Jorge Lorenzo spent 22 laps practicing alone, as he seized the lead on the first corner and didn’t look back. Behind him, Marc Marquez lost a place by the same first corner, won it back a lap later, then crashed out four corners later. From there, the 2015 Motorland Aragon race was dull, until the last five laps.
There wasn’t much passing at the this, the third race in Spain this year. Lorenzo disappeared leaving the field to fight for the scraps in his wake. In this Lorenzo is a natural master, a technocratic rider who can literally hit the very same apex in every corner, all day long. His crushing demonstration of superiority was too much for defending champion Marquez, who slid out his front wheel while trying to keep up to Lorenzo.
“It was completely my mistake – my fault” said Marquez in the pits. He seemed genuinely distressed by his accident, rather than angry. His fifth crash of the year, all of which were self-inflicted and not the result of collisions, many have begun to ask whether the 22 year old Spaniard is suffering from a crisis of self confidence, or simply a lack of experience.
Experience was not lacking in his teammate, Dani Pedrosa, who fought off the repeated attacks of Valentino Rossi for the last six laps. Rossi, desperate to get past Pedrosa to limit the championship points bleed to Lorenzo, carved past in the tight corners only for Pedrosa to beat him back time and again. Never at a loss of control despite the savagery of the overtaking, Pedrosa showed just what 12 years of competition at the top level does to a man’s nerves.
Lorenzo won, followed by Dano Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi. Rossi still leads the world championship but only by 14 points.
Also of note is that Pedrosa is recovering from radical arm surgery to relieve arm pump. One has to wonder how well he’d have done all this time if he didn’t suffer from that. His descriptions of the effects were devastating.
Gutted that Vale didn’t get by him though. 🙂
It’s true. The race has ultimately been a three-way battle all summer, with a few flukes thrown in. Pedrosa would have normally eaten up quite a few of the points that went to Rossi, Marquez and Lorenzo.