MotoGP Jerez: Lucky 113 For Valentino Rossi

Rossi dominated the MotoGP Jerez with an impressive 113th race win!

MotoGP Jerez Race Report

You can stop using your yellow flags to wipe away your tears, Rossi fans! Valentino Rossi walked away from the MotoGP Jerez with the 113th race win of his career. It was his 87th victory in the Premier class, and a massive relief after he crashed out in Austin. Rossi dominated from pole to pole, and finished with nearly a 3-second gap. He celebrated by pulling a wheelie across the finish line, in typical Doctor style.

Both of Rossi’s championship rivals have thrown down the gauntlet with an early win. The Doctor needed to show the rest of the pack that he’s deadly serious about his 10th world championship title, and he’s done that with a single-minded focus this weekend.

Rossi gave due credit to his team after this special victory: “I think that this was the perfect weekend…The bike, in the race, was fantastic and we worked very well with the team so I have to say ‘thank you’ to the whole Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team, especially my crew…Sincerely, it was a special taste to have a win like this, so thanks a lot!”

Jorge Lorenzo was stuck in the middle in Jerez, trying to fend off Marquez and watching his teammate slip away. The Spaniard was back on home soil and had to watch an Italian win – not a pretty sight!

Lorenzo let his frustration show, making sure to bring his teammate back down to earth: “Because Rossi crashed in Austin, he is still behind in the championship standings and we made up some points to Marquez.” He also blamed his performance on tyre troubles: “The only thing is that we could have won the race without the problem on the front-straight. Going through the gears the bike didn‘t stop spinning and I couldn‘t fully open the throttle…Michelin have to find out what is going on.”

It’s not all bad news, though – this second place finish marks Lorenzo’s 100th premier class podium, which is an achievement which only Pedrosa and Rossi can match.

Marc Marquez finished in third, not a bad result as he’s still at the top of the table. Perhaps last year, Marquez would have pushed on to his own disadvantage – but he’s come back older and wiser in 2016. Taking 16 points from MotoGP Jerez, Marc is now 17 points clear at the top.

His comments after the race reflected this new maturity: “I almost crashed several times, so in the end I made a difficult decision in front of our fans, as we preferred to secure 16 points that will be very positive at the end of the season, which is very long. We must have patience…”

Lorenzo’s big decision…

Lorenzo has finally announced, after months of speculation, that he’ll be moving to Ducati next year. The Yamaha garage clearly isn’t big enough for these two champions!

Lorenzo’s move puts more pressure on the Ducati boys, of course, as one of them will have to move aside for Jorge to join the team. Who’ll be getting the boot, we wonder?

Andrea Iannone – whether feeling the pressure or just not feeling his bike – had trouble in Jerez as he struggled to pass the satellite riders. He ended in 7th after falling all the way down to 14th in the opening laps – not a disaster, but not brilliant either.

It’s been a terrible year for Iannone’s teammate, Andrea Dovizioso. In Jerez, he had to retire from the race, again through no fault of his own. If he carries on like this, he’ll never get to push that speedy Ducati and see what it’s really made of. That’s what we’re all waiting to see (especially a certain Senor Lorenzo!)

In Jerez, it was the bike that held Dovi back. On lap 10, Dovi suddenly sat upright and started looking behind him. It was clear that something was seriously wrong; with smoke pouring out of the back of his Desmodesici GP he had to trudge his way to the pit and accept another hard defeat.

On the other end of the spectrum, a rider who we fully expected to crash actually finished the race! Cal Crutchlow did the best out of all three Brits, with an 11th place finish. What a relief!

Bradley Smith and Scott Redding sat further down the standings, in 11th and 19th places respectively.

Irishman Eugene Laverty outshone the rest of the British Isles with a 9th place finish, a great achievement from the Aspar team rider. In his second premier class season, Laverty is showing what he can really do – our hopes are high for the rest of the season!

After MotoGP Jerez, what’s next?

The next round is MotoGP France, at Le Mans on the 8th of May. We’ll be back with our Le Mans race report before you know it – a bientot!

If you’ve missed any of the 2016 action read our MotoGP Qatar, MotoGP Argentina and Americas GP race reports to catch up on our analysis of this already explosive season.

What did you think of the race in Jerez? Are you laughing or crying about Rossi’s win? Let us know in the comments below.

Photos courtesy of Motogp.com.