait ainsi de repartir du Motegi avec 18 points d’avance sur le Majorquin avant les trois derniers courses de la saison. 

De retour sur la plus haute marche du podium pour la première fois depuis le GP de République Tchèque de 2014, Pedrosa décrochait la cinquantième victoire de sa carrière, sur les terres de Honda. 

Arrivé au Japon quelques jours après avoir été opéré d’une fracture de la main gauche, Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) a pu finir la course mais était à une quinzaine de secondes du podium. 

           

L’Espagnol a fini avec une confortable avance sur Dovizioso, qui s’est retrouvé en difficulté en fin d’épreuve. 

           

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) et Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) ont pris les sixième et septième places devant le wildcard japonais Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Yamaha Factory Racing Team) et Héctor Barberá (Avintia Racing), qui décrochait son meilleur résultat de l’année et reprenait la tête du classement Open avec deux points d’avance sur Loris Baz (Forward Racing), qui a eu beaucoup de problèmes avec son pneu avant et a dû s’arrêter plusieurs fois.

            

Mike Di Meglio (Avintia Racing) a pris le point de la quinzième place derrière Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS), Aleix Espargaró (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Takumi Takahashi (Team HRC with Nissin), Nicky Hayden (Aspar MotoGP Team) et Yonny Hernández (Octo Pramac Racing).

Après avoir brillé sur piste mouillée cette année, Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) a cette fois-ci chuté alors qu’il luttait pour la huitième place. Sont aussi tombés Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) et Pol Espargaró (Monster Yamaha Tech3), qui a chuté dans l’avant-dernier tour. 

La saison 2015 continue la semaine prochaine en Australie, à Phillip Island, où aura lieu la première des trois dernières courses de l’année.

Cliquez ici pour accéder aux résultats.

                   

Dani Pedrosa rides a superb race to take victory at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan while Rossi extends lead over Lorenzo to 18 points.

The Repsol Honda rider came from sixth on the grid to take his 27th MotoGP™ win and first since Brno in 2014 on a drying track at the Twin Ring Motegi. Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi (+8.573s) crossed the line in second to record his 14th podium of the season as he extended his lead over his teammate Jorge Lorenzo to 18 points in the World Championship standings. Lorenzo (+12.127s) completed the podium after struggling with front-tyre wear late on in the race to record his 94th premier class rostrum.

There were only really three riders in with a chance to win the race in tricky conditions at Motegi that saw 50,000 fans packed into the grandstands despite the rain. The race started on time despite a two-hour delay to the morning’s Warm Up Session, but the track remained damp meaning all riders went for wets. At the start of the race the outcome looked very different, as Rossi got the holeshot into turn 1 only for Lorenzo to take him through turns 3 & 4 for the lead. At this point things looked ominous for Rossi as Lorenzo broke away at the front in his usual fashion and opened up a 2 second lead by the end of lap 3.

Rossi appeared to have no answer to his teammates pace and had to fight off the advances of the Ducati Team GP15 of Andrea Dovizioso during the early stages of the race. In a sign of things to come though, Dovizioso started to experience front tyre issues as a dry line appeared on track and began to drop back rapidly by lap ten. At this point Pedrosa had made his way up into fourth and was by far the fastest man on the track. On lap 11 the Spaniard passed Dovizioso as the Italian ran wide and started to chase down Rossi in second, who had a 2.7s advantage.

Lapping 1.5s faster that the two Yamaha’s in front of him, Pedrosa caught Rossi with 9 laps to go and suddenly Lorenzo was struggling as his front tyre started to rip itself to pieces. Rossi went with Pedrosa and they both began to hunt down Lorenzo, who had a 2.7s advantage with the two-time MotoGP™ world champion appearing to be going backwards at this point. Pedrosa blasted past him on the straight as they completed lap 17 to take the lead, and never looked back as he went on to take a commanding victory and continue his record of winning at least one race in every season he has competed in MotoGP™.

                  

It then became a game of risk versus reward between the two Yamaha teammates as Rossi closed in on his title rival, but both were tiptoeing around on their shredded front tyres. Rossi appeared to have looked after his slightly better though and Lorenzo ran wide at turn 3 with 5 laps to go to gift the ‘Doctor’ second. Pedrosa rode superbly in the final laps to take the race win by over 8.5s from Rossi, with Lorenzo completing the podium a further 3 seconds back.

