MotoGP: Pedrosa claims the German GP over Lorenzo

The winning streak was finally broken, but not without a fight. Polesitter Jorge Lorenzo tried to hold off Dani Pedrosa for the German GP lead to extend his tally of consecutive victories but the Repsol Honda rider proved to be too determined to claim first place for himself. Even a red flag mid race could not stop the race long battle between the two Spaniards.

"This victory is even better than the one in Italy," explained Pesrosa, "because at Mugello I just went away in front and there was no battle with anybody, but here I was battling with Lorenzo in the first and second race, and finally beat him, so this is even more important. Also before the race we were not 100 per cent sure about what the weather would do, but it stayed clear and finally the weekend has ended perfectly."

At the start Lorenzo bobbled off the line and almost looked to be stuck in fourth before exiting out of turn one just behind the leader Pedrosa. Within a few laps the Fiat Yamaha rider was able to overtake his rival for the lead. Lorenzo would go on to keep the lead to lap nine, when the red flag came out for an accident involving three riders.

Randy de Puniet dumped his bike in the race line and neither Alvaro Bautista nor Aleix Espargaro could avoid running into it. De Puniet's bike burst into flame, much like Lorenzo's oil fire in qualifying, but the marshals were quick to respond and put the fire out. The race was red flagged for 25 minutes for cleanup while de Puniet was taken in for an examination which found he had broken his left leg. Per the rules of MotoGP, Espargaro and Bautista were not able to restart.

"It can't be worse than this!" lamented de Puniet. "I took a bad start from the third row but I was back to ninth and my race pace was pretty good. I could push for the sixth place despite my painful ankle after yesterday's crash in the qualifying. Suddenly I crashed at exit of turn 4 and one bike hit my left leg. I immediately realized that it was something serious and after the X-ray we discovered the truth."

With the race distance now shortened Pedrosa went on attack, trying to find a way past his fellow countryman. He made a move into turn 1 but Lorenzo was able to keep a tighter line and came out still holding the lead. Lorenzo was strong in the other prime passing spot going into turn 13 so Pedrosa had to make it stick coming off the front straight. On lap 12 he made the pass, setting a new track record as he did it. It was soon clear how much Lorenzo was holding back the Honda rider when Pedrosa started to pull a gap that would be over three seconds long by the end of the race.

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