Lorenzo extends 250 Championship lead

Defending 250cc World Champion, Jorge Lorenzo, celebrated his birthday weekend with a dominant performance, taking pole and the win in China.

Despite a mistake early on in the race Lorenzo, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Friday, re-took the lead from KTM’s Mika Kallio and controlled the proceedings from there on till the flag.

Although it was a conclusive win from the Fortuna Aprilia rider, it’s safe to say the outstanding performance of the day came from 125 World Champion Alvaro Bautista who battled his way through to second from absolutely nowhere – probably a little too aggressively for Italian Andrea Dovizioso’s liking.

Bautista and Dovizioso went head-to-head on the final lap.

The top speed of the Aprilia saw the young 125 champion go past Dovizioso’s 250 Honda on the back straight, but under braking Bautista shoved his way back in front of the Italian at the esses.

In the post race conference Dovizioso said, “The overtake of Bautista was too hard and I’m a little bit worried.

“There was no problem because I didn’t crash but it was pushing the limit of crashing too hard.”

Lorenzo extends his championship lead over Dovizioso, while Irish rider Eugene Laverty narrowly missed out on the points finishing in 17th.

RESULT

1. Jorge Lorenzo
2. Alvaro Bautista
3. Andrea Dovizioso
4. Alex De Angelis
5. Mika Kallio
6. Hector Barbera
7. Julian Simon
8. Thomas Luthi
9. Hiroshi Aoyama
10. Fabrizio Lai

17. Eugene Laverty