Motorcycle News

SUNDAY 18 JULY, 2010 |

MotoGP: Pedrosa claims the German GP over Lorenzo

by Motorsport.com | post a comment

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.

"Dani was very, very strong and I was on the limit trying to stay ahead," admitted Lorenzo. "When he passed me I tried briefly to stay with him but he was much faster than me today and I was going to have to take a lot of risks to stay with him; the safest thing for me to do was finish second and take 20 points for the championship. I am happy because I never really liked this track and now I've been second here two years in a row. Now we go to Laguna and I am very excited about racing there again."

Behind the battle upfront Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi scrapped for third until the final lap. Rossi showed little sign that his injured leg was bothering him and charged up the field into third place with Stoner just behind. They traded positions in a challenging yet respectful battle over the final podium. In the last lap it seemed Rossi would be able to grab third in his first race since his accident in Italy but Stoner made a strategically brilliant move to pass in the final corner and beat Rossi in a drag race to the finish. Third went to the Australian with Rossi crossing just behind in forth.

Stoner talked about his fight with Rossi, "He was taking big chunks of time out of me and to be honest once he got past I didn't think I'd be able to follow. I tried really hard to stay in there and we had a good battle with a lot of nice passes. I tried one last time at the bottom of the hill, where he tried to close the line on me but I was already there. We touched but it was a good, clean fight and I'm just pleased to come away with a podium. We had hoped to be a little closer to the front here but we're happy with this."

The Doctor failed to podium but the fight proved he's back into the fight after ending up only missing four races of the season. "I didn't expect this! I thought it was maybe possible to make fourth or fifth place but I thought it would be very difficult. In the end I was fourth but I had a great battle with Casey and I was so close to the podium, so this is a fantastic result after missing four races. I need some more kilometres to really recover the feeling and feel completely okay with the bike again, but I think I did a great job and this was a very good comeback, better than we could wish for."

As for his injuries, Rossi was too caught in the moment to notice, "I felt a bit of pain in my shoulder but more in the leg when changing direction, but at the end the battle with Casey was such fun that I didn't think about it. Unfortunately though he just got the better of me on the last corner! Thanks to all my team for helping me come back and be competitive like this, we will try to do even better in Laguna."

Andrea Dovizioso came out ahead in a three-way battle for fifth with rookie Marco Simoncelli, who had his best result of the year in sixth, and Nicky Hayden in seventh. Ben Spies rounded off the top eight, finishing three seconds back from Hayden.

The next race will be States-side at Laguna Seca in California next weekend. It will be a logistical challenge to pack the field and ship them across the Atlantic and to the West Coast. Chances are de Puniet will have to miss this race but like Rossi he will be working hard to recover quickly.

While Rossi and Stoner battled for second today the two seem set for another showdown off the track as Stoner's offcial announcement of switching to Honda next year opened the floodgates of rumors on Rossi's dream move to the Italian Ducati team. The silly season is in full affect with Ben Spies slated for taking the Italian rider's spot with Fiat Yamaha, making Lorenzo the de facto number one rider in the camp. As for now when asked about his future plans, Rossi stated he won't announce anything until after Brno in mid-august.

By David C. Schilke

News for Friday 25 June, 2010