Jorge Lorenzo underlined his credentials as a serious challenger to his Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi by racing to his second successive victory yesterday as he won the French Grand Prix. The Spaniard extended his lead in the championship standings to nine points as he out-raced Rossi, the seven-time world champion, for the second race in a row at Le Mans.
He passed the Italian on lap 10 to take the lead and then pulled clear to triumph by almost six seconds and follow up his win in Spain earlier in the month. He put his impressive form down to new-found maturity. "I now feel much more confident; now I can be more calm and ride better. Today was good for that," he said in the post-race television press conference. "I was patient, I understood that Valentino would brake so late, so I waited for one mistake from him.
"He doesn't do many mistakes, so I just waited, and tried to exit the corners as close to him as possible. When I made it, it was easier than I expected." Rossi got off to a flying start from pole position, leading into the first turn ahead of the Honda of Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo. Lorenzo quickly moved into second and set his sights on Rossi. Casey Stoner, who was behind the leading pair on lap two, slid out of contention at Turn Six on his Ducati, the Australian failing to complete for the second time this year.
Lorenzo shot into the lead on lap seven only for Rossi to nip back in front, but the Italian was unable to produce a similar reply when Lorenzo went back in front again on lap 10. He never looked like relinquishing the advantage, ultimately crossing the line 5.672sec up on Rossi, with Andrea Dovizioso forcing his way into third on the final lap at the expense of Pedrosa. Lorenzo was thrilled with Yamaha's one-two finish, and believes their consistency is already making it difficult for Stoner to be a factor this year.
"Casey is so fast, so aggressive, but he's crashed twice in three races," Lorenzo said. "For sure he will need to win a lot of races to recover the points. I think Valentino and myself have this reliability at the moment." Rossi blamed his defeat on bike problems. "The bigger problem is with the set-up. We don't have enough grip under acceleration to stay with Jorge, so we have to understand why and try to make it better," he said.
"Sometimes, on some races and some days, you don't have enough speed to try to win. In the past with different bikes and different tyres, it was possible to invent something during the race. Now if you don't have the pace, you just crash, so these 20 points are not bad." Meanwhile in the GT1 World Championship, Jamie Campbell-Walter and Warren Hughes finished a distant 17th in yesterday's third round of the season in Brno.
The Sumo Power pair had been up against it after a last lap spin in the qualifying race on Saturday left them 21st on the grid in their Nissan GT-R. The all-British duo struggled in the race, finishing a lap down and outside the points. It was a disappointing result for Campbell-Walter, who is Yas Marina's Formula One two-seater driver. He had been confident the team had turned the corner after a win earlier in the month.
The race was won by the Matech Ford GT drivers Romain Grosjean and Thomas Mutsch, who go back to the top of the championship table. * Compiled by Graham Caygill, with agencies