MotoGP title leader Jorge Lorenzo extended his championship lead to 47 points at Assen on Saturday by winning his fourth of six races so far this season. Starting once again from the pole position, Lorenzo had to fight off the advances of Honda’s Dani Pedrosa—who quickly moved from seventh to second—and Ducati’s Casey Stoner early on. But unlike Pedrosa and Stoner, Lorenzo was running the harder compound rear tire which allowed him to pull away during the second half of the race and ultimately outrun his fellow countryman by almost 3 seconds. Stoner held on to third place, another 4 seconds back.
“This race was a bit more difficult than Silverstone because Dani was so fast with the softer tire early on in the race and I had to really keep my concentration to stay in front of him at that point,” said Lorenzo. “I was confident that my harder Bridgestone tire would help me later on and this was the case, so we made the right choice. It wasn’t easy though and at the end I was sliding quite a lot, in fact I made a mistake at the chicane and nearly crashed so I was quite glad to finish!”
2010 Assen MotoGP Race Results
1. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Fiat Yamaha Team 41m 18.629s
2. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team 41m 21.564s
3. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 41m 25.651s
4. Ben Spies USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 41m 31.894s
5. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team 41m 33.952s
6. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 41m 34.401s
7. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team 41m 44.496s
8. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 41m 47.620s
9. Marco Simoncelli ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 41m 54.287s
10. Aleix Espargaro ESP Pramac Racing 41m 54.466s
11. Mika Kallio FIN Pramac Racing 42m 15.398s
12. Hector Barbera ESP Paginas Amarillas Aspar 42m 15.519s
13. Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 42m 19.244s
14. Alvaro Bautista ESP Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 42m 26.703s
15. Kousuke Akiyoshi JPNInterwetten Honda MotoGP41m 42.019s
2010 MOTOGP RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
POS. RIDER TEAM POINTS
1 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team 140
2 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 93
3 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team 89
4 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 61
= Nicky Hayden Ducati Marlboro Team 61
6 Randy de Puniet LCR Honda 56
7 Casey Stoner Ducati Marlboro Team 51
8 Ben Spies Monster Yamaha Tech 3 49
9 Marco Simoncelli San Carlo Honda Gresini 39
10 Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech 3 34
11 Marco Melandri San Carlo Honda Gresini 32
12 Hector Barbera Aspar Racing Team 28
= Alex Espargaro Pramac Racing Team 28
14 Mika Kallio Pramac Racing Team 20
15 Hiroshi Aoyama Interwetten Honda MotoGP 18
16 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 16
17 Alvaro Bautista Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 14
18 Kousuke Akiyoshi Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1
