The Portuguese Grand Prix finally saw the sun shine on the Estoril track in a race in which, after a tough fight from beginning to end, Andrea Dovizioso stepped on the podium again, in a last lap in which he beat his compatriot Marco Simoncelli in the last few metres. Dani Pedrosa also had a hard-worked race, which took him from twelfth to fifth; although the loss of sensitivity in his left hand forced him to drop his pace six laps from the end, losing positions to cross the finish line eighth.
When the red lights went out, Andrea Dovizioso shot off from the third row to second place, behind Jorge Lorenzo and in front of Nicky Hayden, who passed him before the first lap was completed. Further behind, Dani Pedrosa did not start so well and dropped a position in the first half, although before this lap was complete, he recovered two positions to cross the line in tenth.
Overtaken by Nicky Hayden and after being passed by Rossi and Stoner in the second and third laps, Andrea Dovizioso was fourth in the fifth lap, after the Australian fell. As the laps passed, a group fighting for third place formed behind Nicky Hayden, which Marco Simoncelli and in the tenth lap, Dani Pedrosa joined, after making an outstanding comeback. The Repsol rider, riding at a faster pace than those in front of him, gradually overtook Edwards, De Puniet and Andrea Dovizioso, who after a scare dropped two positions.
At the start of the final third of the race, Dovizioso managed to push the pace again, overtaking Frenchman Randy De Puniet and riding on the wheel of his team-mate Pedrosa, who he overtook in lap 18. He did the same to Nicky Hayden a lap later, climbing to fourth on the tail of Simoncelli.
Pedrosa, who also managed to pass Hayden, retaking fifth, started to lose sensitivity in his left hand during the second half of the race and this allowed Hayden and De Puniet to pass him with eight laps to go. He was then overtaken by Colin Edwards, leaving him in the definitive eighth place.
Out in front, Andrea Dovizioso kept up a tough battle with Marco Simoncelli, in which they switched positions several times until the last lap, with the Repsol rider in front. In the last part, Simoncelli passed Dovizioso, who taking the last long turn at a very fast speed, overtook him in the final straight, taking by 59 milliseconds the sweet reward for a tough week in Portugal.
Dani Pedrosa, 8th 44.947 sec. behind >> Audio
“I have mixed feelings after this race. On one side the fact that I could finish 28 laps is good because from quite early in the race I didn’t know if it would be possible. On the other hand, I could have finished much higher up if I could have maintained the pace we had in the race. From the third lap I lost strength in my left arm and I couldn’t really feel it. Honestly I didn’t think I could keep that pace at the beginning of the race. At one stage I could see that finishing third would have been possible with the pace we were running, but it was impossible because soon I had no power in the arm. On every lap I was feeling more tired and I couldn’t maintain the 1m 39.5 laps. With ten laps to go I couldn’t keep pushing and I dropped back quite a lot. I’m going to have a check-up again with the doctors tomorrow because the arm still feels quite numb , but anyway we’ll have three days to relax and recover to be ready for Valencia. In terms of the position in the championship, I’m 19 points ahead and so I hope to hold on to second place”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 3rd 26.475 sec. behind >> Audio
“To be back onto the podium is so important for us and I’d like to thank my team and fans for their support this weekend. We can’t be completely happy with our pace today because we were a long way from the front two riders, but overall the result is positive for us. The situation at Estoril has been strange for the whole weekend with every session being held in wet conditions and third position was the best we could have done today. It was quite an aggressive battle with Simoncelli but it has always been like this with him, so I needed to have a strategy for the last lap. He was faster than me in T3 and T4 and every time into the chicane he overtook me, but I knew that it was possible to take him out of the last corner because I had a bit more speed onto the straight, so this was my plan – and it worked. Now it’s possible to fight with Stoner for fourth place in the championship and – although it will be difficult because he was fast here before he crashed and also has a ten point lead – this will be our target for Valencia next weekend”.