Although it was clearly Pedrosa’s day after a sensational ride in the wet, Rossi was delighted with extending his lead in the standings as he hopes to secure his tenth World Championship title in 2015.

Pedrosa’s teammate Marc Marquez (+27.841s) crossed the line in a lonely 4th nursing the broken bone in his left hand ahead of the Dovizioso, who despite his tyre issues, held on for fifth.

                   

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow came out on top by just 0.404s in an excellent battle for sixth against his compatriot Bradley Smith on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 to finish as the leading Satellite rider. Crutchlow passed Smith on the last lap to secure sixth, his best result since he also finished sixth at Assen. Smith crossed the line in seventh to make it 21 point scoring finishes in a row, but dropped down to sixth in the standings, 2 points behind Dovizioso.

                

Wildcard Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Yamaha Factory Team) rode brilliantly to finish in eighth ahead of Hector Barbera on the Avintia Racing Ducati. Barbera took the Open class win and also recorded his first top ten finish of the season to re-take the lead in the Open standings by two points from Loris Baz (Forward Racing), who was forced to retire from the race.

Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) completed the top ten ahead of Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) in 11th, with the second wildcard Takumi Takahashi (Team HRC with Nissin) 12th.

Nicky Hayden was the leading Open Class Honda in 13th, with his Irish teammate Eugene Laverty crossing the line in 17th.

Jack Miller (LCR Honda) crashed twice during the race, after at one point leading the Open class battle, and was forced to retire. There were also DNF’s for Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing), Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team).

Rossi (283pts) now has an 18-point lead over Lorenzo (265pts) with just three races remaining, while Marc Marquez remains in third with 197 points.

Check out the full MotoGP™ race results and the latest championship standings.

Lorenzo double la mise au Motegi / Lorenzo overcomes injury to dominate Friday’s practice

Nettement au-dessus de ses adversaires le matin, le Majorquin a de nouveau dominé les essais libres vendredi après-midi au Japon.

             

Avec quatorze points de retard sur son coéquipier Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) dans leur duel pour le titre mondial, Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) se doit de prendre l’initiative et l’a fait sans hésitation vendredi au Twin Ring Motegi, où commençait le Grand Prix Motul du Japon, première des quatre dernières manches de la saison 2015.

Le Majorquin, vainqueur de l’épreuve japonaise ces deux dernières années, a attaqué dès le matin pour boucler la première séance d’essais du week-end avec près de quatre dixièmes de seconde d’avance sur Andrea Iannone (Ducati) et a poursuivi ses efforts l’après-midi, lors d’une seconde séance marquée par une nette progression de l’ensemble des pilotes. 

                 

Bien que ses adversaires se soient rapprochés de lui, Lorenzo conservait en fin de journée la première position sur le classement combiné, avec 0.128s d’avance sur Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), en pleine forme après s’être brillamment battu pour prendre la seconde place lors de la course précédente, en Aragón.

Toujours affaibli par son épaule gauche, dont il ne se fera pas opérer avant la fin de la saison, Iannone avait annoncé que le Motegi était une piste faite pour lui et a confirmé sa performance matinale en se maintenant dans le Top 3 au terme de la seconde séance d’essais, en étant 0.312s de Lorenzo.

                   

Son coéquipier Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) a trouvé un rythme similaire (+0.016s sur Iannone) pour se hisser à la quatrième position, devant Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) et Aleix Espargaró (Team Suzuki Ecstar), qui, comme les pilotes Ducati, bénéficie d’un pneu arrière plus tendre.

Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda), récemment opéré de la main gauche, et Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) se sont respectivement classés septième et huitième, en étant respectivement à plus de sept et huit dixièmes de seconde de Lorenzo.

                   

Pol Espargaró (Monster Yamaha Tech3) a fini neuvième, devant Héctor Barberá (Avintia Racing), dixième et premier pilote Open.

Mike Di Meglio (Avintia Racing) s’est quant à lui classé 21e, trois places devant Loris Baz (Forward Racing), qui a chuté. 

Les pilotes MotoGP™ seront de retour en piste samedi matin à 9h55 au Japon, soit 2h55 en France métropolitaine.

