A clever and entirely fashionable ‘flash mob’ marketing tactic by the factory Yamaha MotoGP team saw Jorge Lorenzo appear in a swiftly sealed-off street and adjacent to the towering rear entrance of the cathedral as if on a MotoGP grid. His Yamaha team shed their casual disguises and helped with the process the crew go through every other Sunday afternoon.

The morning air in the Catalan capital was soon disturbed by an Akrapovic exhaust as Lorenzo made his ‘start’ and disappeared down the road. Shocked passers by then saw the scene evaporate as quickly as it had unfolded.

‘It was really cool to do and took a lot of organisation with the police and Dorna who helped a lot,” said press officer Gavin Matheson. A full video of the event run to promote the Gran Premi de Catalunya this weekend will be shown on www.motogp.com at 18.00 CET today (Wednesday).