MotoGP ~ Jerez ~ The Three Amigos

Hola! It's round three of the 2013 MotoGP world championship from the circuito Jerez de la Frontera, which is Spanish for 'Dude...you parked your flying saucer on my racetrack!'. After his debut MotoGP win in Texas, local heart throb, Marc Marquez, comes in to Jerez tied for the championship points lead with local heart throb 2.0, Jorge Lorenzo at 41 metric points, each. That other fast Spanish guy, Dani Pedrosa, sits back in third.

Lorenzo may be the first loser in the Spanish 'heart throb' department, but Saturday found him celebrating his 26th birthday by taking pole position in qualifying, and having the final corner of the track renamed in his honor...curva de Jorge Lorenzo, or something like that. I'm sure there was cake involved.

As for other qualifying shenanigans, Pedrosa starts from second, and Marquez in third. In the final minutes of qualifying, both Crutchlow and Rossi looked like they could each threaten for a front-row start, but they both opted to put on high-speed yard sales, instead. Crutchlow fired his Yamaha (and himself) into the airfence heading in to the final corner, resulting in his bike landing in the cheap seats. Rossi tucked the front into the super-speedy (and awesomely-named) Dry Sack corner. Rossi's bike did a bunch of rollover flippy-floppies, landed in the gravel, and was boxed up and shipped back to the Factory Yamaha garage. Homeboy Hayden managed a decent seventh place grid position, and Edwards a not-so-decent twentieth. Texas' Ben Spies is sitting this one out with a jacked-up shoulder.

So, with all that out of the way, it's time to go racing. The riders grid-up, the crowd wakes up from its pre-race siesta, the lights go out, and Pedrosa hit the front. Much like Pedrosa himself, his time at the front is very short, as Lorenzo takes the lead in turn 2. Marquez settles in third, followed by Rossi, Crutchlow, and everyone else. Rossi tells Marquez to get off his lawn and moves past him into third. A few corners later, Marquez, who does not like being told what to do by old Italian men, gets back past Rossi into third, and sets sail for the other two amigos, up front.

The next handful of laps were a bit of a snoozefest. Bradl crashed, but he's German, so even his crash was boring. Lorenzo holds station at the front, but with Pedrosa right on his ass. Pedrosa finally went past Lorenzo into the Dry Sack (insert Beavis and Butthead laughs here) corner to take the lead. I'd tell you that Pedrosa went on to gap the field and win the race, but then you'd stop reading. I wouldn't blame you.

While Pedrosa is off to maybe win the race, Marquez has caught up Lorenzo, and the battle for second is on like Connie Chung. Rossi is still back in lonely fourth, and the only other real action is Crutchlow and Bautista battling for fif place. Crutchlow and Bautista swapped spit for a few laps, until Crutchlow finally sealed the deal and cruised home in fif.

Meanwhile, Pedrosa is very much(maybe)on his way to his first win of the season. Marquez is still honey-badgering Lorenzo for second...nearly ass-packing him, on several occasions, in the process. Rast rap...Marquez is on Lorenzo's case in full 'crouching tiger' stance (i.e.; waiting for Lorenzo to fuck up). Out of the long right-hander and into the final (Lorenzo) corner, Lorenzo leaves the door wide-open. Marquez, in an ode to Rossi/Gibernau 2005, dive bombs up the inside of Lorenzo, punt him off the track, and brings it home in second. Lorenzo manages to keep it upright, and pouts across the line in third.

In Parc Ferme', Marquez tries to apologize to Lorenzo for his antics. Lorenzo responds with a Mutumbo-styled finger wag after exploding a box of Captain Crunch Marquez had offered up as a token of peace. So with that, Marquez leaves 'Hereth' with the championship points lead and a face full of Captain Crunch dust.

Result;

1) Pedrosa

2) Marquez

3) Lorenzo

4) Rossi

5) Crutchlow

6) Bautista

7) Haystack

8) Dovizioso

9) Esparago

10)Smith

11)Pirro

12)Barbera

13)Laverty

14)Petrucci

15)Edwards

16)Staring

17)Corti

18)Aoyama

DNF)Bradl/crash

DNF)Iannone/mechanical

DNF)Pesek/mechanical

DNF)DePuniet/crash

DNF)Hernandez/crash

The next round is in two weeks in France at Le Moans...cheer up emo kid.

T...out.