Jorge happy with his resultFiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo wrote another impressive chapter in his rollercoaster rookie story today with an outstanding ride to sixth from 17th on the grid in the British Grand Prix. After suffering a string of crashes and injuries over the
last seven weeks and missing the last round in Catalunya, his aim today was simply to come home in one piece but the determined 21-year-old did considerably better, passing a host of riders to make up 11 places from his grid position.
In dry but windy conditions, Lorenzo lived up to his nickname 'Por Fuera' at turn one by overtaking around the outside of several riders and coming out of the first corner melee in 13th position. He continued with more of the same throughout the lap and crossed the line for the first time in tenth. As his confidence grew he found the rhythm he had been lacking during the rest of the weekend and passed Anthony West to take ninth on lap 13.
A consistent pace throughout the middle part of the race, matching that of the leading riders, brought him to Shinya Nakano on lap 20 and, once past him he succeeded in closing a three second gap to Chris Vermeulen and Nicky Hayden in just four laps. He dispensed with these two in turn and then set off after Andrea Dovozioso, however with only five laps remaining time ran out for the Mallorcan and he crossed the line just under a second adrift of the Italian, despite setting a personal best time on the final lap of the race.
Lorenzo now sits 13 points adrift of Stoner in fourth place, whilst Rossi extends his lead over Dani Pedrosa to 11 points as they approach the half way point in the championship, which comes at Assen in just six days time.
Jorge Lorenzo : "I'm very happy with this result, because this was a very hard weekend for me and for my crew. I don't want to think about the past, or think about what might have been if I'd started in the front rows, I only want to think about the present and my ride today. The number one aim was to finish the race without crashing or hurting myself, because at the end of the day your health is the most important thing! After the start however I started to feel more and more confident and found I was able to ride better and better, then I realised that I actually had the chance to do a very good race. I had fast pace throughout and my bike and my Michelin tyres worked very well, so thank you to all my team. Sometimes lately it has been hard to stay optimistic, motivated and happy, even though I have always tried to go out smiling and with a good attitude, but this race today was great and I am very happy tonight."
Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager : "We have achieved the goal for this race; it was very important that Jorge found a good feeling with the bike and started to enjoy riding his M1 again and today this happened. He was able to ride a beautiful race and come back from a difficult grid position to take a brilliant sixth. Today he impressed us once again and it was also a great feeling for everyone to see him making eleven overtakes! The team did a fantastic job because they were able to put him in a position to be this fast. We are very confident now that in Assen Jorge will be back to his best."
Masahiko Nakajima - Team Director : "We were struggling all weekend in order to try to find the right set-up to fit these tricky conditions. At the end we found a good setting, which enabled Valentino to be fast, but unfortunately one of our rivals was still faster than us today! Anyway we were able to secure important championship points and we are satisfied about this. Now our aim is to get back to the top of the podium next week.
We are all very happy with Jorge's race today because he came through to a good finishing position from the back of the grid. Unfortunately starting from 17th meant it was very difficult to come all the way to the front but he did a fantastic job in the circumstances. We're pleased because we have seen once again the impressive riding that he showed us before his accident. Now we will continue to try to improve his bike set-up even more, with the aim of seeing him back on the podium as soon as possible."
Fiat Yamaha
