British MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo taking nothing for granted

Jorge Lorenzo says he won’t take anything for granted after his domination of the 2012 MotGP world championship continued at Silverstone yesterday.

The Spaniard clinched a third consecutive victory and fourth in the opening six races to open up a commanding 25-point lead over closest rival Casey Stoner.

The 2010 world champion has only dropped 10-points all season and despite his big lead over Repsol Honda rider Stoner, he said he can’t afford to relax with a vital period of the title hunt coming up with three races in quick succession at Assen, Sachsenring and Mugello.

Lorenzo, who signed a new two-year deal with Yamaha prior to the Silverstone clash, said: “It is better to have the points lead than not. But it’s not definitive.

“There have only been six races and there is a lot more to be done. When you are fighting and trying to win in the world championship you don’t enjoy like you are on the freeway and very calm with your bike on the street.

“It’s not like this. One part of you is enjoying it but another part of you is very tense and really nervous.”

Lorenzo was made to work hard for his 21st MotoGP victory yesterday having sat in fifth place for the opening five laps.

His attack started a lap later when he moved by Nicky Hayden’s fading Ducati GP12 and on lap seven he was already into second having taken factory Yamaha team-mate Ben Spies and compatriot Alvaro Bautista in quick succession.

He then stalked Stoner’s RC213V machine for four laps before hitting the front after a series of brilliant overtakes with the Aussie on lap 11.

He held on for victory despite almost crashing late on at the Stowe Corner and after winning in Le Mans and Catalunya, he said: “Looking at the classification of the last three races it may seem a little bit easy, but for me it wasn’t.

“At the beginning of the race I struggled a lot to keep the pace of the first group and I was a little behind them. I needed to keep the concentration for a lot of laps and not make mistakes when I was behind the group.

“Alvaro was braking really deep and also Ben. I didn’t want to make any mistakes so I wait for the race to go on to see the pace of all the riders and I realise that I have a little more. When the tyres drop a little bit they were slowing down quite a bit and my pace was slower in the beginning, but not so much.

“I got the second position and Casey was trying not to let me pass for some laps. But finally I could pass him in the last corner, but he didn’t want to let me pass, so I think we made a good show for the spectators. Lucky for us I have something more in this race and I tried to push 100% to open a gap.

“I was pushing so much that four laps to the end I made a big mistake in the corner before the chicane that I almost crashed and I almost get zero points. And that’s why I say it’s really difficult. It’s not easy in any race this year.”

For 11 pages of news and views from the British Grand Prix, see the June 20 issue of MCN.