2012 Catalan motorcycle Grand Prix

  2012 Catalan Grand Prix

Race details
Race 5 of 18 races in the 2012 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	3 June 2012
Official name	Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya
Location	Circuit de Catalunya
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.727 km (2.937 mi)
MotoGP
Pole position
Rider	Casey Stoner	Honda
Time	1:41.295
Fastest lap
Rider	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha
Time	1:42.642
Podium
First	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha
Second	Dani Pedrosa	Honda
Third	Andrea Dovizioso	Yamaha
Moto2
Pole position
Rider	Marc Márquez	Suter
Time	1:46.187
Fastest lap
Rider	Thomas Lüthi	Suter
Time	1:46.631
Podium
First	Andrea Iannone	Speed Up
Second	Thomas Lüthi	Suter
Third	Marc Márquez	Suter
Moto3
Pole position
Rider	Maverick Viñales	FTR Honda
Time	1:52.160
Fastest lap
Rider	Álex Márquez	Suter Honda
Time	1:52.583
Podium
First	Maverick Viñales	FTR Honda
Second	Sandro Cortese	KTM
Third	Miguel Oliveira	Suter Honda

The 2012 Catalan motorcycle Grand Prix was the fifth round of the 2012 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season and the 17th Catalan motorcycle Grand Prix. It took place on the weekend of 1–3 June 2012 at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. The three classes of motorcycle racing which took place during the weekend were MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3.

Casey Stoner qualified on pole position in MotoGP, but it was his Repsol Honda teammate, Dani Pedrosa, who started in fifth place that took the lead at the first corner. Ben Spies was in second place for the first three laps, but slid off the track when challenging for the lead. This allowed the other factory Yamaha rider and championship leader Jorge Lorenzo to move up into second place and engage in a race long battle for the win with Pedrosa. Meanwhile, Stoner was behind the Tech 3 Yamaha of Andrea Dovizioso, and was battling with the other of Cal Crutchlow. He eventually beat Crutchlow to take fourth place whilst Dovizioso took the first podium of the year for the Tech 3 Yamaha team. As a consequence of the race, Lorenzo increased his lead in the riders' standings to 20 points over Stoner. Pedrosa remained third in the standings, with 30 fewer points than Lorenzo.

In Moto2, Marc Márquez took his fourth consecutive pole position by beating championship leader and fellow Spaniard Pol Espargaró by two-tenths of a second. Thomas Lüthi completed the front row with Andrea Iannone in fourth place; it was these four riders who dominated the race, staying in close company for the majority of it too. Iannone led almost every lap to take the victory, but had to resist pressure in the closing laps to take his first win of the season. Lüthi finished second and Márquez finished third after winning an appeal against a one-minute penalty issued by the FIM for a collision between himself and Espargaró, which had resulted in retirement of the Kalex rider with three laps remaining. The result rearranged the order in the riders' standings with Lüthi now leading the way on 88 points with Márquez only 2 behind. Not far behind them were Espargaró and Iannone, still firmly in contention, on 71 and 70 points respectively, the reduced gap down to the Italian's victory.

The Moto3 race was not as close as the one in the other two categories as Maverick Viñales won his home race from pole position. It was his second victory of the season. Zulfahmi Khairuddin's first front-row for any Malaysian rider, second place, failed to translate into a great result and he finished down in eighth. It was a close eighth though, as he and the six riders in front of him had squabbled in close proximity for the majority of the race allowing Viñales to break away. Sandro Cortese and Miguel Oliveira emerged victorious in the tight battle to the line to take second and third place to complete the podium. Álex Márquez set the fastest lap of the race. As a consequence of the race, Cortese was still leading the riders' standings on 87 points but, with victory, Viñales was now just 7 points behind him. Luis Salom remained third in the standings, but was now on a fairly distant 55 points, 32 fewer than Cortese.

Report

MotoGP

Background and qualifying

Jorge Lorenzo entered the event leading the Riders' standings following his win at the preceding event – the French Grand Prix.^[1] Reigning world champion Casey Stoner was second in the standings, eight points behind Lorenzo, whilst his Honda teammate, Dani Pedrosa, was seventeen points behind him.^[2] Yamaha led the way in the Manufacturers' standings, all 90 of their points courtesy of Lorenzo. Honda were 4 points behind them, and Ducati remained in third place after Valentino Rossi scored their first podium of the season in Le Mans. Colin Edwards returned to his CRT ride after breaking his collarbone at the Portuguese Grand Prix four weeks previously; he had been replaced with Chris Vermeulen for the French Grand Prix.^[2] Bridgestone took asymmetric tyres to the race for the bikes to compensate for the large number of long, right-handed corners on the track.

