Lorenzo delighted to take the title fight to Valencia
Defending World Champion Jorge Lorenzo is delighted after winning the Japanese MotoGP to take the title fight down to the last round of the season in Cheste.
Lorenzo, who hadn’t won in Japan since 2009, withstood the immense pressures of Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa in this weekends race, before Marquez decided to settle for second place.
“Looking at the race classification all the top five after me were Honda riders and normally this track is better for them,” said Lorenzo speaking after the race.
“So winning at Honda’s home track with Yamaha’s 200th victory in the MotoGP class, when we also took a risk with the soft tyre, was a pleasure. It was a hard race physically but I kept my concentration and I really wanted this victory.”
Lorenzo and his team only made the decision to shift to the soft tyre moments before the start of the race, and it was a gamble that paid off and the defending world champion explained.
“We made the decision late on because just before the race the temperature was 10 degrees warmer than in morning practice and I felt better on the softer tyres. I think it was the right choice for me on the Yamaha but maybe for the Hondas they were better on a different tyre.”