Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo took sixth place for the second Grand Prix running in the 60th Dutch TT today, the youngest rider in the class making up one place on his grid position. His team-mate Valentino Rossi made an uncharacteristic mistake and crashed out on the first lap, although he was able to remount and finish in 11th to take valuable championship points. Yamaha’s record of having at least one rider on the podium at every race so far this season was kept alive by Tech 3 pilot Colin Edwards, who took third.
Lorenzo held onto his seventh grid slot at the start but he was unable to find his rhythm and go with the leading riders, gradually tailing off on his own. On lap ten Edwards passed him on his charge through the field and Lorenzo spent the middle part of the race a lonely eighth. In the later stages he began to feel more confident in his M ichelin-shod bike and his lap times improved, enabling him to catch first Chris Vermeulen and then Shinya Nakano to take sixth.
Ten points for the Spaniard today means he holds onto fourth place in the championship but the gap to Casey Stoner, today’s winner, is stretched to 28 points. Rossi’s important five points means he is now four behind Dani Pedrosa in second.
Jorge LorenzoPosition: 6th
Time: +28.608
“I said yesterday that the most important thing for me today was to finish after everything that’s happened recently, so this is a good thing. However I am not happy about the race because it wasn’t fun today and I had some problems, although, as in the last few races, my bike became easier to ride towards the end of the race. I must just take comfort now in the fact that we have two weeks until the next round, and hopefully by then I will be feeling a lot better. We are trying to go step-by-step but of course I want to do better than this. Valentino was not so lucky today but I want to say well done to him for finishing and taking some important points.”
Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager “It has been a difficult race weekend for us, we weren’t able to find a good race pace in the practices and today Jorge wasn’t able to fight for the top positions. We have some problems on the rear and the bike is very nervous under acceleration. The team have worked very hard to improve it but we still have some more work to do. Overall however we are quite happy because our aim for these two races was to finish without any more crashes, and we have been able to do this. We are confident that in Sachsenring we will be able to be back in the fight.”
Ambient temperature: 20 degrees
Track temperature: 24 degrees
Humidity: 62%
Results: 1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 42'12.337
2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda + 11.310
3. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha + 17.125
4. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda + 20.477
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 27.346
6. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team + 28.6087. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki + 32.330
8. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 34.892
9. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha + 38.566
10. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team + 38.817
11. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team + 46.025
12. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team + 48.213
13. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro + 59.594
Not Classified: Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 19 Lap
Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 26 Lap
Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 26 Lap
Championship Standings: 1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 171
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 167
3. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 142
4. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1145. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 98
6. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 79
7. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 70
8. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 60
9. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 57
10. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 57
11. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 51
12. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 33
13. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 32
14. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 32
15. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 25
16. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 24
17. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 22
18. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 16
19. Tadyuki Okada (JPN) Repsol Honda Team 2
20. Ben Spies (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 2
AssenRecord Lap: N. Hayden (Honda) 2006, 1'37.106
Best Lap: J. Hopkins (Suzuki) 2006, 1'36.411
