MotoGP : A fantastic result for Lorenzo in Portugal!

The number one event on Portugal’s motorsport calendar, took center-stage last Sunday at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal. Jorge Lorenzo came out firing on all cylinders during the sessions on Friday and Saturday and confirmed his dominance at Estoril, by taking the pole position.

Casey Stoner

Valentino Rossi did his best to keep pace with Lorenzo and qualified second. The talking point for most of the weekend, however, was the return of former world champion Casey Stoner. Stoner, plagued by a mysterious illness, was forced to take a break from the world championship inorder to seek medical attention, but returned for the round at Estoril. Stoner needed no time to settle. He was fast. Evidently happy to be back on his Marlboro Ducati, Stoner gave the championship contenders a wake up call and qualified third on the grid.

On Sunday when the race began, Lorenzo was caught napping and Dani Pedrosa grabbed the lead to the first corner (Lorenzo second, Stoner third and Rossi fourth). Lorenzo is King at Estoril, a track on which speeds along the start-finish straight hit the 200mph mark. Lorenzo the defending race champion, hastily outfoxed Pedrosa and took the top spot. At the front, Lorenzo schooled the field, the lesson – How to Ride and Win at Estoril!

Ragged Edge

Casey Stoner was an uncooperative student and when he realised that Lorenzo was about to vanish in the distance, he stepped his game up a notch. Riding brilliantly, Stoner applied the requisite throttle input, twisted the wrist a little more and sped by Pedrosa, to pursue Lorenzo. Stoner was on the ragged edge. At the limit in fifth gear, the laws of physics posed a question and the Marlboro Ducati protested, wiggled and almost removed its rider. But, Stoner stuck to the task at hand, settled his tormented machine and kept charging after Lorenzo.

Rossi had a difficult race. It was evident that he had trouble in qualifying – he was three tenths off the pace and it only got worse during the race. A few laps into the race, he developed rear grip/ tyre problems, which he could not resolve and as such could challenge for neither the race win nor a podium finish – a first since he started competing at this level at Estoril.

Estoril was Lorenzo’s play pen. He destroyed the field and his margin of victory confirmed how dominant he was – 6.3 seconds ahead of Stoner, who was second and a whopping 23 seconds ahead of Valentino Rossi in fourth place. If Lorenzo’s confidence needed a boost after the costly mistakes he made in the earlier rounds, it got a major one at Estoril.

Man On Fire

It is my view, however, that Lorenzo should say a silent thank you to Stoner, simply because Stoner’s presence upset the status quo, robbed Rossi of a podium finish and gave Lorenzo a narrower points gap to chase. Talk about keeping your enemies closer! With a lead of 18 points (down from 30) a dejected, less than ‘chipper’ Rossi heads to Australia knowing that he will have to ride his Fiat Yamaha to limits yet to be discovered, if he intends to keep his ambitious, championship chasing team mate at bay. Lorenzo is a man on fire, lets see what Australia brings on October 18th!

Cecil Munroe Gleaner On-line Writer