Cliquez ici pour accéder aux résultats.

                  

Jorge Lorenzo dominated Friday’s practice to top the combined timesheets ahead of Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Iannone with Rossi in eighth.

Movistar Yamaha’s Lorenzo took advantage of ideal conditions (Track temp. 40˚C) at the Twin Ring Motegi to set a 1’44.731 in FP2 to top Friday’s practice. Lorenzo showed no ill effects from the shoulder injury he picked up earlier in the week as he completely dominated proceedings on Friday at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan.

Lorenzo’s time was less than three-tenths off Andrea Dovizioso’s Pole Record from last year (1’44.502) as the Spaniard looks to close the 14-point gap to his teammate Valentino Rossi in the standings.

Repsol Honda’s Pedrosa (+0.128s) seemed buoyed by his podium finish at Aragon and ended the day in second overall after improving by over a second from FP1 to FP2. Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone was third fastest on a day that saw 0.312s separate the provisional front row. The Italian finished ahead of his teammate Andrea Dovizioso in fourth as just 0.016s separated the two, despite Iannone also carrying a shoulder injury. The Ducati Team GP15’s made use of special cooling ducts to keep the front brakes cool, as did both the Movistar Yamaha team and Team Suzuki Ecstar.

               

Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Bradley Smith (+0.519s) impressed as the leading Satellite rider in fifth overall, after he had finished fourth fastest in FP1. Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro (+0.617s) was sixth fastest with Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez in seventh. The reigning MotoGP™ champion was using a modified handlebar to accommodate the broken fifth metacarpal on his left hand and at one point pulled off a remarkable save at turn 8 to stop him from doing any further damage.

                 

Championship leader Rossi found himself down in 8th overall at the end of the day, after ending FP1 in third. Rossi was 0.823s off the pace of Lorenzo and will have work to do on Saturday to try and maintain his 14-point lead.

Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was ninth ahead of the leading Open Class rider, Hector Barbera on the Avintia Racing Ducati, who completed the top ten.

             

British riders Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) were in 11th and 12th respectively. Australian Jack Miller (LCR Honda) was 15th fastest overall while Irishman Eugene Laverty (Aspar MotoGP Team) was in 19th, ahead of his teammate Nicky Hayden (20th). The 2006 MotoGP™ World Champion Hayden announced on Friday he will be leaving MotoGP™for WorldSBK in 2016.

Wildcards Takumi Takahashi (Team HRC With Nissin) and Katsuyuki Nagasuka (Yamaha Factor Racing Team) ended the day in 18th and 23rd respectively despite the latter crashing late on in FP2, while Kousuke Akiyoshi, the replacement for the injured Karel Abraham in the AB Motoracing Team, was in 27th.

Check out the combined MotoGP™ FP1 and FP2 results; FP3 kicks off at 9:55am local time in Motegi on Sunday.

               

Lorenzo vainqueur au MotorLand et à 14 points de Rossi / Lorenzo takes a bite out of Rossi’s lead

             

Jorge Lorenzo a décroché la 60e victoire de sa carrière en Grand Prix devant Dani Pedrosa et Valentino Rossi au MotorLand Aragón.

             

Après avoir subi les caprices de la météo deux courses de suite et une très coûteuse chute à Misano, Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) a quasiment réduit son retard sur son coéquipier Valentino Rossi de moitié en s’imposant en solitaire au Grand Prix Movistar d’Aragón. 

Deuxième sur la grille de départ derrière Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda), le Majorquin est parti comme une fusée pour prendre une demi-seconde d’avance dès le premier tour. Distancé au classement général, le Champion en titre n’avait rien à perdre et a pris beaucoup de risques pour revenir sur Lorenzo mais est allé trop loin et est tombé dès le deuxième tour, dans le virage n°12, abandonnant pour la cinquième fois de la saison.

Suite à la chute de Márquez, Lorenzo s’est retrouvé bien seul en tête de la course et s’est concentré pour accomplir sa mission et décrocher la 60e victoire de sa carrière en Grand Prix. Mais plus que la victoire, ce seront certainement les neuf points repris à Rossi que retiendra le pilote espagnol, qui réduisait son retard de 23 à 14 points avant les quatre dernières courses de la saison 2015.

