The Honda rider managed a clean start from pole at Jerez and quickly built up a consistent lead ahead of Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi, while followed by Ducati’s duo Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner. Lorenzo felt all the way to 5th place, but from then on started closing the gap on the front-runners.
After some rather easy overtaking maneuvers over the two Ducati riders in the first part of the race, it seemed like the podium was already set up, as the Top 3 riders were running in the same league, scoring very similar lap times. With 6 laps to go however, Lorenzo took advantage of Rossi’s latent run on Sunday – he was still very bothered by pain in his shoulder – and passed his teammate, setting up a recuperation-like last few laps behind Pedrosa.
Lap by lap, the gap between the two became more and more fragile, with the last few kilometers of the race providing a thriller for the Spanish fans in the grandstands. In the penultimate lap, the pair even touched when Lorenzo wanted to pass Pedrosa in the Dry Sack corner, but the latter managed to stay ahead.
In the end, Lorenzo overtook his fellow countryman at the end of the main straight, where Pedrosa’s late breaking threw him wide and out of race winning contention. The Yamaha rider went on to score a comfortable win and celebrated in Valentino Rossi’s style, jumping into the Jerez circuit’s lake.
Rossi was eventually followed in 4th place by Ducati’s Nicky Hayden, who took his second personal win over his teammate Casey Stoner (5th) this season. Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso had to settle for 6th place, ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Mika Kallio. The Fin managed to emerge victorious from a group of 4 riders, including Gresini Honda’s Marco Melandri and Marco Simoncelli, and LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet.
In the overall classification, Jorge Lorenzo now leads from teammate Valentino Rossi by 4 points, with Dani Pedrosa in 3rd place, some further 12 points behind.
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