Rossi and Crutchlow praise ‘fantastic’ Jorge Lorenzo

Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow could do nothing more than stand back and admire a magnificent Misano victory from reigning world champion and fellow Yamaha YZR-M1 rider Jorge Lorenzo.

A mesmerising first three laps from the Spaniard meant he pulled over a two second lead on the rest of the field and from that early stage he delivered an exhibition in controlling a race from the front to win on Italian soil for the sixth time in a row.

Lorenzo’s strategy is to go into all-out attack mode right from the start on fresh rubber and his fifth win of an injury-hit campaign never looked in any serious doubt from the third lap onwards.

Aided by Yamaha’s silky smooth new seamless shift gearbox, Lorenzo won by over three seconds from title favourite Marquez and his perfect race was hailed by teammate Rossi and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Crutchlow.

Rossi had no answer to Lorenzo’s blistering speed in front of a partisan home crowd of almost 51,000 fans and he said: “Jorge was fantastic and he was very strong on the first lap and he has been in recent races. He can make the difference in the first lap compared to everybody and also the second lap he is always able to be close to his fastest lap of the race and he remains very constant.”

Crutchlow said there was no sense in even analysing Lorenzo’s pace because he simply isn’t able to emulate the double MotoGP world champion’s tactics after he finished over 20 seconds adrift in sixth spot.

When asked by MCN for his thoughts on Lorenzo’s race he said: “There’s no point in me looking at his result. There is no point thinking how could he pull 2.5s so early. I can’t do it and I am not going to suddenly do it at the next race and go ballistic on the first lap.

It is the way he rides and it is the way he is beating the Hondas. No other Yamaha has ever been able to do it apart from Valentino a few years ago. It’s pointless looking at Lorenzo’s data because he runs a completely different bike to us in set-up and when any of us try and ride his bike we can’t get round the track within one second of him. Jorge is on another planet.”