Lorenzo wins season opener but Rossi and Marquez emerge stars of Qatar

What a start to the 2013 season MotoGP, its hot and will get hotter race by race. As expected it was a 4 rider battle to the to the top 3 steps in the podium and almost against the qualifying results except for Lorenzo.

It was great start to the race with Lorenzo entering C1 in the lead followed by Pedrosa and Dovizioso. Crutchlow dropped few places and so did Marquez but Rossi zoomed to 4th from 7th in few corners. As Lorenzo held Pedrosa and Dovizioso on the bay, it was Rossi pecking on the Ducati of Dovizioso for third. On entering Lap 2 Rossi just outbraked Dovizioso into C1 but an early braking by Pedrosa caught Rossi unaware leaving him to go wide to avoid a collision and loose few places. Dovizioso, Marquez, Crutchlow gained as Rossi was back in 7th.

Lorenzo started to edge away slowly from Pedrosa and Crutchlow as Dovizioso started to drop back while Rossi was stuck behind Bradl. Marquez looked jittery in the opening laps gained pace and slotted behind team mate Pedrosa after overtaking Dovizioso and Crutchlow. With Lorenzo comfortably solo in the lead and the Repsol Honda riders Pedrosa and Marquez followed by Cal Crutchlow opened up a gap from the third group of Bradl, Rossi, Dovizioso and Bautista.

It seemed like bad luck still continued with Rossi as he couldn´t break away from the Ducati and stuck in 6th behind Bradl for several laps as the gap to the group in front grew to more than 4seconds. By Lap 8 Rossi finally managed to get ahead of Bradl´s LCR Honda to break clear but the German rider tried to stick with the Italian and only to loose the front end going in too fast on the very next lap.

From there on Rossi broke clear of the Dovizioso and with 10laps to go started catching the group ahead of him. By lap 17 as Rossi closed on the tail of Crutchlow, Marquez jumped ahead of his team mate Pedrosa in a spectacular fashion. By the next lap Factory Yamaha rider Rossi took the satellite Yamaha rider Crutchlow on the straights but Crutchlow tried to outbrake Rossi and went straight out of trajectory on C1 and dropping behind while Lorenzo was comfortably 6.5seconds ahead.

The fight for the podium grew hotter as the furious Rossi started to hunt down the two Repsol Honda in front of him. First he took Pedrosa in a couple of moves and then made an attack on the young rookie Marquez. With 3 laps to go Rossi passed Marquez but Marquez didnt give up and fought back on the main straight twice with the straight line speed of the Honda. Rossi lost to Marquez briefly as the Honda rider did a sideways move to get Rossi on the outside in C1 but Rossi bounced back in few corners. On entering the last lap the young Marquez again attacked the old master Rossi onto C1 which was cleanly defended by the legend and pulled a cushion. It looked as if Rossi played with young Marquez for couple of laps and it was classic Rossi back in action after 2years.

Lorenzo unaware of the battle behind him took the chequered flag 5.9secs off Rossi who was closely followed by brilliant Marquez to take his first ever podium in MotoGP in his debut race while Pedrosa dropped 3seconds behind in 4th. Crutchlow, Bautista, Dovizioso, Hayden, Iannone and Spies completed the top10. Rookie Bradley Smith crashed out on Lap 15 in his MotoGP debut and so did Karel Abraham on the opening lap. Colin Edwards on the CRT retired leaving Aleix Espargaro as the top CRT rider followed by team mate Randy de Puniet and Hector Barbera to complete the top 3 among the CRT´s.

It was exciting action right from the start, even though Lorenzo took a mighty win the race belonged to Valentino Rossi with a stupendous fightback ride from 7th to take 2nd and young Marc Marquez thrilled again beating his much experienced team mate for the podium. It sure is going to be an epic season and dont miss it as the rookie Marquez will get better of the superstars soon and the king of MotoGP Valentino Rossi will fight to end his winless drought of two years. Lets wait for Austin, Texas.

Top 3 Rider Comments

Jorge Lorenzo
 “Half an hour before the race I felt a little bit nervous so I had to really concentrate and relax on the grid. I knew it was going to be difficult to open a gap but I had to try, I made a good start and pushed more than 100%. In the beginning it was hard to open the gap as Pedrosa didn’t want to let me get away, he tried to stay with me but after six or seven laps I opened the gap which made me more confident to keep my pace. I’m very happy for Yamaha and happy for Valentino as he has now passed two difficult years.”

Valentino Rossi
“I’m more than happy, very happy indeed because it was my dream to come back with Yamaha.
To arrive on the podium at the first race was my target from November and I put all my effort to arrive at the maximum here. It was a difficult weekend, especially yesterday in qualifying, but I knew I had great pace so I tried to recover in the beginning but I made a mistake and I lost time. I had to do a great second part of the race and step by step I came close to my podium. In the end there was a great battle, especially with Marc for the second place. I’m so happy for me, for my team, for my friends and all my fans who stay with me through two difficult years and also for Yamaha, to start the season with first and second place is not so bad!”

Marc Marquez
"To tell the truth, I was pretty nervous on the grid, because it was my first MotoGP race. I don´t think I´ve ever been so nervous before. I found it hard to keep calm and I wasn´t as focused as in Moto2. However, I regained my concentration at the last moment. The start was important and we knew that we were taking off from the dirty part of the track. I didn´t get off well, but I was able to attack on the opening laps and overtake many riders. I think that this was the key. When I rode behind Dani I learnt a lot, also later on with Valentino. Fighting against him is always nice to watch, but it´s always tough at the same time. Valentino was a tough rival to overtake on the final laps. He beat us this time, but we hope to learn from him and from everyone who went faster than us"

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