2010 MotoGP Assen race
27-06-10 by Mark M
Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo marked the 80th anniversary of the Dutch TT with an emphatic win from pole position. The Spaniard’s fourth win of the season stretched his lead at the top of the championship standings to 47 points over today’s second place finisher, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa. Ducati’s Casey Stoner claimed third in today’s TIM TT Assen, securing his first visit to the podium this season.
Ben Spies and Pedrosa gained major benefits from good starts as both improved four places from their grid positions to slot into second and third place respectively, as Lorenzo led the field into the Haarbocht turn from pole position.
Lorenzo started to open up a very early lead and for the first couple of laps it looked like the Spaniard would race clear as he did at Silverstone, but Pedrosa and Stoner both passed Spies on lap three, before closing the gap on the leader.
Andrea Dovizioso passed Spies as well early in the race to move into fourth, and by the midway point he was a second ahead of the American, who in turn led sixth placed Randy de Puniet by just over 1.5s.
As Stoner struggled to find a way past Pedrosa, just as he had done six days ago at Silverstone, Lorenzo started to again edge away, extending his advantage little by little as the laps flew by. Further back Spies closed right up on Dovizioso and passed the Italian to move into fourth, with de Puniet also joining the three-way fight for fourth place
At the front Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner became further separated from one another, whilst de Puniet and Dovizioso fought intensely to the last lap, with the Frenchman out of the seat on more than one occasion, as he pushed his tyres to the limit.
Lorenzo eventually crossed the line 2.935s ahead of Pedrosa, but it quite wasn’t the easy win that many expected at Assen for the Spaniard.
“The race was a big more difficult than Silverstone, because Dani was so fast with the softer tyre early in the race,” declared Lorenzo. “I went with the harder rear tyre, which I knew would come good towards the end, but even then I was sliding around quite a lot. Actually, I made a mistake at the chicane in the closing stages and nearly crashed, so I was quite glad to finish!”
Lorenzo celebrated by planting the usual ‘Lorenzoland’ flag in a gravel trap and then getting his entire team to sign a world cup football in parc ferme.
“The football was to celebrate my ‘hat-trick’ of wins at Assen; I’ve won here in all three classes now,” explained the championship leader.
Pedrosa’s second place was enough to elevate the Spaniard back to second in the championship standings, ahead of his Repsol Honda teammate, Andrea Dovizioso.
“I’m surprised by this result, because we had a lot of problems in practice and I wasn’t expecting to be able to run this pace today,” said Pedrosa, after the race. “I knew the soft tyre would give me an advantage early on, so I pushed really hard, but then I started losing time through the first part of the circuit and lost touch with Lorenzo. I’m happy I’m second in the championship today, but I’m more pleased with second place in the race.”
Stoner finally took his first podium of the season in third aboard the Ducati. Spies finished fourth in another impressive display from the rookie, with Dovizioso edging out de Puniet for fifth with another overtake on the chicane just before the finish line.
Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards, Marco Simoncelli and Aleix Espargaró all took top-ten finishes. Marco Melandri was absent from the race after he dislocated his left shoulder in the second free practice session on Friday morning.
The result extended Lorenzo’s lead at the top of the Championship further and he now stands on 140 points after six rounds, having finished in the top two in every race. Pedrosa moved into second on 93 with his podium finish, ahead of teammate Dovizioso who is third on 89.
Results next page.
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Tags: 2010, Assen, MotoGP, Netherlands, Race
