Lorenzo Wins, Rossi Third in Spanish Grand Prix Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo produced one of the best rides of his life to take a superb MotoGP win in front of a sun-drenched home crowd of 122,048 fans in Jerez, Spain on Sunday, May 2. Still suffering from a shoulder injury sustained during motocross training fall after the Qatar round, teammate Valentino Rossi finished a heroic third, making it the 16th double podium for the pair since 2008. However the Yamaha Tech 3 squad didn’t fare as well, with Colin Edwards finishing only 12th after encountering rear grip issues, and teammate Ben Spies withdrawing after front-end issues dropped him out of the top 10. Lorenzo now leads the championship with Rossi four points behind in second. Lorenzo’s race didn’t start well as he dropped from second to fifth by lap two. Though the Spaniard was soon able to pass Casey Stoner and then Nicky Hayden, he appeared destined to stay in third behind Dani Pedrosa and Rossi. However the Spaniard picked up the pace to become the fastest man on the track with a third of the race to go. He passed Rossi and then challenged Pedrosa on the penultimate lap, only to fall short. Lorenzo quickly regrouped and finally passed under braking, crossing the line a mere 0.543 seconds ahead. “It has always been one of my dreams to win a MotoGP race in Spain and this was like a movie everything that could possibly happen did!” Lorenzo exclaimed. Rossi was likewise happy to make the podium, having struggled all weekend to overcome his injured shoulder and set-up problems with his M1. The defending world champ got a great start from row two and was second behind Pedrosa for most of the race. He nonetheless began to drop back as his bike started to slide, eventually giving way to his charging teammate and settling for the final podium spot only 0.347 seconds behind Pedrosa. “This just wasn’t our race this year, and I couldn’t do any more than third,” Rossi said. “But I made no mistakes and so I’m happy under the circumstances, as these 16 points are very important. I will hopefully be back to full strength in Le Mans so I’m looking forward to that.”