Stoner took pole position in qualifying for the event, his second of the season, and the third for his team.^[3] Lorenzo qualified in second position, one tenth slower than the pole time. Crutchlow completed the front row by qualifying third for the third time in the season for the Tech 3 Yamaha team. A resurgent Ben Spies set a time fast enough for fourth position, but was still only the third fastest Yamaha on the grid. Stoner's teammate Pedrosa, the polesitter from the previous race, qualified fifth, after he ran off the track on his final timed run. He was in front of the other Tech 3 Yamaha of Andrea Dovizioso, who completed the closely matched top six with a time just fourth tenths slower than Stoner's. The first Ducati rider was Nicky Hayden, who started the third row of the grid. He was followed by the LCR Honda of Stefan Bradl, who took his best qualifying position of the season so far, and then Valentino Rossi. Álvaro Bautista was accompanied by Barberá and Karel Abraham on the fourth row of the grid. Behind them, in thirteenth, Randy de Puniet was the highest qualifying CRT rider. Colin Edwards was fourteenth behind him on his return alongside Aleix Espargaró, de Puniet's teammate. Michele Pirro, James Ellison, Mattia Pasini, Yonny Hernández, Danilo Petrucci and Iván Silva were sixteenth to twenty-first respectively, completing the grid on the final two rows.^[4]

Cal Crutchlow set the fastest time in the warm-up session for the event in slippery conditions on the morning of the race, with Stoner second fastest and Rossi third, narrowly ahead of an impressive Bautista. The conditions lead to crashes from some riders, including falls from Pedrosa, James Ellison and Héctor Barberá.^[5]

Race

The conditions at the start of the race were warm and humid, with an ambient temperature of 27 °C (81 °F) and a track temperature of 38 °C (100 °F). All the riders chose to race on the softer tyre on both the front and rear, except from the two Repsol Hondas of Stoner and Pedrosa, who started with the harder tyre on both front and rear.^[6]

At the start of the race, Pedrosa took the lead at the first turn, despite his fifth place starting spot.^[7] Ben Spies, who had moved up into second, attempted to overtake Pedrosa around the outside of turn 3, but had to give best. His teammate, Lorenzo, had dropped down to third in front of polesitter Stoner.^[8] The two Tech 3 Yamahas were fifth and sixth, with Dovizioso ahead of Crutchlow. Later on in the first lap, Dovizioso overtook Stoner for fourth place while Nicky Hayden dropped from seventh to tenth – first behind Stefan Bradl, then behind teammate Rossi and next behind Álvaro Bautista. Stoner then ran slightly wide, allowing Crutchlow to take fifth place. On the third lap, Spies once again tried to take the lead from Pedrosa at Turn 3, and temporarily did. However, he continued to run off into the gravel before falling off his bike and having to rejoin the track down in last place.^[8][9]

The order then began to settle down, and the top five of Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Crutchlow and Stoner began to pull out a gap to the rest the field. Behind them, Bautista, Bradl, and the Ducatis of Rossi and Hayden continued to fight over the following four places. Lorenzo took the lead from Pedrosa at the first turn on the sixth lap of the race, and started to build a gap immediately.^[8] Meanwhile, Stoner overtook Crutchlow to regain the position he had lost on the first lap, but the pair had already fallen two seconds behind the leading three bikes by this point.

On lap 11, Pedrosa retook the lead from Lorenzo on the main straight, while Dovizioso remained close behind the pair. On the following lap, whilst trying to regain the position, Lorenzo overshot at the corner and was forced to ride across the kerbs to avoid the gravel.^[8] Dovizioso fell back to the ongoing battle between Stoner and Crutchlow on lap 15, whilst another battle between Bautista (sixth) and Rossi (seventh) began to catch up.^[10] After numerous attempts, Lorenzo managed to pass Pedrosa again to take the lead of the race with 6 laps remaining with a manoeuvre down the inside of turn 10.^[11] Pedrosa had a large, unintentional wheelie entering the corner due to problems with his bike, possibly allowing the pass to happen.^[12] The two riders now had a large lead over everyone else, but Pedrosa began to fall back from Lorenzo in the final three laps. On the 23rd and penultimate lap, Ben Spies managed to return into the top 10 by overtaking Héctor Barberá (Spies had been running in eleventh since lap 12, half-way through the race).^[9] On the final lap, Stoner managed to pull away from Crutchlow and catch up with Dovizioso; however, he wasn't able to make a pass and take a podium place.^[6]

