2015 Aragon MotoGP: Lorenzo clinches vital win

Misano wasn’t a happy outing for Jorge Lorenzo and he came to Aragon to make amends of the costly mistake. In his over enthusiasm to overtake Valentino Rossi, the Spanish rider pushed his motorcycle too hard and ended up with a high speed crash. Talking about qualifying, Marc Marquez enthralled Spanish fans by shattering the Aragon lap record to qualify on pole. Despite posting a super fast lap, he was on the charge and crashed in the third qualifying lap and was lucky to walk away without any major injury. Valentino Rossi struggled the whole weekend to find the correct setup and qstarted from second row in sixth position while Lorenzo was second and Andrea Iannone was in third position.

Lorenzo made a fantastic start as he grabbed the race lead going into the first corner of the race. Marquez was also overtaken by Iannone while Rossi remained in sixth position. Lorenzo’s plan of action was to make as build as much breathing space as he can between Marquez and himself. The reigning champion knew that he had to respond fast or else the Yamaha rider will be hard to catch. Marquez responded positively as he overtook Iannone by the end of first lap and was in hot pursuit of Lorenzo. But this urgency costed him dearly as he went in too hot into a corner and resulted in the front end washing away and crashed out of the race. The young rider was visibly furious with himself as he knew that had he been more tolerant he would have registered yet another Grand Prix victory give his race pace.

With his countryman out of the race, Lorenzo knew that it was a race for him to win barring a mistake on his end. In typical fashion, he went about his business as he posted one after another fastest laps to alienate himself from the rest of the field. In the mean time Rossi had passed Espargaro and was on the recovery path. Iannone was bravely fending off a fast charging Dani Pedrosa. The battle for second place played into the hands of the MotoGP legend. Rossi was soon on the tail of Pedrosa to make it a three-way scuffle. Pedrosa was soon in second position while the Italian duo continued their fight. After few more laps, Rossi out braked his compatriot to grab third position to a loud cheer from his Spanish supporters.

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It seemed as if Rossi would be able to soon catch up with Pedrosa and pass him for second place but surprisingly that wasn’t to be as the Repsol Honda was able to maintain a decent gap. The pecking order remained unchanged with the only difference being Lorenzo’s lead that kept on swelling. With time running out, Rossi made his first attempt to pass Pedrosa with three laps remaining but the Spanish rider was swift in responding to regain second place. Rossi tried on the following few laps but the end result remained unchanged. In the last lap of the race it seemed that Rossi had managed to make his move stick but a determined Pedrosa was showing the glimpse of yesteryears and valiantly regained the second position. Lorenzo cruised his way to an important win followed by Pedrosa and Rossi. The win at Aragon enabled Lorenzo to slash Rossi’s championship lead by nine points to just 14 points with four races remaining in the 2015 season. The twin podium finish meant that Yamaha were crowned the constructors champion after a gap of five years ending Repsol Honda’s winning streak.