Awesome foursome for Jorge Lorenzo

YAMAHA’S Jorge Lorenzo slashed teammate Valentino Rossi’s championship lead to a single point on Sunday with his fourth win in a row at an eventful Catalan MotoGP in Spain.

The victory on a scorching afternoon also handed the Spaniard a MotoGP record with 103 successive laps led, breaking Australian Casey Stoner’s previous benchmark of 88. Rossi completed a onetwo finish for Yamaha, the team’s second of the season, while Honda’s Dani Pedrosa was third.

Rossi now has 138 points to Lorenzo’s 137. Reigning double world champion Marc Marquez’s poor season continued as he failed to finish for the second successive race, crashing out on the third lap while fighting Lorenzo for the lead.

“I was on my home circuit and I wanted to give 100 percent,” the Honda rider, now 69 points behind Rossi and with his hopes of a third successive title fading fast, told reporters. Rossi’s poor form in qualifying continued and he had to work his way through the pack, having started in seventh, but could not put any real pressure on Lorenzo once in second place. French rider Johann Zarco won the Moto2 race on a Kalex, and Danny Kent from Britain won Moto3 on a Honda. South African brothers Brad and Darryn Binder had mixed fortunes in the Moto3 race, with 19-yearold Brad finishing ninth and 17-year-old Darryn crashing out five laps from the end.

- Reuters MotoGP standings: 1. Valentino Rossi (Italy) Yamaha 138 2. Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha 137 3. Andrea Iannone (Italy) Ducati 94 4. Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Ducati 83 5. Marc Marquez (Spain) Honda 69 6. Bradley Smith (Britain) Yamaha 39