                 

Qualifié en sixième position, Rossi a dû patienter sur les premiers tours avant de pouvoir dépasser Andrea Iannone (Ducati) et a ensuite fait toute sa course, ou presque, sur les talons de Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda). 

Plus rapide sur la longue ligne droite qui débouche sur la dernière courbe du tracé aragonais, Pedrosa n’a pas eu de problème à garder l’avantage sur Rossi, jusqu’à ce que ce dernier ne passe à l’attaque sur les cinq derniers tours. S’en est suivi un duel de haut vol entre les deux prétendants à la seconde place, que Pedrosa a fini par décrocher suite à dépassement par l’intérieur aussi osé que réussi dans l’enchaînement des virages 13 et 14.

Passé devant le Catalan à plusieurs reprises mais a chaque fois rapidement repris, Rossi a tout tenté pour concéder le moins de points possible à Lorenzo mais remontait au moins sur le podium suite à sa décevante cinquième place à Misano.

Présent sur la première ligne de la grille, Iannone est resté aux avant-postes aussi longtemps que son épaule le lui a permis et a ensuite légèrement baissé en cadence pour faire sa course en solitaire et prendre la quatrième place, son onzième Top 5 en quatorze courses cette année, cinq secondes derrière Rossi.

Son coéquipier Andrea Dovizioso, qui avait complètement manqué sa qualification et partait treizième, a terminé en sixième position, à une quinzaine de secondes de Iannone et avec quelques dixièmes d’avance sur Aleix Espargaró (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) et Pol Espargaró (Monster Yamaha Tech3).

                 

Quatorzième à l’arrivée, Eugene Laverty (Aspar MotoGP) s’est offert la victoire en catégorie Open devant son coéquipier Nicky Hayden, Héctor Barberá (Avintia Racing) et Loris Baz (Forward Racing) tandis que Mike Di Meglio (Avintia Racing) a fini 20e.

                

Suite à cette quatorzième manche, le paddock MotoGP™ va se préparer pour une tournée Asie-Pacifique qui comprendra trois courses en trois semaines et commencera le 11 octobre au Japon, lors de la quinzième des dix-huit manches de la saison, que Rossi abordera donc avec quatorze points d’avance sur Lorenzo.

Cliquez ici pour accéder aux résultats.

                   

Jorge Lorenzo takes his sixth win of the season ahead of Dani Pedrosa and championship rival Valentino Rossi as Marc Marquez crashes out.

Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo rode brilliantly to secure his 60th career GP victory in front of 67,000 fans at the Gran Premio Movistar de Aragón. Repsol Honda’s Pedrosa was involved in an excellent fight with Rossi over the final few laps for the second step of the podium at MotorLand Aragon. Eventually Pedrosa would beat Rossi to the line by just a tenth of a second, while his teammate Marc Marquez crashed out of the race.

This means that Lorenzo has reduced Rossi’s advantage in the standings by 9 points to just 14 heading into the flyaway rounds, with just four races remaining. Movistar Yamaha’s first double podium since Brno saw them lift the team title for the first time since 2010.

                

There was drama at the start, as Marquez seemed to make a mistake allowing Lorenzo to lead into the first corner with Iannone in second, as the pole man dropped down to third. The Spaniard recovered to make a move on Iannone into second through the first few corners and set off after Lorenzo at the front.

Rossi, who knew he couldn’t let Lorenzo get away, started making his way through the field from sixth on the grid immediately, moving up to fifth at the end of the first lap at the expense of Pol Espargaro. The Italian was already two seconds behind Lorenzo in second.

Unbelievably, just as he was closing down Lorenzo at the front, Marquez lost the front at turn 12 and crashed out of the Aragon GP for the second year in a row. It was Marquez’s fifth DNF of the year - the most he has ever had in a World Championship season - which sees him now trail Rossi by 70 points in the standings with only 100 up for grabs.

               

Marquez's crash moved Iannone up into second, but not for long as Marquez’s teammate Pedrosa passed the Ducati man on the 3rd lap. All the while Lorenzo was looking untouchable at the front as he opened up a 2.4s lead by the end of lap 3.

