The Spanish Repsol Honda Team rider keeps up an unbeatable performance so far in the second half the season. After his second place in the Czech Republic and two wins in a row in Indianapolis and the Republic of San Marino, Pedrosa fought hard today at the Aragon track to achieve his third consecutive victory, eventually taking second place and 20 valuable points in a race won by the Australian Stoner.
After the incidents that occurred at the end of the straight at the start of the race in the lower categories, the MotoGP riders approached the first left-hand turn of Motorland Aragon with caution. Dani Pedrosa, who started third on the grid, reached this first turn in the same position. However, under acceleration, the rear wheel of his Honda RC212V skidded violently, almost throwing off the Repsol rider. Penalised by this incident, Pedrosa was unable to stop Nicky Hayden and Ben Spies from overtaking him, completing the first lap in fourth, after passing Spies before the end of the first lap.
Behind him, his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, who started from the third row of the grid with the eighth best time, completed the first lap in seventh after climbing one place. Riding behind Simoncelli, the Italian passed his compatriot in the fifth lap but by then the leading pack had broken away. Lap by lap, he closed the gap on Spies, while shaking Rossi off his back. The Italian even touched Spies towards the end of the race and although he was trying to overtake him for several laps, the American fought hard to defend his position.
Out in front, Pedrosa passed Hayden in the second lap and then Lorenzo in the third to set off in pursuit of the Australian Stoner, who took advantage of his leading position to break away, lap by lap, from the chasing group without too many problems. By the time Pedrosa had climbed to second, Stoner was already a second and a half ahead of the Spaniard and although Dani managed to close the gap with the Australian to 8 tenths, Stoner did not let up his pace. In the end, given the constant warnings from his front tyre and after putting on the pressure for three quarters of the race, the Repsol Honda Team rider decided to make do with second and 20 points. With this result, Pedrosa has closed the gap with the leader of the overall standings, Lorenzo, by 7 points and is now 56 points behind his compatriot, with just 125 in play until the end of the 2010 season.
With Dani Pedrosa crossing the line in second, the Repsol Honda Team turned its attention towards Andrea Dovizioso and his battle with Spies for fifth. Andrea tried everything possible and when he was trying to pass Spies again in the last lap, in turn 12, the back wheel of his Honda RC212V lost grip and Dovizioso crashed to the floor. A bitter end to a race in which he had put in a good performance.
Now that the Aragon Grand Prix has ended, the MotoGP World Championship sets sail for the now traditional Asia and Oceania tour, with the Japanese, Malaysian and Australian Grand Prix races. Three races, 75 points and everything to play for in what will be the start of the final stage of the world championship.
Dani Pedrosa, 2nd at 5’148 sec. >> Audio
“I’m pretty happy with second place today even though of course I wanted to win in front of the Spanish fans. In the first corner I had a slide which lost me a couple of places and then over the next few laps I had to make up some positions before getting behind Casey. By this point he was quite a way in front and our pace was similar at this stage so I tried really hard to catch him and managed to close the gap. But then I started to have some rear-wheel slides and it wasn’t possible for me stay with him so I thought: ‘Ok, this is my place today.’ Our bike here was struggling more with tyre wear than some of the others, but anyway, second place is not bad and the championship is still alive, even though it will be very difficult to catch Lorenzo. I’d like to say thanks to my team who are working really hard, and I want to maintain this momentum because re cently we have been fast at every race. I’m looking forward to Honda’s home event at Motegi.”
Andrea Dovizioso, fall >> Audio
“Of course I’m really disappointed things ended in this way because my pace in the middle of the race was very good and the battle with Spies was exciting. The crash happened between turns 12 and 13. Spies went in too deep and I tried to overtake him on the inside. That meant I was carrying a little bit more speed through the change of direction and as I flicked from left to right I highsided. I’m really disappointed because we have lost third position in the championship, which is still our target even though scoring zero points today makes this more difficult. Early in the race I made some mistakes and lost contact with the front group, but actually our pace in the middle of the race was very fast. During the battle with Spies we overtook each other three or four times in the last laps and it was fun, but the crash spoiled the day. However, we’ll come back fighting at Motegi because we’ve proved we have the pace to be strong.”
