Qatar MotoGP: Lorenzo dominates season opener

Double world champion Jorge Lorenzo dominated the opening race of the 2013 season to take victory by almost six seconds.

Lorenzo got a great start and eased ahead of the field quickly.

Dani Pedrosa also got a good start off the front row of the grid and spent a lot of the race in secod place until he was overtaken by new team-mate Marc Marquez.

Valentino Rossi got a good start from the third row on the grid and moved through the field behind Pedrosa, but was forced to run wide to avoid hitting the Spaniard, dropping to seventh position.

Rossi battled hard to move back up the field and managed to get the better of Pedrosa and Marquez to make it a Yamaha one two.

It could have been an all Yamaha podium with Cal Crutchlow battling hard with Pedrosa and Marquez, but the Tech 3 rider outbraked himself at the first corner and ran off the track. Crutchlow finished fifth.

Team-mate Bradley Smith was enjoying a solid start to his MotoGP career and was running in 11th place before crashing out.

1 25 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 166.4 42’39.802
2 20 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 166.0 +5.990
3 16 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 166.0 +6.201
4 13 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 165.8 +9.473
5 11 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 165.2 +18.764
6 10 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 165.0 +22.148
7 9 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 164.8 +24.355
8 8 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 164.8 +24.920
9 7 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 164.0 +37.124
10 6 11 Ben SPIES USA Ignite Pramac Racing Ducati 163.5 +44.908
11 5 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Power Electronics Aspar ART 163.2 +49.809
12 4 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Power Electronics Aspar ART 162.8 +56.495
13 3 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Blusens FTR 162.0 +1’09.599
14 2 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Paul Bird Motorsport ART 161.9 +1’10.742
15 1 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Avintia Blusens FTR 161.8 +1’13.600
16  71 Claudio CORTI ITA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 160.8 +1’29.444
17  70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 160.5 +1’34.341
18  52 Lukas PESEK CZE Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 160.5 +1’34.683
Not Classified
  5 Colin EDWARDS USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 161.9 7 Laps
  9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 160.5 10 Laps
  6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 164.8 14 Laps
  38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 162.4 18 Laps
  67 Bryan STARING AUS GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda 149.2 21 Laps
  17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing ART  0 Lap