Lorenzo claims narrow victory in Italy

Although Valentino Rossi started on pole for the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, it was his teammate and current world champion, Jorge Lorenzo who claimed victory.

Rossi stayed behind Lorenzo in the early going and looked ready to make a pass into the lead, but suffered a mechanical issue as smoke billowed from his bike, leaving the Italian no choice but to retire from the race.

Lorenzo then had Marc Marquez to contend with as Marquez had made his way into second place. In the closing laps, Marquez was able to pass Lorenzo a couple of times, and was leading at the last corner but Lorenzo produced a better drive down the straight and took victory at the line.

MotoGP

Andrea Iannone got the final podium position, finishing in third place after initially losing a number of places at the beginning of the race after a bad start.

Dani Pedrosa made great improvements during the race to finish fourth while the second Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso worked hard to improve from his 13th qualifying position to finish fifth.

After six races in the 2016 MotoGP season, it is current world champion Lorenzo who leads the way from Marc Marquez and Rossi in the championship standings.

Sunday was a dramatic day from start to finish after a thrilling Moto3 race that was won by Brad Binder and a restarted Moto2 race that was won by Johann Zarco.

Italian MotoGP Final Classification

1 Jorge LORENZO Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 41'36.535

2 Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team +0.019

3 Andrea IANNONE Ducati Team +4.742

4 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team +4.910

5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team +6.256

6 Maverick VIÑALES Team SUZUKI ECSTAR +8.670

7 Bradley SMITH Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +13.340

8 Danilo PETRUCCI OCTO Pramac Yakhnich +14.598

9 Aleix ESPARGARO Team SUZUKI ECSTAR +18.643

10 Michele PIRRO Ducati Team +22.298

11 Cal CRUTCHLOW LCR Honda +27.936

12 Hector BARBERA Avintia Racing +35.712

13 Eugene LAVERTY Aspar Team MotoGP +38.032

14 Stefan BRADL Aprilia Racing Team Gresini +40.094

15 Pol ESPARGARO Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +59.811

16 Yonny HERNANDEZ Aspar Team MotoGP +1'04.397.

Reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo sets Le Mans lap record to claim pole position for French GP

LE Mans is starting to look like one of those MotoGP weekends where Jorge Lorenzo is utterly untouchable.

The 29-year-old set a new lap record on his way to pole position for the French Grand Prix, his first in MotoGP at the Le Mans circuit.

Nobody got within even half a second of Yamaha’s reigning world champion.

The cherry on top? The pole position moves him to 63 for his career — one greater than his teammate and arch rival Valentino Rossi.

Rossi will line up two rows behind his teammate in seventh on the grid, the worst qualifying result of his season so far.

The Jerez winner opted for Michelin’s soft front tyre for the session but found himself trapped behind the Suzuki of potential new teammate Maverick Vinales when the tyre was at its best.

A typical rabbit-out-of-the-hat lap from Marc Marquez was enough to put him second fastest but, with a deficit of 0.441 of a second, even he conceded “Jorge’s rhythm is another one.”

Andrea Iannone worked hard for his third position on the grid, a crash on his second qualifying run forcing him to — literally — sprint back to the pits to hop on another Ducati for the end of the session.

“Unfortunately, with the second tyre, the bike have a problem and pump water out and touch the rear tyre, and I go down,” he explained.

The second row consists of Pol Espargaro — his best qualifying result of the season — from Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, with Espargaro’s Tech 3 teammate Bradley Smith in sixth.

Rossi headed the third row from, ironically, Vinales, while Cal Crutchlow and Danilo Petrucci rounded out the top 10.

Dani Pedrosa finished a disappointing 11th after crashing midway through the session, while Aleix Espargaro topped Q1 but could do no better than 12th in Q2.

Jack Miller will line up from 18th on the grid, three tenths and two spots ahead of his Marc VDS Honda teammate Tito Rabat.