Jorge Lorenzo won the race to take his third victory of the season in front of his home fans, extending his championship lead over Stoner to 20 points.^[7][13] Lorenzo also set the fastest lap of the race. Dani Pedrosa finished second, a result he was disappointed with because he felt he could have won the race.^[12] He remained in third place in the stadings, 30 points adrift of Lorenzo.^[11] Andrea Dovizioso completed the podium, taking Yamaha Tech 3's, and his, first podium of the season. Dovizioso described the good result as a "beautiful" moment.^[14] He was closely pursued by Stoner at the end of a race, whose fourth-place finish was his first off the podium in 2012. Stoner conceded that the decision to use the harder tyres instead of the soft was a wrong one because it cost him too much time at the start of the race.^[6] Cal Crutchlow's fifth place left him behind his teammate in the championship, but was a good result nonetheless. Crutchlow said the result could have been better if a "lack of experience" hadn't lead to him being conservative at the beginning of the race.^[15] Álvaro Bautista finished the race in sixth position, ahead of Valentino Rossi on the improving Ducati bike.^[10] Stefan Bradl finished eighth, where he had started, and Nicky Hayden finished ninth. The Yamaha team stated that they were pleased with Ben Spies' performance, despite his fall near the start of the race – he finished in tenth place.^[9] The Ducati riders of Barberá and Abraham finished in eleventh and twelfth, ahead of the top finishing CRT rider of Aleix Espargaró (who simultaneously became the highest ranking CRT rider in standings). Michele Pirro and Randy de Puniet, Espargaró's teammate, completed the points in fourteenth and fifteenth. The other five classified riders were Ellison, Pasini, Hernández, Petrucci and Silva; Edwards was not classified as he finished in the pitlane, one lap down.^[16]

Moto2

^{[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]}

Moto3

KTM rider Sandro Cortese entered the event leading the Riders' standings on total of 67 points. 12 points behind him was his championship rival, the FTR Honda of Maverick Viñales. The Kalex KTM of Luis Salom was third in the standings, six points behind Viñales. In the Manufacturers' standings, FTR and KTM were joint in the lead, each with a total of 68 points. Kalex had accumulated the third highest total of 56 points.^[26]

In qualifying for the race, Maverick Viñales took his second pole position of the season, and his second in succession, by setting a time nearly three-tenths faster than the rest of the field.^[27] Zulfahmi Khairuddin became the first Malaysian to ever achieve a front row start in a motorcycle Grand Prix, when he set the second fastest time for KTM. The winner of the previous race, and Viñales' FTR Honda teammate, Louis Rossi, took the final front row spot of third place.^[28] Sandro Cortese qualified fourth after suffering a heavy crash in that morning's practice session. He suffered heavy bruising to his right hand, and had to have blood drained during the session. Fifth place went to Miguel Oliveira, the Suter rider, who was at the centre of drama late on in the session, as his swift move across the track took out Alan Techer and Brad Binder. None of the riders were hurt in the incident. The second row was completed by Binder's teammate Luis Salom, who like Viñales and various other riders, was in front of his home crowd. Alexis Masbou qualified seventh for his 100th Grand Prix start. Efrén Vázquez, Héctor Faubel and Álex Márquez completed the top ten. Romano Fenati, winner of the Spanish Grand Prix earlier in 2012, had a disappointing session, and could only manage thirteenth.^[29] All 34 riders successfully set a lap time, and all started the following day's race.^[30]

In the warm up session, on the day of the race, Viñales once again set the fastest time, with Rossi second and Vázquez third, albeit seven-tenths off the pace.^{[31][32][33][34][35]}

Classification

MotoGP

Pos	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	25	43:07.681	2	25
2	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	25	+5.003	5	20
3	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Yamaha	25	+9.361	6	16
4	1	Casey Stoner	Honda	25	+9.544	1	13
5	35	Cal Crutchlow	Yamaha	25	+12.506	3	11
6	19	Álvaro Bautista	Honda	25	+13.948	10	10
7	46	Valentino Rossi	Ducati	25	+17.555	9	9
8	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	25	+23.478	8	8
9	69	Nicky Hayden	Ducati	25	+30.410	7	7
10	11	Ben Spies	Yamaha	25	+32.897	4	6
11	8	Héctor Barberá	Ducati	25	+36.144	11	5
12	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	25	+56.229	12	4
13	41	Aleix Espargaró	ART	25	+1:08.054	15	3
14	51	Michele Pirro	FTR	25	+1:08.775	16	2
15	14	Randy de Puniet	ART	25	+1:10.483	13	1
16	77	James Ellison	ART	25	+1:13.090	17
17	54	Mattia Pasini	ART	25	+1:20.903	18
18	68	Yonny Hernández	BQR	25	+1:21.235	19
19	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ioda	25	+1:41.207	20
20	22	Iván Silva	BQR	25	+1:41.888	21
NC	5	Colin Edwards	Suter	24	+1 lap	14
OFFICIAL MOTOGP REPORT

