The Spanish Repsol rider carried out his simple race strategy perfectly: get the lead and set an ultra fast pace from the first curve to get away from the rest of the riders and then to make sure that he had a big enough advantage so that he would not be under pressure on the last few laps if his tyres were playing up. And that is what happened.
The Repsol Honda Team, that started second, launched its attack right from the off and Pedrosda was in the lead from the very first curve, and he stayed in that position for the whole 30 laps of the race. Only Stoner was capable of getting past Pedrosa on one curve, but on the next one he made a mistake and Pedrosa overtook the Australian again – he then he got away from all the other riders definitively to race alone, achieving the victory with the biggest gap over the second placed rider – 13’166 seconds – of the 2007 season.
His team mate Nicky Hayden also put in a great performance today. The reigning World Champion, who next week wiil race on home soil at Laguna Seca, started way back in 14th position. After completing the first lap in 10th place the American in the Repsol Honda Team passed rival after rival, some of the falling others making mistakes, to climb in the race classification.
In the end after overtaking Hopkins, Stoner and Melandri in just over one lap Hayden finished in a well-deserved third position, repeating the podium finish he got in Holland a couple of weeks ago.
In the 250cc category the expectations carried by Julián Simón after his good times in training vanished when Alberto Puig`s pupil fell on lap fifteen. The Repsol rider lost three places at the start, but without losing his calm he kept up with the pace set by the leading group. He then overtook Simoncelli and Lorenzo, Simón was then 5th and on the rear wheel of Hiroshi Aoyama`s bike, the race winner, when he came across a lapped rider in the middle of the track. He changed tack but Simón ended up on the ground as his front wheel lost its adherence. His team mate Shuhei Aoyama finished 12th after a very disappointing weekend for the Repsol Honda 250cc Team.
In 125cc, Bradley Smith`s bad start, who was on the first row with the fourth best time, conditioned the rest of his race. The young Briton was left in seventh place but on the first lap lost another three positions, ending the first lap in 10th position.
After that he was able to do little to claw back the lost time – the leading group got away from him completely – and he found himself in the chasing group fighting for ninth position. He crossed the finishing line at the head of this group taking advantage of Gadea`s fall on the last curve to climb one more place and finish 8th. His team mate Esteve Rabat, who was in the same group as Smith for the first part of the race, gradually lost ground as the race went on and in the end he finished 11th.
