MotoGP Barcelona – Perfect Lorenzo takes second win with Ducati

Bruno Gomes

June 18, 2018

There’s no other way to put this: Jorge Lorenzo was unbeatable at his home race in Barcelona-Catalunya, and the Spanish rider took his second straight win with Ducati. Lorenzo, who seems to be back to his better performance, was the fastest rider throughout the whole weekend, and closed the race with a 4 second advantage over Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda).

Marquez got a better start and passed Lorenzo at Turn 1, but the Ducati rider was in top form during the MotoGP race, and from the second lap, when he reached first position, #99 went on to do a perfect race.

Jorge Lorenzo posted the best lap of the race, and the difference between his best lap and one of his slowest laps was just about 4 tenths of a second! He lapped the Montemló track with extreme precision, like a clockwork, and even though Marquez tried to keep up, the Lorenzo managed to break away with the lead and win in front of Marquez.

Third place went to Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha), who didn’t have the best qualifying, but again showed he has the pace on race day to be at the podium. This was the third time in a row that Rossi finished on a podium position.

As for Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech3), the Malaysian was doing a great race and was close to be inside the Top 10, but a highside on a right-hand corner, followed by a heavy fall, meant that Syahrin couldn’t fight until the end for another great result.

In Moto2, the Barcelona race was great to watch, all because Fabio Quartararo (HDR Speed Up Racing) and Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) fought for the win, with the Portuguese from KTM coming in from 17th on the grid to finish second, behind Quartararo.

This was the Frenchman’s first Moto2 victory, and even with Miguel Oliveira squeezing the best out of the KTM machine, Quartararo was faster and managed to break away in the last 5 laps to cross the line without having Oliveira breathing on his neck.

Second place means that Miguel Oliveira is now just 1 point behind championship leader Francesco Bagnaia (SKY VR46), who finished in a disappointing eight place.

The last podium position went to home favorite Alex Marquez (EG 0.0 Marc VDS).

In Moto3 the fight for the win involved more than 10 riders almost until the end of the race, with many crashes involving more than two riders at a time. At the finish line, it was Enea Bastianini (Leopard Racing) who got the victory, the first to his name since Motegi in 2016.

Second place was Marco Bezzecchi (Redox PrüstelGP), while Gabriel Rodrigo (RBA BOE Skull Rider) was third, and with this he became the first Argentinian rider to step up to the podium in a GP race after Sebastian Porto in 2005.