Moto2

Pos	No	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	29	Andrea Iannone	Speed Up	23	41:16.852	4	25
2	12	Thomas Lüthi	Suter	23	+0.083	3	20
3	93	Marc Márquez	Suter	23	+1.137	1	16
4	80	Esteve Rabat	Kalex	23	+12.516	9	13
5	3	Simone Corsi	FTR	23	+14.226	5	11
6	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Kalex	23	+15.072	12	10
7	77	Dominique Aegerter	Suter	23	+16.255	6	9
8	4	Randy Krummenacher	Kalex	23	+16.354	20	8
9	36	Mika Kallio	Kalex	23	+16.606	19	7
10	45	Scott Redding	Kalex	23	+16.793	7	6
11	5	Johann Zarco	Motobi	23	+17.298	14	5
12	38	Bradley Smith	Tech 3	23	+22.242	13	4
13	71	Claudio Corti	Kalex	23	+23.763	16	3
14	15	Alex de Angelis	Suter	23	+24.069	10	2
15	18	Nicolás Terol	Suter	23	+27.039	15	1
16	81	Jordi Torres	Tech 3	23	+32.158	11
17	76	Max Neukirchner	Kalex	23	+34.389	26
18	14	Ratthapark Wilairot	Suter	23	+35.387	27
19	88	Ricard Cardús	AJR	23	+35.501	25
20	47	Ángel Rodríguez	Bimota	23	+35.623	21
21	72	Yuki Takahashi	Suter	23	+35.803	22
22	49	Axel Pons	Kalex	23	+36.903	28
23	7	Alexander Lundh	MZ-RE Honda	23	+1:16.309	30
24	10	Marco Colandrea	FTR	23	+1:18.573	31
25	82	Elena Rosell	Moriwaki	23	+1:35.551	32
DSQ	95	Anthony West	Moriwaki	23	(+52.636)[36]	29
Ret	40	Pol Espargaró	Kalex	20	Collision	2
Ret	44	Roberto Rolfo	Suter	20	Retirement	18
Ret	24	Toni Elías	Suter	19	Retirement	8
Ret	60	Julián Simón	Suter	0	Collision	17
Ret	8	Gino Rea	Suter	0	Collision	23
Ret	63	Mike Di Meglio	Speed Up	0	Collision	24
OFFICIAL MOTO2 REPORT

Moto3

Pos	No	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	25	Maverick Viñales	FTR Honda	22	41:50.965	1	25
2	11	Sandro Cortese	KTM	22	+7.752	4	20
3	44	Miguel Oliveira	Suter Honda	22	+7.853	5	16
4	96	Louis Rossi	FTR Honda	22	+8.007	3	13
5	10	Alexis Masbou	Honda	22	+8.075	7	11
6	12	Álex Márquez	Suter Honda	22	+8.267	11	10
7	55	Héctor Faubel	Kalex KTM	22	+8.355	9	9
8	63	Zulfahmi Khairuddin	KTM	22	+8.480	2	8
9	5	Romano Fenati	FTR Honda	22	+8.600	13	7
10	39	Luis Salom	Kalex KTM	22	+16.023	6	6
11	84	Jakub Kornfeil	FTR Honda	22	+16.127	12	5
12	27	Niccolò Antonelli	FTR Honda	22	+16.222	10	4
13	89	Alan Techer	TSR Honda	22	+16.792	21	3
14	23	Alberto Moncayo	Kalex KTM	22	+30.132	17	2
15	8	Jack Miller	Honda	22	+30.132	20	1
16	53	Jasper Iwema	FGR Honda	22	+30.304	25
17	26	Adrián Martín	FTR Honda	22	+30.663	28
18	21	Iván Moreno	FTR Honda	22	+30.970	23
19	17	John McPhee	KRP Honda	22	+31.042	15
20	52	Danny Kent	KTM	22	+43.738	14
21	31	Niklas Ajo	KTM	22	+43.765	24
22	61	Arthur Sissis	KTM	22	+44.119	19
23	15	Simone Grotzkyj	Suter Honda	22	+1:02.007	26
24	32	Isaac Viñales	FTR Honda	22	+1:11.320	27
25	51	Kenta Fujii	TSR Honda	22	+1:19.060	33
26	3	Luigi Morciano	Ioda	22	+1:19.314	34
27	30	Giulian Pedone	Suter Honda	22	+1:19.331	32
28	19	Alessandro Tonucci	FTR Honda	21	+1 lap	18
Ret	99	Danny Webb	Mahindra	16	Accident	31
Ret	77	Marcel Schrötter	Mahindra	16	Retirement	30
Ret	42	Álex Rins	Suter Honda	15	Accident	16
Ret	7	Efrén Vázquez	FTR Honda	15	Accident	8
Ret	41	Brad Binder	Kalex KTM	6	Collision	22
Ret	94	Jonas Folger	Ioda	4	Retirement	29
OFFICIAL MOTO3 REPORT

References

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