Lorenzo takes eighth victory in Portugal

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo won from pole position at the MotoGP race in Portugal on October 31, finishing ahead of team-mate Valentino Rossi and Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso.

Australia’s Casey Stoner crashed out of third place on lap five.

For Lorenzo, it was his eighth win in his title-winning 2010 campaign. When he took the lead from Rossi on the 17th of 28 laps he did not look back, eventually taking the chequered flag 8.629 seconds clear of the Italian.

It was Lorenzo’s first win since the Brno round, and leaves him on course to still be able to beat Rossi’s 2008 record points’ haul (373) in a single season in MotoGP with one round to go.

Rossi came home in a lonely second position for his 10th podium at Estoril in 11 visits as he finished almost 18 seconds ahead of Dovizioso, who had engaged in a thrilling battle to the very finish with Marco Simoncelli (Honda) for the final podium position.

It was Simoncelli’s best finish in his rookie season.

Ducati’s Nicky Hayden was fifth after coming close to the podium, the American just 0.620 secs behind Simoncelli, while
Randy de Puniet (Honda) and Colin Edwards (Yamaha) completed the top seven, both within three seconds of Hayden.

On his return to racing after missing the past three Dani Pedrosa (Honda) came in eighth, with Marco Melandri (Honda) and Héctor Barberá (Ducati) inside the top 10.

Stoner (Ducati) suffered the bitter disappointment of crashing out at turn 13 on lap five as he pushed hard while in third position, whilst Pramac Racing pair Aleix Espargaró and Carlos Checa both failed to finish too, the former crashing on lap one and the latter pitting in with an arm pump problem with 15 laps remaining.

Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was unable to take his starting grid position of fifth after crashing on the sighting lap and dislocating his left ankle. The American is hopeful however of being fit to race in the final round of the season at Valencia next weekend.

The battle for the runner-up spot in the Championship will now be determined next weekend, with Pedrosa on 236 points and Rossi on 217 and the only two who can now possibly end the campaign in second.

Australia’s Anthony West (MZ) finished a season high seventh in the Moto2 race, won by Stefan Bradl (Suter). World supersport champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Suter) acquitted himself brilliantly with a fifth place finish.