Pedrosa Over Lorenzo In Germany

Paul Carruthers | July 18, 2010

Jorge Lorenzo is beatable. Dani Pedrosa showed that today with an impeccable ride at the Sachsenring, the Spaniard hounding his countryman Lorenzo, making his move with 12 laps to go in the red-flag interrupted race, and then pulling away to the win. And Valentino Rossi is still a hero. Perhaps even more so after narrowly missing out on a podium finish in his return to GP racing after a six-week layoff with a broken leg.Pedrosa’s second win of the season will be a confidence builder as the MotoGP World Championship arrives at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this coming weekend for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix – a race that Pedrosa won handily last year.”I’m very happy because we are back winning races and it’s a great feeling,” Pedrosa said. “It wasn’t easy today because when the race is stopped and restarted like that, sometimes you don’t have the same feeling on the machine in the second part. Also you get nervous again on the grid and it’s possible you won’t have the same pace after the restart. But it went very well for us in both races. In the first one I was very close to Lorenzo and the pace was good, but then they stopped the race and we looked at each other saying, ‘Why?’ It was even better in the second part. We just made one small change with the rear suspension to get a bit more traction, but we didn’t change the tyre because we didn’t have any new tyres left – we went with the same ones. I made another good start and in the first laps after Lorenzo had passed me I was pushing very to try to take him back. I couldn’t do it with my first attempt, but when I got a second chance I just went for it. Then it was a great feeling to stretch ahead and get the victory – the team deserve it. This victory is even better than the one in Italy 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. I was really looking forward to wear the Spain shirt on the podium. It was difficult to get it because it wasn’t in the shops and I really wanted to celebrate a win like that. I also want to thank the team because they worked really well this weekend, the bike was very good from Friday onwards and this is the form we need so we can to keep this consistency going from now on.”Lorenzo’s second maintains his healthy points lead, the Majorcan steadfast on 185 points to Pedrosa’s 138.Third place today went to Marlboro Ducati’s Casey Stoner with the Australian pushing his way past Rossi in the final corner to take the spot. Those two had done battle for the majority of the restarted race and it came down to the bitter end with the duo passing each other back and forth over the final few laps. Even though he missed out on the podium, Rossi’s effort only further added to his legacy as the greatest MotoGP rider of all-time.”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,” Rossi said in a team release. ‘In the end I was fourth, but I had a great battle with Casey [Stoner] 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. 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.”Three riders battled to the very end for fifth place with the spot ultimately going to Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso over San Carlo Honda’s Marco Simoncelli and Marlboro Ducati’s Nicky Hayden. Those three fought over the spot for most of the second portion of the race and they took the fight to the finish line.Dovizioso is third in the title chase with 102 points, 19 clear of Stoner. Hayden is fifth with 78 points with Rossi closing back in on 74 points.Texan Ben Spies rode to a lonely eighth, the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha man within sight of the battle for fifth at the end after starting well back on the grid.A big crash on the ninth lap of the original start brought out the red flag when LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet crashed in turn four. Rizla Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista and Aleix Espargaro had no where to go and they struck de Puniet’s bike, the Honda then bursting into flames in the middle of the track. With Bautista and Espargaro escaping injury, de Puniet wasn’t as fortunate as he suffered a broken leg in the crash.

Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Colin Edwards was already out of the race by this point when he crashed by himself a lap earlier.With Mika Kallio crashing his Pramac Ducati in the first corner on the restart, there were only 12 finishers in the race.

MotoGP

1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)

2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)

3. Casey Stoner (Ducati)

4. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)

5. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)

6. Marco Simoncelli (Honda)

7. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)

8. Ben Spies (Yamaha)

9. Hector Barbera (Ducati)

10. Marco Melandri (Honda)