A podium spot was all Jorge Lorenzo could hope for this weekend at Aragon, after his dominating win at Misano.
The reigning World Champion struggled with rear grip and unable to match neither Casey Stoner or Dani Pedrosa’s race pace, and the tough Spaniard still believe’s that he has fighting chance on holding on to his title, despite the 44 points that separate him from Stoner.
We struggled a lot from the beginning of the race, losing positions and having to recover step by step.
We couldn’t get more than a podium; that is the best result we could get today! I didn’t have confidence in the rear and it is impossible to catch Dani on this track.
It’s a pity, but at least I got the podium I couldn’t get last year.
We are still fighting for the Championship and that’s the most important thing, we are going to Japan with hope still alive,” said Lorenzo.
Ben Spies finally got a good start today (it’s been his bête noire lately) and the Yamaha rider wasn’t shy in shooting past both Stoner and Pedrosa, but his M1 just didn’t have the pace of the RC212V’s and his average speed put him down in 14th, add a dramatic loss of grip on his Bridgestone’s (and he’s one of the few riders who is actually faster on worn out tires) which didn’t allow him to fight back against team mate Lorenzo or Marco Simoncelli.
“I knew the start wasn’t going to last long the way Casey and Dani were riding but I felt pretty good in the beginning,” said Spies.
“Even when we got to the fourth or fifth lap I thought our advantage to fourth place was growing.
I felt really comfortable and thought we had a podium fight in us.
Then the sixth or seventh lap the tyre just made a huge drop and just kept going down.
Usually they make one drop then stay consistent.
I had no confidence in the rear and no grip.
I’m frustrated as before that we were riding well and the bike was working great.
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