By Anil John/DohaYamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo set the tone for what could be a thrilling 2012 MotoGP season by winning the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar in a breathtaking tussle with the Repsol Honda duo of Dani Pedrosa and defending world champion Casey Stoner at the floodlitLosail International Circuit last night.Lorenzo, a three-time world champion himself – twice in the 250cc class and once in the premier category – produced an electrifying performance on his YZR-M1 bike to clock 42mins44.214secs and secure his first win in Qatar after three second places and one third position in his previous four races.Pedrosa finished second in 42’45.066, 0.852 seconds behind, with Stoner way behind in third place with a time of 42’47.122, almost three seconds off the pace.Lorenzo thus made it a Spanish clean sweep in Qatar, Maverick Vinales and Marc Marquez earlier winning the Moto3 and Moto2 competition respectively to underline the nation’s status as a motorcycling powerhouse. “I couldn’t have asked for more, it feels great to win the opening race of the season,” said the Spaniard after his maiden win in Qatar, the Middle East’s only MotoGP venue.“It feels wonderful, really wonderful,” added Lorenzo, the 2010 world champion and 2011 runner-up.Stoner overtook pole-sitter Lorenzo on the start-finish straight during the third lap and by the 16th had built up a near-invincible 1.55 second lead, before the Spaniard, known for his daring late moves once the fuel tank is lighter, began pushing his bike hard.And sure enough, the 2010 champion managed to cut down Stoner’s lead on the 18th lap by a whopping second before passing him on the 19th to regain the lead.Lorenzo moved to MotoGP in 2008 when night racing began in Qatar and has always finished on the podium at Losail, although on all four previous occasions he was upstaged by either Valentino Rossi or Stoner.“Yes it took a while coming, but I am happy it did,” he said. “Italways puts you in a better frame of mind if you start well,” added Lorenzo.“Casey was almost two seconds clear and this sense this race was similar to the one in Jerez in 2010. But I am always trying, always pushing. Casey lost a bit of pace and that helped.”
Runner-up Pedrosa, who overtook Stoner with two laps remaining, said he couldn’t have asked for more after all the problems with the bike.“This weekend we had many issues with the bike and yesterday’s qualifying was horrible,” said Pedrosa, who was seventh in qualifying and started from the third row.“But in the warm-up today we managed to iron out the problems somewhat. Second place is very good after all the problems.”Stoner was clearly unhappy after all the promise shown during several weeks of testing and in the free practices in Qatar, saying he couldn’t grip the bike because of crippling cramps in his right forearm. “We were by far the fastest out there but after four laps I was started to get real arm pump, my arms were shaking off the bars and I was holding on with two fingers,” Stoner said.“I couldn’t grip and I couldn’t use the brakes.“I felt like a backmarker at the end, but I couldn’t hold onto thebike, I couldn’t do anything.“My arm was tightening up. I felt like I was losing my grip andcouldn’t produce much pace. Dani passed me from the third row which was pretty impressive.”Great Britain’s Cal Crutchlow finished fourth for Monster Tech Yamaha, but MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi continued to struggle on the Ducati and had to settle for 10th.Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) was the highest placing Desmosedici, beating Álvaro Bautista (San Carlo Honda Gresini) to sixth by just 0.033s on the Spaniard’s debut with the team, and 2011 Moto2 World Champion Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) capped an impressive debut MotoGP ride with eighth place. Héctor Barberá (Pramac Racing) had been in the hunt for sixth but pushed too hard in the closing stages and the Spaniard finished ninth, and the final spot in the top 10 went to Rossi (DucatiTeam) who had appeared to be struggling with his Desmosedici GP12 in the early stages of the race.Yamaha Factory Racing’s Ben Spies ended the race in 11th, whilst the honour of the highest placing CRT went to Colin Edwards (NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team). The American held off the challenge of Randy de Puniet (Power Electronics Aspar) to place his BMW-Suter 12th, with Yonny Hernández (Avintia Racing MotoGP) and Aleix Espargaró (PowerElectronics Aspar) taking the last points on offer.
Results1. Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha 42:44.214 2. Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda 42:45.066 3. Casey Stoner (Australia) Honda 42:47.122 4. Cal Crutchlow (Britain) Yamaha 43:01.328 5. Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Yamaha 43:01.634 6. Nicky Hayden (U.S.) Ducati 43:12.627 7. Alvaro Bautista (Spain) Honda 43:12.660 8. Stefan Bradl (Germany) Honda 43:13.678 9. Hector Barbera (Spain) Ducati 43:15.598 10. Valentino Rossi (Italy) Ducati 43:17.879 11. Ben Spies (U.S.) Yamaha 43:41.121 12. Colin Edwards (U.S.) Suter 43:42.302 13. Randy de Puniet (France) Aprilia 43:54.864 14. Yonny Hernandez (Colombia) Kawasaki 44:00.157 15. Aleix Espargaro (Spain) Aprilia 44:10.947