2015 Czech MotoGP: Lorenzo hammers down opposition

It was evident that Jorge Lorenzo wasn’t happy of the fact that he had lost out on a golden opportunity to register his fifth win of the season at Indianapolis. He had led almost 90 per cent of the race before Marc Marquez grabbed the lead and went on to eventually win the race. Brno has been a traditionally strong track for Honda as they have won the past four races of the Czech Grand Prix. A determined Lorenzo was keen on breaking this Honda run and a fiery lap in qualifying saw him demolish the lap record to register his second pole of the 2015 season. Marc Marquez qualified second while Valentino Rossi put in the effort to qualify on the first row in third place. 

Lorenzo made a scorching start to make full advantage of the pole position and followed by Marquez as they entered the first corner of the race. It was vital for Rossi to make a good start to be in contention with the leading pack of riders. Sadly for Rossi fans, the Yamaha rider made a poor start and was passed by Andrea Dovizioso, Bradley Smith and Andrea Iannone to be relegated to seventh position. In the mean time Lorenzo and Marquez were on fire as they opened up a healthy lead by the end of lap 1. Rossi was in resurgence mode and had passed Smith and Iannone to rise up to fourth position. But the Italian rider faced stiff competition from his countryman Dovizioso who used the straight line speed of the Ducati to his advantage. 

It took The Doctor a couple of laps to out brake and pass Dovizioso and grab third place but this battle for the final step on the podium had its consequences. With 20 laps in the race remaining, Lorenzo and Marquez were able to magnify their lead over Rossi to 2.1 seconds.  It seemed that Brno will witness an encore of the US Grand Prix as Marquez was running closely behind Lorenzo. The Repsol Honda rider registered the fastest lap of the race and was within striking decision of the Spanish rider. But Lorenzo was quick to respond and hiked his pace to maintain his race lead. Such h was the pace of the leading pair of riders that they had increased the lead on Rossi by over four seconds. With 14 laps in the race remaining Lorenzo put the hammer down and was more than second ahead of Marquez who was trying his level best to hold on to Lorenzo. Down the grid, the Ducati riders were engrossed in a thrilling battle that saw Iannone take fourth place from Dovizioso.

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The pecking order of Lorenzo, Marquez, and Rossi didn’t change and it was turning out to be a monotonous race with the only change being the fact that Rossi had a healthy lead over Dovizioso. There was action in the closing stages of the race as Dani Pedrosa and Iannone were involved in a fierce battle for fifth position. Pedrosa showed immense determination to grab the fifth place from the Ducati rider in the final lap of the race. Lorenzo coasted past the finish line to record his fifth win of the 2015 MotoGP season and ending Hondas domination at Brno. With this win, Lorenzo and Rossi have equal championship points but owing to his higher wins, the Spanish rider leads the championship for the first occasion in 2015. The only consolation for Rossi is the fact that he maintains his run of podium finishes in 2015 but he will have to start winning races to clinch the rider’s title.