----Every rider wants to win at the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands. Known fondly as, "The Cathedral", the track has a rich history dating back to 1925, hosting the Dutch TT. Now, 80 such events later, a new rider has purified his soul at the legendary circuit when Jorge Lorenzo claimed victory to cap off a perfect weekend. The Yamaha rider from Spain set the fastest lap in every practice session, started from pole and lead every lap to earn his fourth win out of the six races completed from the MotoGP schedule.
With teammate Valentino Rossi sidelined after a huge crash in Italy no one seems able to stop Lorenzo from closing in on his first title since moving into the premier class with Yamaha in 2008. The Balearic Islands native is now 47 points clear of his rivals, one-third of the way into the 2010 season.
Lorenzo was all smiles after doing the robot and spiking his "Lorenzo's Land" flag into the gravel on the cool down lap, "I am really happy that I have won here in all three classes because it's such a historic place and the football I had in Parc Ferme was to celebrate this 'hat-trick.' Thanks to all my Yamaha guys and also to Bridgestone for this win, we have a big lead in the championship so we can afford to stay calm and relaxed. Now we go to my home in Barcelona and I am excited about another chance to race in front of the Spanish fans."
As seen in Silverstone last week, the best battle was over the other podium spots; Lorenzo made sure to take first for himself. Off the line he controlled the field as Ben Spies jumped into second from fourth on the grid. Randy De Puniet lost out on his front row start and found himself behind Ducati's Casey Stoner and Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa, who seemed to teleport from seventh to third in a flash.
As the field settled Stoner tried to get a run on Pedrosa but the Honda rider wasn't worried about having a Ducati behind him, focusing more on the Yamaha of Spies. It wasn't long before the series' rookie had to give up his position to both veterans and the pair quickly sailed away from the America.
For a moment it looked like Pedrosa would be able to challenge for the lead, but Lorenzo had it locked down and was pacing the top three to save his rear tires, "This race was a bit more difficult than Silverstone because Dani was so fast with the softer tyre early on in the race and I had to really keep my concentration to stay in front of him at that point. I was confident that my harder Bridgestone tyre would help me later on and this was the case, so we made the right choice. It wasn't easy though and at the end I was sliding quite a lot, in fact I made a mistake at the chicane and nearly crashed so I was quite glad to finish!"
Stoner had a few moments of getting into the fight but for the most part seemed unable to place his front wheel between Pedrosa and a corner. They crossed the line with a few seconds between themselves. "I knew with the soft rear Bridgestone tyre that I would have more of an advantage in the first part of the race and so I pushed really hard from the start to catch up," explained Pedrosa. "But then I began losing a little bit of time in the first section of the circuit and lap-by-lap we lost touch. Anyway, this is a good result for us and I'd like to say thanks to my team because they never gave up."
Third was a relief for Stoner, the first podium of the year for the former title winner, "This is the first race this season we have come away from with a decent result. It shouldn't be our first podium of the year but that's the way it is and it was nice to finish a race, not just a qualifying session, and head to parc ferme. The team has been doing a fantastic job, especially over the last two weekends, when we have established a good base setting that has allowed us to fight for the podium, if not the win yet."
Behind the top three Spies fell victim to Andrea Dovizioso but answered back when his rival's rubber started to go. As the Texan nicknamed "Elbows" settled into fourth, Dovizioso and De Puniet started a battle for fifth that would last to the final corner. "I wanted at least fourth place today," said Spies, "and I'm happy but I didn't have the pace for the podium like in Silverstone. I'm happy with the result and we go to Catalunya next week not knowing the track and I think we will be a little bit on the back foot again. But I'll do the same as the past two weeks and push as hard as I can."
With both rear tires fading it came down to who could out brake better in the closing laps between the Repsol and LCR Hondas. De Puniet was desperate to break into the top five after a string of six place finishes. The Frenchman threw everything into the effort but lost out heading onto the front straight on the final lap. Dovizioso beat him to the line by 0.449 of a second.
"We had higher expectations for today's race and so I'm a little disappointed with how things went." admitted Dovizioso. "We weren't at 100% with the front-end feeling which meant I couldn't ride as aggressively as I wanted. Having said that, we could have finished in fourth today, but in the battle with Randy we lost time and Spies took advantage of our duel to get a gap."
Unfortunately for De Puniet, he'll have to wait for another chance to earn a top five finish for the season, "Unfortunately I had some issues on the front tyre at the beginning of the race so I decided to change my riding style a little bit to keep the pace. Then in the middle of the race I caught Dovizioso and Spies starting a close battle and I had fun. In the last lap I tried to overtake Dovi again but went too wide in the last corner. Anyway we are very pleased about this result and this week end because we maintain our sixth position in the classification."
Round seven takes the riders back to Spain for the Catalunyan Grand Prix after two Spaniards took first and second place today. Lorenzo is still seeking a first win at Circuit de Catalunya while Pedrosa has just one victory to claim for himself. The record holder for most wins is Rossi, with six wins.
Sadly the Italian will not have the chance to improve on it this season. However, there is some good news for the champ; he is optimistically forecasted to return in August for the Czech GP in Brno. Hopefully he will have a quick and full recovery, along with Hiroshi Aoyama and Marco Melandr, who also missed today's race due to injuries.