Moto GP Grand Prix of Jerez: Live coverage, preview and blog

Race result:

Jorge Lorenzo has won his first race of the 2015 Moto GP season with victory in Jerez.

After taking pole position for the race, Lorenzo would lead from start to finish, to record his 55th win and 34th in the Premier Class.

In a fantastic start for the Yamaha rider, he would lead into turn 1, with Marc Marquez right behind him.

These two would battle for the first few laps but Marquez would not be able to overtake his countryman at their home circuit.

Instead, as the race went on, the Honda rider would fall away from Lorenzo.

The gap would increase quickly after lap 5 as Lorenzo took his opportunity to pounce.

Marquez was also struggling with a hand injury that allowed Rossi to close the gap after Lorenzo moved away.

After starting in 5th, Rossi would climb to third, and be 3 seconds behind Marquez on lap 9.

Over the next 12 laps, Rossi closed the gap, as he tried to move to second behind his team-mate.

The gap got to 1.1 seconds with 7 laps to go but Rossi couldn’t close it anymore as Marquez responded.

The Yamaha rider ran out of grip in his tyres and fell away. He later conceded he would have had an incident if he continued to push.

For Marquez, second was almost a first for him, with the state of his hand.

Immediately after the race he needed treatment for his hand and it was on ice at the podium ceremony.

It clearly troubled him.

Rounding out the top 5 for the race was Cal Crutchlow and Pol Espargaro.

Australia’s Jack Miller struggled during the race, after qualifying in 22nd.

He got up to 16th in the early stages of the race but fell back to 20th at the end.

Miller will have days like today. He will respond though and bounce back at Le Mans.

After today’s race, Rossi extends his championship lead to 15 points over Andrea Dovizioso.

Lorenzo now moves to third with Marquez moving to 4th.

The next round is in two weeks at Le Mans on the Bugatti circuit.

Race preview:

Can Marc Marquez, or Jorge Lorenzo, win at home? Or will Valentino Rossi break the hearts of the home crowd?
Find out as we live blog the MotoGP from Jerez at 10:00pm AEST.

The start of the 2015 MotoGP has been a return to the early 2000’s as Valentino Rossi returned to the form that won him six championships in the Premier Class.

The Doctor, has won two races, leads the championship by six points over surprise packet Andrea Dovizioso. The Italian, riding for Ducati, has been consistent with three podiums and a second placed finish in all three races.

The Ducati is quick this season and he is yielding good results early for the team.

For the other contenders bad luck has hampered their season so far. Reigning champion, Marc Marquez, has had two poor races including the last one in Argentina.

After leading for a majority of the race, he came under attack from Rossi, in the final stages of the race. Rossi would overtake Marquez with less than two laps to go but they would make contact coming out of the corner.

This threw Marquez off his bike and he was out of the race.

To compound this the Spaniard was last after the first corner of the season opener in Qatar. While he fought his way to fifth for the race, he lost valuable points to Rossi who won the opener. Marquez is now 30 points behind Rossi.

The same applies to Jorge Lorenzo, who is 29 points behind. The teammate of Rossi has struggled this season with two fourths and a fifth. This weekend though, Lorenzo has been the one to beat, with some cracking times in practice and qualifying.

After topping three out of the four practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, Lorenzo would secure pole with a lap record around the Jerez circuit.

It’s a timely return to form for him and if he gets going in the championship then the battle is on for the title.

Joining Lorenzo on the front row will be Marc Marquez and Andrea Iannone in his Ducati.

Marquez, despite a crash in practice four earlier in the day, was able to achieve the time with a problem to his hand.

He is hampered with it this weekend but should be fine to race.

Iannone, who topped practice four showed the continued pace of the Ducati this year.

Rounding out the top five was Pol Espargaro and Valentino Rossi. Expect Rossi to fly through the field as he usually does when he has a poor showing in qualifying.

Australia’s Jack Miller struggled in qualifying and will start in 22nd position.

It promises to be a close race with tyres expected to decide the race.

Teams can use a soft, medium, and hard tyre during the race, and it will be interesting to see which compound comes out on top.

We saw in Argentina that the soft tyre fell away quickly towards the end of the race.

While it isn’t forecast to do the same in Jerez, it will be interesting to see if any riders take the risk, or just stick to a hard tyre like Rossi did in Argentina.

This will be something to look out for as it could decide the race.

I expect this race to be decided between Rossi, Lorenzo and Marquez. Marquez will be looking to bounce back at a circuit he won at last year.

It should be a cracking battle between the three and I predict the Honda of Marquez to just sneak home ahead of the Yamaha duo.

PREDICTION – Marc Marquez.

GRID –
1. Jorge Lorenzo
2. Marc Marquez
3. Andrea Iannone
4. Pol Espargaro
5. Valentino Rossi
6. Aleix Espargaro
7. Cal Crutchlow
8. Andrea Dovizioso
9. Yonny Hernandez
10. Bradley Smith
22. Jack Miller