Superb victory of Dani Pedrosa at the British Grand Prix.
Team mate Nicky Hayden seventh after a complicated weekend. Bradley Smith, twelfth, scores his first points in the 125cc World Championship in front of his home crowd.
Extraordinary weekend for Repsol rider Dani Pedrosa in Donington, dominating from start to finish, in the free practices, the qualifying session and finally today, in the race. Pedrosa took his second victory in his rookie season in the MotoGP class this afternoon, in Donington, strengthening with this result his second position in the overall standings, while shortening the distance to the leader, his team mate in the Repsol Honda Team Nicky Hayden, by 16 points. And while Dani Pedrosa’s performance in the Grand Prix can be considered as impeccable, North American rider Nicky Hayden was not able to show himself top competitive at any moment along the weekend.
The race started with Melandri taking the lead, closely followed by Pedrosa, Hopkins, Vermeulen, Stoner and Roberts. The group stretched quickly and Nicky Hayden was in a back eighth position after the first lap. A few laps later, Pedrosa was still second and Hayden went off the track at the chicane in lap seven, trying to recover positions, but dropping back to the eleventh place. Benefiting from the crashes and after passing some riders, the leader of the World Championship finally took the chequered flag in seventh position. Neither knowing about Hayden’s fight in order to score as many points as possible in a complicated weekend, nor about the fight for the second position between Rossi, Melandri and Stoner, Dani Pedrosa made the second part of the race in solitary crossing the finish line in first position.
Pedrosa took the leadership of the race on lap eleven, after a fright a few laps before that almost made him crash while trying to pass Melandri, that cost him some positions. From the moment he passed Melandri, his consecutive fast laps allowed him to quickly open a gap taking the chequered flag with an advantage of more than three seconds, although he even managed to have an advantage of more than six seconds during the race. This victory, allows Pedrosa to strengthen his second place in the overall standings, and with the results achieved by Pedrosa and Hayden today, the Repsol Honda Team consolidates its leadership in the overall teams’ standings increasing the advantage over the second, the Camel Yamaha Team, up to 89 points.
Little luck today for Shuhei Aoyama in the quarter-of-a-litre class. Aoyama made a very good start and was fifth after the first lap. In the front, Lorenzo and Dovizioso quickly opened a gap and escaped without leaving any chance to the rest of the pack. In the back, Aoyama and De Angelis took their positions to fight for the third place on the podium. However, in the third lap, Shuhei made a mistake while braking and lost contact to his travel mates, allowing Locatelli, Takahashi and Barberá to catch up with him. After a few laps riding in group, Locatelli and the Repsol rider escaped from the rest and lapped together in fifth and sixth position. It seemed that they would be able to fight for the fifth position until the end of the race but with three laps to go Shuhei suffered a light crash in the first section of the circuit and although he was able to rejoin the race, he crossed the finish line in a back thirteenth position. Winner of the race was Lorenzo.
Bradley Smith will probably keep an especially dear memory of this day. The young British rider managed to score his first points in the Championship in front of his people, making a good race. Bradley improved one position after the start and was fourteenth after the first lap. In the middle of a dense pack in which ten riders where fighting for the eighth place, the young and inexpert Repsol rider managed to keep the pace without making any mistakes and letting the laps go by as he was in sixteenth position. In the last laps, Smith changed the pace and started to recover positions moving up to twelfth, an excellent result that allowed him to score his first four points in his first season in the Motorcycling World Championship.
Rider´s comments
Dani Pedrosa:
‘I’m happy because this was almost the perfect weekend the team did a great job in every session. My start was good and then I pushed really hard and tried to get past Marco but it was not so easy. When I tried to overtake I braked but I couldn’t stop the machine so I was getting closer and closer to him and he was about to turn in. I was saying, ‘please leave room!’ and luckily he did. Then I was able to get back in front. I didn’t know at that point if I could open up a gap because this class is really close, but at the end I slowed down a little bit to be careful. I’m really pleased with the win and I think the English crowd enjoyed the race too, and this British weather is really good! I’m not looking at the championship position because that’s not my target this year. My focus is still on getting the best performance from myself and taking profit from my opportunities.’
