MotoGP:Italy - Uno, Dos, Tres for Jorge!

Well I think I can safely say that this was one of the most entertaining races so far this season!

In qualifying for this race, you had riders throwing their bikes left, right and centre, ranging from Marc Marquez flying off at 175mph, to Cal Crutchlow dropping his bike in qualifying for a second successive race weekend, yet still managing to bring it home in third...



In seeing such a crash as Marquez's, it left me highly doubtful that he would make the race as it would have been unsurprising had the medical team decided against allowing him to race. Yet he was and were it not for a little bit of an overambitious attitude after taking Dani Pedrosa's second place with five laps to go, he may well have kept the bike upright.

As it was, in dropping the bike a second time (this time in the race and nowhere near as fast!), this promoted Pedrosa back to second position, having qualified on pole, only to be mugged by Jorge Lorenzo early on in the race.

Special mention has to go to Cal Crutchlow at this point who, after throwing his bike around a bend a little too vigorously (albeit because he was blinded by hayfever)in practice, still managed to outperform his team-mate Bradley Smith who finished in a ninth position that shows the Monster Tech III Yamaha team are performing incredibly as a satellite team.

Cal would have started on the front row of the grid again (something he's beginning to get very, very good at!) only for Andrea Dovizioso to mug him at the end of qualifying for 3rd spot pushing him back one into 4th. So to excel like he has done, even though he crashed... again, is a superb testament to Cal's race mettle!

Now it's time for 'Rider of the Day' and today it has to be none other than race winner...

Jorge Lorenzo 

Three times in a row now, Jorge's won this circuit!

Even though his bike looked to have been superb enough to have nailed down that pole position, it was a surprise when Dani Pedrosa came in and clocked a time of almost half a second faster than Jorge's time in qualifying. This meant that the race already was heating up as the rivalry between these two guys looks set to continue throughout the championship.

The moment he got to the front it was a case of seeing how long Pedrosa could keep up with him and try as he might, he managed to keep close to Jorge all race... well, until the final third of the race distance when Lorenzo really threw down the gauntlet as if to say 'catch me if you can, bro'!', to go on to storm home in

Having thrown himself down the road along with the bike, Marc Marquez in being lucky to start the race in one piece (having received two almighty wallops, one on each shoulder in excess of 20G!), it was unfortunate for the Spaniard, who's impressed since graduating from Moto2, to have crashed out when it looked as though he could have gone on to challenge for the win as well.

So, as surprising as all this is bro's, to finally pick a race winner after all this time, it leaves me hopeful that the rest of this season (and the only one I'll likely be reviewing on this blog since MotoGP's going over to the BT Sport service next year!) will be a cracker with plenty of action still to come as the title race is now more interesting than ever: -

Dani PEDROSA    103
Jorge LORENZO    91
Marc MARQUEZ    77
Cal CRUTCHLOW    71

Next time out, it's off to Catalunya, the second Spanish circuit on the calendar so we'll see if an ever improving Cal Crutchlow can take things a step closer towards the pointy end of the championship!

Special mention this week has to go to Scott Redding who after a triumphant race in Moto2, managed to make it 2 in 2 now as he won the corresponding race this weekend also.

See, bro's? I told you he was tipped for MotoGP!

Until next time, bro's!

Peace out!


The Lanky Penguin