Pedrosa outduels Lorenzo in Germany

From motogp.com

Dani Pedrosa firmed his grip on second in the MotoGP World Championship standings with victory at Sachsenring in the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland on Sunday, his second win of the season, as Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo took second place and Casey Stoner third ahead of a courageous Valentino Rossi in his first race back after injury.

“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,” said the 24 year-old.

Pedrosa had been contesting the lead with Lorenzo in the first race, which was red flagged after nine laps, and did not lose his momentum for the second 21-lap version as he and the Championship leader vied for the lead until Pedrosa began to pull away halfway through.

“I’m very happy because we are back winning races and it’s a great feeling,” he 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.

“We just made one small change with the rear suspension to get a bit more traction for the second race. I made another good start and in the first laps after Lorenzo had passed me I was pushing very hard 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.”

Having competed closely with his fellow Spaniard until halfway through the race Lorenzo opted to avoid taking any risks and settled for second place and another valuable 20 points, having won the previous three races.

"It's always difficult when a race is split like this and I think I didn't ride quite as well in the second race as I felt I had been doing in the first,” said Lorenzo, who now holds a 47-point advantage over Pedrosa in the Championship. “Dani was very, very strong and I was on the limit trying to stay ahead. 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.”

It was another strong result for Lorenzo and came on a track that remains one of just four on the current calendar at which he has still not tasted victory in any GP category.

“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," he added.

Stoner said that he felt the benefit of the race restart. The 25-minute interval before a second 21-lap contest began allowed Stoner and his Ducati team to change the rear tire he was using, an alteration that the Australian said made a big difference.

“I thought it was going to affect us in a bad way but it actually helped us slightly,” said Stoner of the restart. “In the first part of the race we had a new rear tire that wasn’t producing the grip that the tires had been all weekend. I just wasn’t able to keep up with the lap times being set by Dani and Jorge.

“For the second part of the race we went back to a tire we were using in qualifying yesterday so it already had laps on it, and immediately it felt better with more grip and a better feeling in mid-turn. We were able to run a lot faster lap times, maybe three or four-tenths of a second consistently. I tried to chase the top two down but didn’t quite have the pace.”

As Pedrosa and Lorenzo remained ahead, Stoner became engaged in a battle with Rossi for third, a fight the Ducati man won thanks to an overtake on the final corner of the last lap.

“I saw Valentino coming and he had a much higher pace than me and I thought he would just take off if he got past. So I tried to do everything I could to stay with him and when I got an opportunity to overtake him it came down to the last two laps,” explained Stoner. “We had a few nice passes and I just had to go for it in the last corner, and it worked out. I’m pretty happy with the result, and we managed to pick up points when we needed to.”

The 31-year-old Rossi surprised himself with his own display and said, "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. 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.”

The original race was red flagged when a crash for Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) at turn four brought down both Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) and Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Racing), neither of whom could avoid the Frenchman’s bike, which burst into flames.

The top five order at that stage was Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso and Rossi, and the trio involved in the accident were unable to line-up for the shortened 21-lap new race after failing to return to Pit Lane with their bikes within five minutes of the red flag.

De Puniet was physically not able, having sustained fractures in his left tibia and fibula in the incident.

There was a good scrap for fifth between Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team), Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team). Dovizioso finished fifth, with Simoncelli achieving his best premier class result to date in sixth.

American duo Hayden and Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) were seventh and eighth respectively, with Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar) and Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) completing the top 10.

The final two riders to complete the race in 11th and 12th were Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and stand-in rider Alex de Angelis (Interwetten Honda MotoGP).

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) had crashed out on lap seven of the original race.

Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) slid out at turn one in an unfortunate end to his weekend.

Lorenzo now has 185 points at the top of the standings, with Pedrosa second on 138 and Dovizioso third on 102. Stoner moves into fourth, 19 points off Dovizioso.

Toni Elías’ third win of the season came at Sachsenring on Sunday as the Gresini Racing rider triumphed in the Moto2 class at the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland, giving the Spaniard a further grip on the Championship lead.

Elías crossed the line 3.297 secs. clear of Andrea Iannone.

A fantastic last-lap battle for third was played out between Roberto Rolfo and Fonsi Nieto, eventually being won by the Italian.

Elías now has 136 points at the top of the standings, 42 clear of second-placed Thomas Lüthi after a DNF on Sunday. Iannone moves into third, just four points off the Swiss rider thanks to his third podium of the season.

Marc Márquez’s dominance of the 125cc class continued on Sunday, where the 17-year-old Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider benefitted from a late crash for Pol Espargaró to take a fifth consecutive win, with Tomoyoshi Koyama and Sandro Cortese completing the podium in a thrilling contest.

The result means Márquez now holds a 26-point lead at the top of the Championship, with Espargaró remaining second and the absent Nico Terol (Bancaja Aspar) third.

Sixteen-year-old American Jake Gagne won both races at Sachsenring as he took the lead in the Red Bull Rookies Cup standings.

MotoGP Race Results
1. Dani PEDROSA (SPA) Repsol Honda 28:50.476
2. Jorge LORENZO (SPA) Fiat Yamaha +3.355
3. Casey STONER (AUS) Ducati +5.257
4. Valentino ROSSI (ITA) Fiat Yamaha +5.623
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (ITA) Repsol Honda +17.158
6. Marco SIMONCELLI (ITA) San Carlo Gresini Honda +17.757
7. Nicky HAYDEN (USA) Ducati +17.935
8. Ben SPIES (USA) Monster Tech 3 Yamaha +20.957
9. Hector BARBERA (SPA) Paginas Amarillas Aspar Ducati +22.000
10. Marco MELANDRI (ITA) San Carlo Gresini Honda +35.217
11. Loris CAPIROSSI (ITA) Rizla Suzuki +45.042
12. Alex DE ANGELIS (RSM) Interwetten Honda +45.204
Not Classified
Mika KALLIO (FIN) Pramac Ducati 0 Lap
Randy DE PUNIET (FRA) LCR Honda 0 Lap
Alvaro BAUTISTA (SPA) Rizla Suzuki 0 Lap
Aleix ESPARGARO (SPA) Pramac Ducati 0 Lap
Colin EDWARDS (USA) Monster Tech 3 Yamaha 0 Lap

MotoGP Point Standings
1. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha) 185
2. Dani PEDROSA (Honda) 138
3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda) 102
4. Casey STONER (Ducati) 83
5. Nicky HAYDEN (Ducati) 78
6. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha) 74
7. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda) 69
8. Ben SPIES (Yamaha) 67
9. Marco SIMONCELLI (Honda) 49
10. Marco MELANDRI (Honda) 45
11. Hector BARBERA (Ducati) 41
12. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha) 39
13. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki) 30
14. Aleix ESPARGARO (Ducati) 28
15. Alvaro BAUTISTA (Suzuki) 25
16. Mika KALLIO (Ducati) 24
17. Hiroshi AOYAMA (Honda) 18
18. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda) 4
19. Kousuke AKIYOSHI (Honda) 4
20. Wataru YOSHIKAWA (Yamaha) 1