At the fast and flowing Brno circuit in the Czech forests, 2 time MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo stamped his leadership on the 2015 season by utterly crushing his rivals Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi, winning with ease.
The Spaniard from the island of Mallorca took off from his record setting pole position to lead from the first corner, a position he would never relinquish. Marc Marquez, looking strong for the first ten laps was right on Lorenzo’s tail in every corner, promising another spectacular attack filled meeting. But as the race approached the mid point, it became clear that Marquez was simply not in the same league as Lorenzo.
“I am happy to be second, but wish I could have attacked (Lorenzo).” Marquez told the Spanish press after the race.
“…it will be difficult for Marc to recover.” said Lorenzo in the post-race interview, a comment bearing perhaps a double meaning. Not only are Marquez’ ambitions of finishing second in the world championship seemingly gone, but the psychological effect of being definitively unable to beat Lorenzo on equal terms were visibly evident in Marquez’ expression on the podium.
The big fail of the Czech MotoGP round was the disastrous start by former championship leader Valentino Rossi, who from the front row alongside Lorenzo and Marquez, fumbled the hole shot and wound up in fifth place by the end of turn one. Wasting precious time and energy fighting back, he eventually managed to get up to third place by lap four, but by then the blistering pace set by Lorenzo meant that both he and Marquez were several seconds away in the distance. The gap between Rossi in 3rd and Lorenzo would eventually settle around five seconds.
“It was very difficult” said Rossi, also visibly demure on the podium afterwards. Although tire wear and his decision to use the hard compound front and rear were speculated as reasons for his uncompetitive performance, Rossi quickly affirmed that they did not. He just wasn’t fast enough this day.
Andrea Iannone, the rising star at Ducati scored a very strong and consistent 4th, having held that position since midway through the race after passing his teammate Dovizioso. Dano Pedrosa, suffering from a foot injury gained in a fall during practice, passed Dovizioso near the end to finish 5th, with Dovizioso coming in 6th.
Lorenzo and Rossi are now tied for points in the world championship, but Lorenzo leads given his 5 victories to Rossi’s three. The next round is in Britain at the famous Silverstone circuit on August 30.