Rossi knew he had to get a move on and he passed Iannone to move into 3rd on the 4th lap, although at this point he was lapping 0.3s a lap slower than Lorenzo as his teammate opened up a 3 second lead at the front. Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Espargaro was involved in the battle for fourth with Iannone when he ran wide on lap 6 and dropped down to 11th.

                

By lap 8 both Pedrosa and Rossi started to lap faster than Lorenzo and the gap had been reduced to 2.6s. Lorenzo got the “hurry up” signal from his pit board and responded, managing his pace beautifully over the next few laps.

Further back through the field Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro had caught Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) in sixth and was starting to attack, while Cal Crutchlow and Danilo Petrucci also started to close in on the duo in front of them. That was before Petrucci trailed the brakes too much into turn 14 with 13 laps to go and lost the front, leading to Petrucci’s first DNF since the Malaysian Grand Prix last year. Smith, Espargaro and Crutchlow caught up with Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso in fifth with 12 laps to go and an excellent battle ensued between the four riders. However Smith ran wide at turn 1 and dropped to the back of the group, undoing all of his hard work.

                 

With 10 laps to go the gap at the front between Lorenzo and Pedrosa was up to 3.3s, with Rossi still hanging onto the back wheel of the Repsol Honda in third. Lorenzo was riding a simply brilliant race at the front, consistently running in the 1’48s and increasing his lead on every lap.

Rossi meanwhile, was starting to size up Pedrosa ahead of him in an effort to secure a vital extra 4 championship points by finishing in second. With 5 laps to go he made his first move in anger into turn 4 but Pedrosa immediately responded to re-take the Italian. Undeterred, Rossi tried it again into turn 1, but he couldn’t get it stopped and once more Pedrosa fought back as the two became embroiled in a spectacular duel over the final few laps.

On the penultimate lap, once again Rossi made a move under braking into turn 1, but once again he could not get his M1 stopped and couldn’t make it stick as Pedrosa showed incredible grit to fight back. It was shaping up for an epic final lap battle between the two and it didn’t disappoint, Rossi went past in turn 4, before Pedrosa stuffed it up the inside into turn 7. It seemed as though Pedrosa had second in the bag, before Rossi made an outrageous move through turn 15, but once more he couldn’t make it stick. The Italian sacrificing the drive onto the back straight in an effort to make the pass, meaning Pedrosa could power his way back past Rossi. 

In an incredibly exciting finish Pedrosa managed to hold on through the final corner to take second by just nine-hundredths of a second from Rossi. All the while Lorenzo rode the perfect race at the front as he took his 39th premier class victory by over 2.6s.

                 

It was Pedrosa’s 97th premier class podium, but only his third of the season and first since the German GP. Rossi claimed his 14th podium from just 15 races this season and the 209th in his illustrious GP career, although the damage done to his championship lead could prove to be costly in his bid for a tenth title.

Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone ended up in an excellent fourth despite having to ride through the pain due to the shoulder he re-dislocated earlier in the week. He crossed the line 16 seconds ahead of his teammate Andrea Dovizioso who finished in fifth after holding off the charging pack behind him.

Aleix Espargaro came out victorious in the battle for sixth, crossing the line ahead of Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith in a frantic dash to the line. Pol Espargaro managed to fight his way back into ninth, while Yonny Hernandez on the Octo Pramac Racing Ducati completed the top ten.

                   

EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Scott Redding finished in twelfth, while Aprilia Racing Team Gresini's Alvaro Bautista crossed the line in 13th in his 100th GP. Eugene Laverty (Aspar MotoGP Team) took his first Open victory in 14th as he beat his teammate Nicky Hayden to the line by less then a tenth of a second. Forward Racing’s Loris Baz was in 17th having earlier announced he will make the switch to the Avintia Racing team for 2016. Australian Jack Miller on the Open LCR Honda finished in 19th while there were crashes for Karel Abraham and Alex De Angelis.

                 

All of this means that Rossi (263pts) saw his advantage over Lorenzo (249pts) in the MotoGP™ championship standings reduced by nine to just 14 points with four races remaining. Marquez (184pts) remains in third, but now he is only 8 points ahead of fourth placed Iannone.

Check out the full MotoGP™ race results and the latest championship standings.