Round 15 Japan: Lorenzo wins the day and Marquez the MotoGP™ championship at Motegi – 1st Lorenzo, 2nd Marquez, 3rd Rossi

Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo continued his irresistible form in the second half of the 2014 MotoGP season as he won his second consecutive race at Motegi as Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez made it back-to-back MotoGP™ World Championship titles by taking second place in the Japanese Grand Prix.

An exciting start to race saw Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi get the holeshot to lead into turn one, a position he held for the first four laps before Lorenzo squeezed past his teammate to take the over at the front. As his rivals battled behind him, Lorenzo set a scorching pace at the front of the field, setting a new Motegi race lap record of 1’45.350 on lap eight and going on to take the chequered flag by 1.638 seconds from Marquez, with Rossi rounding out the podium in third place a further second back.  Race day at Motegi experienced the coolest conditions of the weekend with the peak track temperature recording during the race being 27°C which was 13°C cooler than measured during qualifying yesterday. The fresher temperatures didn’t have a significant effect on race tyre choice, with almost every rider opting for the same tyre combinations they used in race simulations earlier on the weekend. All twenty-four riders selected the medium compound front slick, while fifteen riders selected the soft compound rear slick, and the other nine riders opting for the extra-soft compound rear. After record-breaking pace in yesterday’s qualifying sessions, more records were set at the Motegi circuit during the race with race winner Lorenzo setting a new race lap record of 1’45.350 on lap eight and the overall race time today being over ten seconds quicker than the existing record.

With Marc Marquez wrapping up the title at Motegi, the focus now shifts to the battle for second place in the riders’ standings. Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa are currently tied on 230 points, while Jorge Lorenzo is now just three points behind on 227 points and fourth in the standings.

Masahiro Higashi

– Vice President and Officer, Global Marketing Strategy and Motorsport, Bridgestone Corporation

“Congratulations to Jorge on his victory today and Yamaha on their continued good form which has given them three wins in the past four races. I would also like to congratulate Marc and Honda for securing their second consecutive MotoGP World Championship today, especially here in Japan at Honda’s home circuit. This weekend has been a successful one for Bridgestone with many records being set on our tyres and it is a source of pride for our company to share in such special moments as we witnessed at Motegi today. We now are looking forward to supporting the MotoGP championship for the remaining three races and hope to see more exciting battles to come.”

Shinichi Yamashita – General Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department

“Today was a great end to what was a very successful weekend for Bridgestone. After a new qualifying lap record was set yesterday, today Lorenzo set a new race lap record and the overall race time was also the quickest ever, with the top riders averaging around half a second per lap quicker for the entire twenty-four laps compared to the previous record race time at Motegi. The track temperature today was also significantly cooler than yesterday, but our tyre allocation for this year’s Japanese Grand Prix proved adaptable enough to deal with this change in conditions, so overall I am very happy with our results here at Motegi.”

Jorge Lorenzo, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – Race Winner

“I’m really happy to get this second win in a row after my victory at Aragon. Here I knew I had a good pace, I want to thank Yamaha for the great job they’ve done to make our bike so competitive. I didn’t expect to build such a big gap during the race, but in the final laps both Marc and Valentino were really quick so I had to push right until the end and it was enough to win the race.”