It's becoming readily apparent that unless Marc Marquez suffers some sort of mechanical failure with his Repsol Honda or some other sort of bad luck that this is going to be a long season for the rest of the MotoGP field. At Jerez on Sunday, polesitter Marquez took the lead from Ducati's Andrea Dovisioso at the second corner, and although there was some shuffling of the top four positions for the first two laps, the 21-year-old quickly sliced his way back to the front and was never headed from that point on. Valentino Rossi was at his best form yet on the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP M1, actually grabbing the lead at times during the initial scuffle in the first two laps, and then maintaining a strong enough pace to keep a charging Dani Pedrosa at bay and take second place. Behind Pedrosa came a disappointed Jorge Lorenzo, who was part of the battle of front during the initial laps, only to fade back with front tire issues.
"Austin and Argentina are circuits that I like, but here in Jerez I’m always struggling a little bit," admitted Marquez afterward. "Valentino and Dani and Jorge, they were so fast and consistent in practice, and I expected a little bit more of a battle in the first part of the race. The front tire was a little bit critical, but I continue to push because I know that Dani and Valentino were so strong, for that reason I push in the beginning because with the new tires I felt a little bit better. But I saw that with my rhythm I was able to open a gap and that was enough in the end." It was a gap that extended to five seconds at one point, making the race winner a foregone conclusion. "I just tried to manage that gap and was able to win."
For Rossi, second place was very satisfying, knowing that he now had the pace to compete with Lorenzo and Pedrosa. "Jerez is one of my favorite circuits, and I haven’t been on the podium since 2010," said Rossi. "We work very well during the weekend, we improved the bike, also this morning I knew I could be quite competitive for the race. But the conditions for the race were very, very difficult for everybody, our pace is a little bit slower. I chose the extra hard on the front (tire), it was a risk; but I was worried about the medium at the end of the race. I think it was the right choice for the Yamaha, in fact I could push a lot. The bike was sliding everywhere, but I can stay in a good rhythm. And at the end when Dani came, I know that he was a little bit faster but I gave the maximum and I came out in second place."
Pedrosa was forced to wait until he could make a move towards the front, and by the time he got going it was too late. "It was a very hard race. From the beginning I couldn’t control the bike very well, I was in fourth place, I was struggling a lot with the front tire and I couldn’t really push. So I stayed behind the Yamahas for most of the race, I couldn’t push the limits of the bike. Towards the end I got a little stronger, so I managed to pass Jorge and get closer to Valentino. With two laps to go I was really close, but I had a really big slide with the rear, lost touch again. But on the last lap I pushed hard, I was just close enough on Valentino’s tail but not enough to make a pass.”
MotoGP Jerez race results:
