Starting off from the first row on the grid along with teammate Jorge Lorenzo and Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi led the race from start to finish to win the Spanish GP in Jerez on Sunday ahead of Lorenzo and Marquez on second and third respectively.
Despite his 1st win in the 2016 season, the Italian remains at third position in the Moto GP overall standings, however he moves to within 24 points of Marquez and 7 points of teammate Lorenzo.
Dani Pedrosa finished 4th after starting from the 7th position on the grid. Behind Pedrosa, Aleix Espargaro finished fifth, ahead of his Suzuki teammate Maverick Vinales for the first time this year. Andrea Iannone made it through to seventh, taking over for teammate Dvizioso, who was again struck with bad luck and retired from the race.
Valentino Rossi Said,
“This was the perfect weekend, the bike in the race was fantastic. I had a good pace, a good start and I feel good with the bike from the beginning so I can push. It was a special taste, a win like this.”
Jorge Lorenzo felt he would have won, but for tyre problems that forced him to ease off.
He said, – “The pace from the beginning was not very fast, said the man who set a lap record on his way to victory here last year. Rossi was a little bit faster than me at the beginning of the race, but in the middle I could keep the distance. When I was catching him, suddenly the centre of the tyre on the straight when I put third, fourth, fifth and sixth gears was spinning like I had wet tyres.”
Marc Marquez also faced the similar problem and said – “I tried and pushed behind Lorenzo, but I nearly crashed one, two, three times, then I said ‘OK, 16 points for the championship’. These two guys today were faster.”
