Spain: MOTOGP - Valentino Rossi has perfect weekend at Jerez
- Sam Smedley (@samsmedley46)
- Apr 24, 2016
- 2 min read
Valentino Rossi dominated the Jerez MOTOGP race, winning with a 2.38 second gap to Jorge Lorenzo, who spent most of the race fending off Marc Marquez, who managed to take the last place on the podium.
Rossi led in to the first corner, ahead of teammate Lorenzo, on the first of 27 laps of the Jerez circuit.
Battle commenced from the start with Lorenzo passing Rossi who snapped straight back to regain first place, looking like he had the pace to pull away.
Rossi started from pole - with a qualifying time of 1.38.7 - with his qualifying taking a step up this season. During Saturday's qualifying, Rossi managed to put in lap after lap of fast times, which showed in his race pace.
Marc Marquez was not comfortable on the Michelin tyres, and started on the softest tyre available. The Spanish rider spent the first part of the race chasing Lorenzo, which held them both up, allowing Rossi to pull away.
Marquez was all over the back wheel of Lorenzo, but did not manage to pass the factory Yamaha rider, dropping back in the latter parts of the race, leaving him to ride in a very lonely third place.
Lorenzo, having signed for Ducati, started from second on the grid. He managed to hold off Marquez for the entire race, and even started make a dent on Rossi’s lead.
Taking notice of his pit board, Rossi started to put in better lap times, after Lorenzo's charge, making up time in the fourth sector.
Alvaro Bautista crashed out from 12th place with 21 laps left to go.
In a mid-pack battle, Eugene Laverty managed to pull away from Pol Espargaro in the early stages and set about trying to catch Andrea Dovizioso. But with 18 laps to go 'Dovi' had a strange feeling in the Ducati's rear tyre and headed to the pits, moving Laverty up the grid to seventh place.
Track temperatures had risen to 41 degrees, which could have led to some of the problems Dovi and Bautista had experienced
With 15 laps remaining, Pol took seventh place from Laverty on turn 9
The factory Ducati rider Andrea Ianone chased Cal Crutchlow, the pair Swapping places on the 13th lap.
Ianone then managed to catch Laverty who dropped down to ninth.
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