Nicky Hayden:
‘It’s been quite a tough weekend and things didn’t quite go for us here. This morning, being fastest in the warm-up in the wet was quite positive and had me hoping for rain in the race, though really we needed that 20 minutes to try a few more things out. We used a quite lot of time on Friday testing some new parts and yesterday we made some progress, though we had a little electrical problem in the afternoon. That’s all excuses though and the bottom line is that we didn’t get it done this weekend. I was coming through the field and making up some places when I made a mistake, got into the chicane bit hot and went straight on. That hurt, but I got back on the track, put my head down and clawed back a few places. We’ll regroup now, think about what didn’t go so well this weekend and try to do better in Sachsenring. Everyone in the team worked really hard this weekend we’ll come back strong at the next race.’
Shuhei Aoyama:
‘I made a good start and I was fifth behind De Angelis and my brother, but in the third lap I made a mistake, braking too late and I lost contact with them. Then I stayed with Locatelli and we lapped together almost throughout the race. As my bike was consuming the fuel of the tank, it went better and I was feeling more comfortable. In the first section of the circuit, the area that goes downwards with several linked corners, the Aprilia was faster but I was able to recover ground in the rest of the circuit. When there were three laps left for the end I pushed a bit harder in the downwards section to get closer to Locatelli and prepare the overtaking manoeuvre, but I lost the front end. It’s been my fault and I’m very sorry for the team. I’m really sorry.’
Bradley Smith:
‘I’m really, really happy, I scored my first points. I thought that I would be able to finish fifteenth or fourteenth but I never expected to finish twelfth so it’s a really nice feeling for me. I have to say that I didn’t obviously expect to finish in such a good position though I really wanted it so bad. We’d had such a good weekend; I had given myself the opportunity with that thirteenth place on the grid and everything was just looking absolutely positive to do a good race. It was definitely a tough race and it took a long time to actually find my pace. But then I had the chance to wait a little bit, take my time to pass people one by one. Then in the end, with ten laps to go I passed them, carried on my way, and just kept my head down chasing Fabrizio Lai, but I wasn’t able to catch him. But it was still a good result.’
Standings:
MotoGP
- D.Pedrosa (Honda) 44’54.878
- V.Rossi (Yamaha) 44’58.742
- M.Melandri (Honda) 44’58.894
- C.Stoner (Honda) 45’00.654
- K.Roberts (KR) 45’04.474
7. N.Hayden (Honda) 45’20.642
World Championship MotoGP
- N.Hayden, 153 points
- D.Pedrosa, 127
- V.Rossi, 118
- M.Melandri, 114
- L.Capirossi, 107
250
- J.Lorenzo (Aprilia) 42’16.321
- A.de Angelis (Aprilia) 42’22.578
- H.Aoyama (KTM) 42’23.687
- R.Locatelli (Aprilia) 42’31.109
- H.Barberá (Aprilia) 42’36.662
13. S.Aoyama (Honda) 43’19.885
World Championship 250
- A.Dovizioso, 159 points
- J.Lorenzo, 158
- A.de Angelis, 111
- H.Aoyama, 108
- Y.Takahashi, 108
11. S.Aoyama, 41
125
- A.Bautista (Aprilia) 40’49.054
- M.Kallio (KTM) 40’52.508
- M.Pasini (Aprilia) 40’52.553
- H.Faubel (Aprilia) 41’03.923
- S.Gadea (Aprilia) 41’06.0861
- B.Smith (Honda) 41’19.118
World Championship 125
- A.Bautista, 185 points
- M.Kallio, 133
- S.Gadea, 114
- M.Pasini, 112
- H.Faubel, 110
21. B.Smith, 4
