Jorge Lorenzo has been disappointing in the first three races of the Moto GP season but he proved in Jerez de la Frontera that you can count on him
ADVERTISEMENTJorge Lorenzo has been disappointing in the first three races of the Moto GP season but he proved in Jerez de la Frontera that you can count on him to fight for the world title. He completely dominated the Spanish Moto GP in a race where there was never any question he would triumph..
Lorenzo ends win droughtJorge Lorenzo has won his first Moto GP since last October by taking the chequered flag in Spain ahead of Marc Marquez.
The win takes him up to third overall in the world championship standings after four races, and is his first since October last year.
The double world champion led from flag to finish in an impressive display on a track where he has previously won four times.
Second was reigning double world champion Marc Marquez, while Valentino Rossi was third, his 200th podium finish.
1996, the year Spanish fans jinxed their heroIn the last few years, Spanish drivers have dominated the motorcycling world but it was not always like this. In 1996 Spanish podium places on the top spot were a rarity but for the Spanish fans in Jerez, the celebration started too soon.
The Spanish Moto GP of 1996 was one that will go down in racing legend as the race the crowd lost for their local hero.
The bike-mad Spanish were mad keen for Alex Crivillé to win glory in Jerez, the season’s fourth race.
They went into raptures on the final lap as their man was in the lead a second ahead of a rampaging Mick Dooohan.
Unable to contain their joy people starting spilling onto the trackside in the circuit’s final third and the marshals appeared unwilling or unable to stop them.
Coming into the penultimate bend Crivillé braked to avoid spectators, Doohan pounced and overtook, and in his eagerness to get back on terms Crivillé opened his throttle too early and went flying. It was an inelegant end to the Spaniard’s challenge.
Àlex Crivillé was the big loser back then but he can look back on his career with pride. Three years later he became the first Spanish rider to be crowned world champion.
1999 Crivillé‘s wait endsIn 1999 Alex Crivillé ended Spain’s long wait for a motorcycle champion. when he lifted the world title.
For so long one of the nations driving the sport Spain had come close to the honour before but Crivillé had always seemed an unstoppable force, from lying about his age at 14 to start racing, to changing team and format if needed in his pursuit of victories.
He finally found his home with Honda in 1994 as the Repsol years of domination began, but he lost his ride for the 2002 season after unspecified health problems and fainting fits cut his career short.
A shadow was cast over the Spanish Grand Prix with the news of Geoff Duke’s death. The Englishman, who dominated the motorcycling world in the early fifties, passed away at the age of 92.
**Motocycling world salutes “The Duke”**Motorcycling’s first-ever international star, the British rider Geoff Duke, has died aged 92.
He was world champion six times between and won the Isle of Man TT six times as well to be the most complete rider of his generation.
ADVERTISEMENTIn total he won 36 Grand Prix, first for Norton then Gilera, and was also notable for being the first rider to wear a one-piece combination suit of his own design.
He retired in 1959 but such was his stature in the sport that in 2005, long after his glory years and front page exploits, he was invited to reopen the national motorcycle museum, and two years after that along with nine other riders was honoured by a special commemorative stamp from the Royal Mail.
We come to an end with the Endurance World Championship in Spa-Francorchamps. Audi were once again the big winners, André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer repeated the win in the first race of the season in Silverstone.