MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) 2 successive victories on the Ducati.

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After taking his first pole position in red on Saturday, Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) hammered home his form on Sunday to take another stunning win – more than four seconds clear and with a rhythm that would make most drummers jealous. Following a tough start to the season that kicked off with brake failure in Qatar, the number 99 is well and truly back in the groove.

“It’s unbelievable and it shows how things change in this sport,” grins Lorenzo. “Two months ago, two victories with Ducati seemed impossible and now it’s done, and in this way of winning it’s amazing. I never gave up, I just kept saying I needed the right pieces and needed to put it together to be competitive with Ducati, and find my way to be fast and smooth with this bike. We showed you can win with Ducati having a smooth riding style and that’s what makes me most proud.”

He definitely showed that, with Lorenzo inch-perfect throughout the race and putting in laptimes within half a second of each other for most of it – some of which differed by mere thousandths. “The hammer is back! But the hammer never went away…the problem was that the hammer was slow!”

The results sheets certainly don’t tell the whole story, however. The five-time World Champion made it look easy enough from the outside, but Lorenzo says he had three key obstacles – with the win not quite the lights-to-flag perfection of Mugello.

“It was a difficult race, for two or three reasons. The first was the start, I made a worse start than usual, normally I gain metres compared to the others but today I lost them. I lost two positions and even Iannone overtook me. I needed to stay calm to find a way to overtake them. The second problem was the heat, it was terrible and the front tyre was sliding. And the third was the tyres, in these conditions they didn’t give us the same feeling – probably after the Moto2 race on the tarmac. They didn’t give us the feeling, the same for everyone, and the pace was slower than usual so I needed to be very focused to the end.”

He managed that in classic unbreakable style, taking his 150th podium which, he says, also shows that it’s not all about winning – it’s also about consistency. Can he take his consistent frontrunning pace into Assen next time out? The challenge looks to be a bigger one – but the goalposts have moved much further forward.

“Anything can happen in this sport, especially now with everything so close. Things change very easily from track to track and now we go to Assen which will probably be worse for our bike. But we’re in a sweet moment and our bike looks more complete than ever. So we just need to keep focused, not make mistakes and if we can’t win or get on the podium, we need to finish in the best position possible.”

Finally, it was time to ask THAT question. After winning two races for Ducati after signing for Repsol Honda from 2019, how does it feel? A little bittersweet maybe, but also focused forward on the present and future.

“Everyone would like to change the past but the past is the past, you need to focus on the future and the things you can control. Sometimes I’m still sad to leave a team as competitive as Ducati, and this bike, but life is about decisions and we made the decision. Now I would like to get the most victories and podiums possible for the team and leave with a smile and the best result possible in Valencia.”

As he did in 2016 in his last race for Yamaha? Time will tell, and Round 8 appears on the horizon much before then, with MotoGP™ back on track at the TT Circuit Assen in two weeks.

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MotoGP Race Classification 2018.

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time/Gap
1	25	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Ducati Team	Ducati	165.6	40’13.566
2	20	93	Marc MARQUEZ	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	165.3	+4.479
3	16	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	165.2	+6.098
4	13	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	164.9	+9.805
5	11	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	164.9	+10.640
6	10	25	Maverick VIÑALES	SPA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	164.8	+10.798
7	9	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	164.7	+13.432
8	8	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	164.6	+15.055
9	7	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	164.1	+22.057
10	6	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	163.9	+24.141
11	5	44	Pol ESPARGARO	SPA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	163.1	+36.560
12	4	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	163.0	+38.229
13	3	17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	160.2	+1’21.526
14	2	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	139.1	3 Laps
Not Classified
		55	Hafizh SYAHRIN	MAL	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	164.3	4 Laps
		53	Tito RABAT	SPA	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	164.3	6 Laps
		43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	164.3	7 Laps
		38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	162.8	11 Laps
		30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	162.8	11 Laps
		42	Alex RINS	SPA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	156.9	13 Laps
		4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	164.8	16 Laps
		10	Xavier SIMEON	BEL	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	160.4	17 Laps
		41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	161.1	20 Laps
		12	Thomas LUTHI	SWI	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	159.1	21 Laps
		50	Sylvain GUINTOLI	FRA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	155.5	22 Laps
Not Finished 1st Lap
		36	Mika KALLIO	FIN	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM		0 Lap

MotoGP World Standing 2018.

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Nation	Points
1	Marc MARQUEZ	Honda	SPA	115
2	Valentino ROSSI	Yamaha	ITA	88
3	Maverick VIÑALES	Yamaha	SPA	77
4	Johann ZARCO	Yamaha	FRA	73
5	Danilo PETRUCCI	Ducati	ITA	71
6	Cal CRUTCHLOW	Honda	GBR	69
7	Jorge LORENZO	Ducati	SPA	66
8	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	Ducati	ITA	66
9	Andrea IANNONE	Suzuki	ITA	66
10	Jack MILLER	Ducati	AUS	49
11	Dani PEDROSA	Honda	SPA	40
12	Alex RINS	Suzuki	SPA	33
13	Pol ESPARGARO	KTM	SPA	28
14	Tito RABAT	Ducati	SPA	27
15	Alvaro BAUTISTA	Ducati	SPA	26
16	Franco MORBIDELLI	Honda	ITA	19
17	Hafizh SYAHRIN	Yamaha	MAL	17
18	Aleix ESPARGARO	Aprilia	SPA	13
19	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	Honda	JPN	10
20	Scott REDDING	Aprilia	GBR	9
21	Bradley SMITH	KTM	GBR	7
22	Mika KALLIO	KTM	FIN	6
23	Karel ABRAHAM	Ducati	CZE	4
24	Thomas LUTHI	Honda	SWI
25	Xavier SIMEON	Ducati	BEL
26	Sylvain GUINTOLI		FRA

Credits : Photos and content courtesy of motoGP.com

MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) 2 successive victories on the Ducati.

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GRAN PREMI MONSTER ENERGY DE CATALUNYA

MotoGP World Standing 2018.

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