The Rompongz

Jorge Lorenzo broke his own (he’s never won on this track) and the Yamaha duck at the Ricardo Tormo track at Valencia this afternoon taking his ninth win of the 2010 season and ending his successful year on another high, by breaking the number of points in a season 383 and beating Valentino Rossi’s 2008 record and taking 16 podiums.

Lorenzo had slipped to seventh from fifth in a highly entertaining battle with Marco Simoncelli, after trying to slip in on the Gresini rider and bashing fairings (Simoncelli’s leathers had tire marks on it) got a tank slapper that almost knocked him off his Yamaha, but the World Champion regrouped and charged back down the field to catch first Simoncelli, then Rossi, then Pedrosa and finally Casey Stoner with seven laps remaining and win with big 4.576s margin.

Casey Stoner in his final race with Ducati seemed uncatchable after yesterday’s qualifying session, had to settle for second, after choosing the hard tire option that didn’t allow him to repeat the same times.

Valentino Rossi who had a horrible weekend went into the race with an untested set-up, and after horrible start dropping him to ninth on the first lap, but came back to take the third spot on the podium.

To mark the end of of his seven years with Yamaha - on the cool down lap Rossi donned a yellow “Bye Bye Baby” t-shirt with Welkom 2004-Valencia 2010 on the back as did all his techs and then stopped to hug his M1 is a scene similar his first race win with Yamaha in South Africa.

Ben Spies took fourth after battling with Andrea Dovizioso and Simoncelli for fourth. Spies cinched his sixth place in the standings after Nicky Hayden. who was running in second lost the front of his Ducati and crashed out on lap 3.

Dani Pedrosa finished seventh. The Spaniard was as high up as second after two laps, from his 10th on the grid, but faded due to his shoulder problems that the hard braking conditions excaberated.

Hector Barbera took eighth place followed by Alvaro Bautista, while Randy de Puniet closed out the top ten with his 200th GP race.

MotoGP Valencia Race results:
01- Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamaha Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – 30 giri in 46’44.622
02- Casey Stoner – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 4.576
03- Valentino Rossi – Fiat Yamaha Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 8.998
04- Ben Spies – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 17.643
05- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 19.160
06- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 20.674
07- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 26.797
08- Hector Barbera – Paginas Amarillas Aspar – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 29.288
09- Alvaro Bautista – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 29.451
10- Randy De Puniet – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 29.860
11- Aleix Espargaro – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 31.761
12- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 33.604
13- Marco Melandri – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 36.622
14- Hiroshi Aoyama – Interwetten Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 38.968
15- Carlos Checa – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 56.169