The Spanish Grand Prix promised to be spectacular, and the over 131,000 fans present at the Jerez Circuit were not disappointed. After a practically non-existent pre-season, an injury in his right hand and a rough start to the championship, Dani Pedrosa today exhibited his full talent in a crushing performance on the Jerez Circuit. The Repsol rider took the first position right from the start, and no one was capable of keeping up with his pace.
A consecutive series of fast laps throughout the beginning of the race slowly increased his advantage over his pursuers, enjoying up to a 4 seconds’ lead at mid-race over the second rider, Italian Valentino Rossi. Well informed by the Repsol Honda Team members from behind the wall on the finish-line straight, Pedrosa kept up a fast pace, lap after lap, his advantage over his pursuers always under control, until he completed the 27 laps of the race. With this victory and the third position at the Qatar Grand Prix, Dani Pedrosa now leads the top category in the best possible scenario a Spanish rider could ever hope for, the Spanish Grand Prix.
American Repsol Honda Team rider Nicky Hayden also ran a good race, and though he just missed the podium riding behind Rossi and Lorenzo, an incident where he almost hit the ground forced him to finally lose touch with the Yamaha riders and finished fourth. With this result, Hayden is now seventh in the general classification.
In a rough race in the 250cc category, Julián Simón was finally seventh after a race riddled with problems. The Repsol rider got off to a good start where he overtook two rivals and placed himself in third position by the first curve. But when braking at the curve before the finish line, Simonelli swerved in on his inside, brushing him and knocking him off his line, losing precious metres. However, that was the least of his problems, because when the race was not yet halfway through he began to feel discomfort in his right forearm which had already conditioned his performance during the first race.
The victory went to Finnish rider Mika Kallio, who receives support from Repsol, after finding himself in first position when Bautisa and Simonelli fell when the engine of the Spanish rider’s Aprilia seized up. The Finnish rider’s teammate, Hiroshi Aoyama, was fourth. In the first race of the day, which finished with Simone Corsi, Nico Terol and Bradley Smith occupying the three steps on the podium, Esteve Rabat was finally twelfth.
The Repsol rider got off to a good start from sixteenth position, with hopes high after the improvements shown during the morning warm-ups, where he was third. However, in spite of overtaking up to eight rivals during the race, he soon started to lose ground with respect to the leading group, due to problems with grip in the rear tyre of his KTM 125 FRR.
In the end, Rabat stayed in a group formed by Koyama, De Rosa and Cortese, struggling for tenth position. In this way, he added the first four points of the season and has his sights set on the next Grand Prix in Portugal, where teammate Marc Márquez is expected to be back in action, fully recovered from his injury.
Dani Pedrosa, >> Audio
1st, 45’35.121 sec.
‘This is my first MotoGP win at Jerez and I’m very happy about today’s performance because it comes after a difficult winter during which we couldn’t test so much after I crashed and broke my right hand in January. To score good results in two complicated races and lead the championship is very important. I got a good start, not spectacular like in Qatar, but effective, so I was able t o take the lead. I did my best, I focused on not making mistakes and I was able to manage the race all the way to the finish and get a win in front of the Spanish fans. The crowd gave me incredible support, I hope they enjoyed the race, and it was an honour to get my trophy from the King. Today we are happy but we know that we have to keep working because Yamaha and Ducati are very competitive. We stay here for two days testing that will be crucial in helping us continue development of the RC212V in preparation for the next races.’
Nicky Hayden, >> Audio
4th at 10.142 sec.
‘It was fun to be competitive, to come into that stadium section the first lap with 130,000 people coming alive, bombs going off, it was cool, it was nice to be there in the mix. Obviously we’d like to have been having some bubbly afterwards, but the bike worked the best it’s worked all weekend and I was pushing hard. After I dropped back a bit I made a run on them, I was trying to give those guys a fight. Then I stayed on the brake a bit too long into turn one an d pretty much crashed. It was elbow down and I thought it was done, but the front tyre was good, so I picked it up on the knee and saved it. You can ride these bikes so hard now and the front tyres are so good, that’s the first time I’ve done that. All in all it’s been a good day for Repsol Honda, so thanks to my team and for the support from all the guys. We came in here a lot more competitive, hopefully we can keep rolling from here and keep moving up.’
Julián Simón, >> Audio
7th at 16.372 sec.
‘We got off to a good start and I was soon among the first four. I kept up my pace well, as I had some very good sensations at the start of the race. Bautista and Simonelli overtook me in the curve leading to the finish line, Simonelli brushed me and I had to open out. I lost some ground there, and some more when Aoyama and Debón also touched me. But when there were still sixteen laps left to go I had the same problem that has been dogging me for a long time. My right forearm, the hand on the accelerator, got cramped again and I couldn’t feel anything. I spent the whole race with a lot of pain in my arm. It was a shame because the circumstances today allowed for a podium. I’m a bit unhappy about that, but we did a good job this weekend and I would like to thank the mechanics for their effort.’
Esteve Rabat, >> Audio
12th at 33.987 sec.
‘I’m a bit upset because this morning in the warm-up it looked like the bike was running well, but afterwards it was not the case. I got off to a good start and tried to chase the leading group, but I don’t know what happened during the third lap that my rear tyre started to skid a lot. That made me lose many positions, because if not, I could see that I was going to fall. I preferred to just finish the race and add a few points instead of falling off the bike, because I was always pushing it to the limit and I was still running a slow pace. I would like to thank Repsol and the team for all their support, because I’m going through a bad patch and they are trying to help me get through it as soon as possible. Now it’s time to work towards the next race, keep our spirits high, and to keep trying.’
