Jorge Lorenzo claimed back-to-back MotoGP race wins for the first time in his career at Le Mans today and extended his 2010 title lead to a 9 point margin over his Fiat Yamaha team-mate, reigning champion Valentino Rossi.
Rossi was able to maintain his pole advantage for the first 11 laps of the race, but a stalking Lorenzo passed him on the next lap and never looked back, eventually taking the chequered flag with a 5.672sec victory margin over his team-mate. Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso finished third, over 2 seconds behind Rossi. Afterwards, Rossi admitted his shoulder, injured a few weeks ago in a motocross training accident, is still not 100%, but blamed his loss on lack of grip coming out of the corners.
Meanwhile, Casey Stoner, Ben Spies and Loris Capirossi all crashed out of the race, an especially devastating result for Stoner who’s now posted his second DNF in 3 starts and sits in 13th overall with only 11 points.
2010 Le Mans MotoGP Results
1. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha Team 44m 29.114s
2. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 44m 34.786s
3. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team 44m 36.986s
4. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team 44m 38.46s
5. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team 44m 41.727s
6. Marco Melandri ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 44m 51.032s
7. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 44m 58.402s
8. Hector Barbera SPA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 45m 2.242s
9. Aleix Espargaro SPA Pramac Racing 45m 2.607s
10. Marco Simoncelli ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 45m 2.919s
11. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Interwetten Honda MotoGP 45m 3.46s
12. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 45m 6.237s
13. Mika Kallio FIN Pramac Racing 45m 24.175s
DNF:
Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
Ben Spies USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team
2010 MotoGP Championship Standings
1 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha SPA 70
2 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha ITA 61
3 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Honda ITA 42
4 Dani PEDROSA Honda SPA 40
5 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati USA 39
6 Randy DE PUNIET Honda FRA 26
7 Marco MELANDRI Honda ITA 21
8 Colin EDWARDS Yamaha USA 16
9 Marco SIMONCELLI Honda ITA 16
10 Hector BARBERA Ducati SPA 15
11 Hiroshi AOYAMA Honda JPN 13
12 Mika KALLIO Ducati FIN 12
13 Casey STONER Ducati AUS 11
14 Ben SPIES Yamaha USA 11
15 Aleix ESPARGARO Ducati SPA 8
16 Loris CAPIROSSI Suzuki ITA 7
17 Alvaro BAUTISTA Suzuki SPA 6
