Lorenzo Wins at Assen

Jorge Lorenzo might set a new winning record in the MotoGP this season, as the Spaniard scored his 4th win of the 2010 campaign with a wonderful performance at Assen. Having won in the Cathedral in both the 125cc and 250cc classes, the Yamaha rider did not want to let the chance of making it 3 in a row this weekend, and doubled his success in Great Britain with a brilliant strategy.

Lorenzo started off great from pole position and chose to go on the Saturday race on the harder rear tire. With Ben Spies holding off Dani Pedrosa from 2nd place, the Spaniard had some laps at his disposal to build a comfortable one-second lead up front, before Pedrosa – using the softer tire – overtook the Texan in Lap 3 and started closing that gap.

In a matter of laps, Pedrosa was already pressuring Lorenzo for the leading position, while also having Ducati’s Casey Stoner riding on his tails. Although struggling to keep his 1st place ahead of the Honda rider midway through the race, that run eventually got his rear tire into a great condition in the closing stages of the race, when he gradually started to detach himself from Pedrosa.

In the end, he finished the Dutch GP almost 3 seconds ahead of the Honda rider, who crossed the finish line some 4 seconds ahead of Stoner (although struggling to secure his position in the mid-race). Ben Spies had to settle for 4th place in the end, while Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso fought hard against LCR’s Randy de Puniet to secure a worthy 5th place.

Nicky Hayden was nowhere to be seen on Saturday, finishing on a distant 7th place, ahead of Tech 3’s Colin Edwards, Gresini Honda’s Marco Simoncelli and Pramac Racing’s Aleix Espargaro.

With only 15 riders on the starting grid, one thing this race didn’t have was retirements, as the last placed rider on Saturday was Interwetten Honda’s Kousuke Akiyoshi.

In the overall classification, Lorenzo now leads from Pedrosa by 47 points.