MotoGP news

Lorenzo wins dry Japanese GP

Jorge Lorenzo has taken victory on a dry track at Motegi to head a Yamaha one-two result from team-mate Valentino Rossi. After qualifying had been cancelled due to poor weather conditions on Saturday, the pairing took the top spots ahead of Dani Pedrosa's Honda with championship leader Casey Stoner falling back to fourth.

Taking the lead in the early stages, Lorenzo was never able to pull out a highly sufficient lead but maintained an eventual two-second gap over his team-mate; his first victory of the season saw him overhaul both pole man Rossi and Stoner as the Spaniard headed to the top of the championship standings. "I am the leader in the championship but I still think that Stoner, Valentino and Pedrosa are stronger than us," Lorenzo told the official MotoGP website. "They are more experienced with the Bridgestone tyres but we are still learning about them and improving."

With the Japanese Grand Prix moved to April for 2009, the move came back to bite the organisers when torrential rain saw qualifying called off on Saturday, which was a disappointing outcome after the first race of season in Qatar was also delayed due to rain. "Today I had a great opportunity to win," Lorenzo continued. "I knew that, with a hard rear tyre, I had good pace so I saw the chance and I attacked." Behind, Pedrosa's team-mate Dovizioso stormed through to a top five position ahead of Melandri, Capirossi, Kallio and James Toseland.

Hometown hero Yuki Takahashi did not have a good day for Team Scot Racing after a collision with Nicky Hayden resulted in retirement on the second lap. There should be less chance of rain affecting the week at the next race, as Lorenzo moves home to Spain on 3 May. "Jerez is unbelievable as we all know," he said. "All the people there have warm hearts and they are very passionate about the Spanish riders - I think, if there is one track where you should take a risk to win, it's there."

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