Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo continued his remarkable run in MotoGP->ke2192 after winning his fourth consecutive race at the Catalunya Grand Prix to move within one point of teammate Valentino Rossi->ke1462 in the championship standings.

It was another tour-de-force performance from the 2012 world champion, who led the race from start to finish on the way to holding off Rossi by less than a second to clinch his fourth race win in a row.

Lorenzo’s dominant run is a reflection on the equally peerless form of Yamaha’s factory racing team as it claimed its thrift 1-2 finish in the current season.

Any argument of this season being a close battle between Yamaha, Ducati, and reigning world champion Honda is becoming more and more moot as Yamaha continues to extend its own lead in the manufacturers standings. With almost half of the season completed, Yamaha is sitting comfortably in the standings with 166 points, 47 points clear of second place Ducati (119 points) and 52 ahead of Honda (114 points).

Rossi still leads the riders championship with 138 points, but Lorenzo’s four straight race wins has moved him to a point of Rossi’s number at 137 points. If Lorenzo’s form continues, it’s only going to be a matter of time before he vaults past his teammate as the championship points leader.

Meanwhile, Ducati’s Andrea Iannone has moved to third place in the standings with 94 points on account of his fourth place finish in Barcelona. His teammate, Andrea Dovizioso, still sits at 83 points after failing to finish the race, something he hadn’t done all season long.

Still, the Ducati riders are in a far more promising position compared to Marc Marquez, the reigning world champion who suffered through another crash, his third in the past seven races. Marques remains stuck at 69 points and with every non-finish, combined with Yamaha’s continued dominance, thoughts of winning his third straight MotoGP title is fast turning into a pipe dream.

Honda did get to salvage some pride in Barcelona when Dani Pedrosa finished third during the race.

All told, the Catalunya Grand Prix turned into another Lorenzo romp, his 37th premier class win that put him in equal footing with British legend Mike Halewood.

Continue reading to read more about Jorge Lorenzo's dominant performance at the Catalunya Grand Prix in Barcelona.

Why it matters

I’m beginning to see a trend in the current MotoGP season that doesn’t bode well for those who were hoping to see an exciting racing season.

Trust me, I’m one of those people so it’s a little disappointing (from a suspense standpoint) to see one team dominating the races and pretty much leaving everybody eating its dust.

I thought Honda would be much better than what they’ve showed, especially defending champion Marc Marquez, who has somehow found himself in mired in mediocrity and bad luck. The team itself has had to weather through an avalanche of issues, including surgeries to Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, but it’s still a little hard to see them struggling the way they have this season.

Ducati was a welcome surprise in the early part of the season as they posted one consistent result after another. But the excitement and optimism of a Ducati title run seems to have dissipated as the team has struggled to maintain its early-season form.

If I’m being the glass-half-full-kind-of-a-guy, I’d say that both teams could still make a run in the second half of the season to make the title race interesting.

But the realist in me is winning out and it’s saying that Yamaha has built too big of a lead to be challenged anytime soon. Even if Ducati and/or Honda mount a strong second half of the season, it’s going to be next to impossible to catch Yamaha if Rossi and Lorenzo keep winning races.

So yeah, maybe it’s time to prepare ourselves for a two-man race for the world title. Having two teammates decide the championship certainly adds some amount of intrigue into the picture, but I would’ve still preferred if the title picture involved at least one rider from each of the three top teams.

But that’s motor racing for you. You don’t always get what you want, even though you still cling to hope that it could still pan out that way.