Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo recorded his seventh MotoGP victory of the season yesterday riding his Yamaha to glory in the Czech Grand Prix.
The 23-year-old, who in an unusual celebration got off his bike and walked on to a neighboring golf course to take a putt, which he needed two shots to hole, beat compatriot Dani Pedrosa on a Honda, while Australia’s Casey Stoner was third.
Lorenzo took the lead from Pedrosa on the first of the 22 laps as five riders battled for the top three places in the opening exchanges, including Stoner, while nine-time champion Valentino Rossi was adrift in eighth.
Italian Andrea Dovizioso was the first of the front five to crack as he came to grief in the middle of the track on the fourth lap and was extremely fortunate not to suffer a serious injury after being hit by one of the oncoming bikes.
The Repsol rider — winner this season of the British MotoGP — resumed the race, but tailed off in last place and eventually gave up the ghost.
“I don’t know exactly what happened,” the 24-year-old Italian said. “I made one mistake as I really pushed hard at the beginning to keep in touch with Lorenzo and Pedrosa.”
Both Lorenzo and his compatriot Pedrosa slowly started to open a gap on third placed American rookie Ben Spies and Stoner, who was also cast adrift by the young American.
The Spanish duo had a lead of more than four seconds over Spies and Stoner, while that pair had a sizeable lead over a group including fifth placed Rossi, who was some nine seconds adrift along with Nicky Hayden with 12 laps to go.
Stoner stoically had stuck to his task and passed Spies to take third place with 11 laps remaining and it was at this point that Lorenzo wound up the pressure on Pedrosa, opening a gap of more than a second on him with 10 laps remaining.
Pedrosa was unable to peg him back and Lorenzo ended up coasting to victory and ever nearer to his first MotoGP world title.
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