MotoGP Video
Click video to watch the highlights as Jorge Lorenzo marked the 80th anniversary of the Dutch TT with an emphatic MotoGP win from pole position.
The Spaniard’s fourth motorcycle racing win of the season stretched his lead at the top of the championship standings to 47 points over today’s second place finisher, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa. Ducati’s Casey Stoner claimed third in today’s TIM TT Assen, securing his first visit to the podium this season.
Ben Spies and Pedrosa gained major benefits from good starts as both improved four places from their orginal Moto GP grid positions to slot into second and third place respectively, as Lorenzo led the field into the Haarbocht turn from pole position.
Lorenzo started to open up a very early lead and for the first couple of laps it looked like the Spaniard would race clear as he did at Silverstone, but Pedrosa and Stoner both passed Spies on lap three, before closing the gap on the leader.
Andrea Dovizioso passed Spies as well early in the race to move into fourth, and by the midway point he was a second ahead of the American, who in turn led sixth placed Randy de Puniet by just over 1.5s.
As Stoner struggled to find a way past Pedrosa, just as he had done six days ago at Silverstone, Lorenzo started to again edge away, extending his advantage little by little as the laps flew by. Further back Spies closed right up on Dovizioso and passed the Italian to move into fourth, with de Puniet also joining the three-way fight for fourth place
At the front Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner became further separated from one another, whilst de Puniet and Dovizioso fought intensely to the last lap, with the Frenchman out of the seat on more than one occasion, as he pushed his tyres to the limit.
Lorenzo eventually crossed the line 2.935s ahead of Pedrosa, but it quite wasn’t the easy win that many expected at Assen for the Spaniard.
