Jorge Lorenzo: "I knew Stoner could overtake me"

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo despite fighting tooth and nail to try stay with Casey Stoner in today’s race at Montmelò knew that he couldn’t match the Repsol Honda amazing race pace even if his Yamaha M1 did perform much better on the fast turns at Catalunya than at Le Mans.

“I’m really happy with the result, I gave it the maximum!” said Lorenzo.
“I overtook Casey on the start but I knew he could overtake me.

I tried to stay with him and not to lose his back wheel for as long as possible.
At the end it started to rain a little and it was tough to keep concentration in the last sector but we managed it.
We are still leading the championship so let’s see what happens in Silverstone.
”After a start of season with only two sixth places finishes from the opening four rounds, Ben Spies completely turned it around by taking third in Spain today, taking his first podium of the season, but also the first podium on the factory Yamaha.

“We just kept pushing and pushing and we were slowly catching up to Jorge, not necessarily to try and catch and pass him but to stay away from Andrea.

The bike was great and I felt good on it and just needed a good result.
After the first couple of laps I realised we had a shot at a podium so I rode as hard as I could.
The tyre was a good choice for us today; we did what we came here to accomplish and that’s good enough.
Big thanks to the team who worked hard to deliver a great package this weekend, bring on Silverstone!”