Dani Pedrosa proved to be the leading player of the German Grand Prix after spectacularly securing his second win of the season. The Repsol rider was able to keep his cool – after the race was stopped due to an accident -, and demonstrate his full talent in an intense head to head with Lorenzo to finally stand on the top step of the podium, wearing the colours of ‘La Roja’, the Spanish national football team, that was recently crowned World Champions. Andrea Dovizioso, who was less fortunate, took a valuable fifth place and maintains third place in the general standing after a difficult race.
The heart of the Repsol Team was brimming with excitement this afternoon after a thrilling race by Dani Pedrosa, who showed excellent form throughout the weekend and finished it off today with a magnificent performance. Despite the race being stopped due to an accident involving several riders, the Castellar del Vallés rider showed the full extent of his talent to add another win to his list of achievements.
Before the incident stopped the race in the tenth lap, Pedrosa had got off to a great start, which took him from third place to first by turn one. Overtaken by Lorenzo before the end of the first lap, the Repsol rider rode wheel-to-wheel with him, setting a fast lap whenever Lorenzo tried to open a gap. Behind them, Andrea Dovizioso had dropped a position at the start but had recovered before the end of the lap and had also overtaken Casey Stoner to ride in third place. Three laps later, the Australian put him back in fourth, although both of them stayed behind Lorenzo and Pedrosa, gradually breaking away from Valentino Rossi until the race was stopped after Randy De Puniet fell, in which Aleix Espargaró and Álvaro Bautista were also involved.
When the race restarted, Pedrosa started in a flash and finished the first lap in first place, although Lorenzo overtook him one lap later. It did not take them long to break away from the rest of the pack, in which Dovizioso started fourth and although he quickly climbed a position, to the detriment of Stoner, he was passed by the number 27 Ducati again a few laps later.
Out in front, Dani Pedrosa kept the pressure on Lorenzo’s Yamaha until in the tenth lap, he overtook him on the straight. The Repsol rider had tried to pass him a lap earlier in a spectacular braking manoeuvre on the main straight but he went wide and could not hold on to the position. He stayed wheel-to-wheel with his compatriot and in the middle of the second stint, he was able to give the final blow. Pedrosa took first place at the end of the straight and rode a series of laps at a stratospheric pace.
Lap-by-lap, the Repsol rider slowly increased his advantage over Lorenzo, setting a series of fast laps that would allow him to open a small gap tenth-by-tenth. These tenths increased to seconds, the Repsol rider enjoying an advantage of more than three seconds over Lorenzo at one stage. In the end, resounding victory for Dani Pedrosa in Sachsenring, who also set a new fastest lap of the German track in the twelfth lap.
While Pedrosa claimed his second win of the season – the first was in Italy -, Andrea Dovizioso battled, showing great honour, with Simoncelli and Hayden to stay in fifth. With Rossi way out in front and no chance of fighting for a podium finish today, Dovizioso had to make a huge effort to stave off the repeated attacks of Hayden and Simoncelli, eventually securing a hard-fought fifth place that allowed him to strengthen his third place in the championship.
Next weekend, MotoGP will make one last effort before the well-deserved summer holidays and will travel to Laguna Seca, in California, for the United States Grand Prix. The 125cc and Moto2 riders started their summer holidays today, so they will not be back in action until the middle of August at the Czech track of Brno.
Dani Pedrosa, 1st, 28’50.476 sec. >> Audio
“I’m very happy because we are back winning races and it’s a great feeling. It wasn’t easy today because when the race is stopped and restarted like that, sometimes you don’t have the same feeling on the machine in the second part. Also you get nervous again on the grid and it’s possible you won’t have the same pace after the restart. But it went very well for us in both races. In the first one I was very close to Lorenzo and the pace was good, but then they stopped the race and we looked at each other saying, “Why?”. It was even better in the second part. We just made one small change with the rear suspension to get a bit more traction, but we didn’t change the tyre because we didn’t have any new tyres left – we went with the same ones. I made another good start and in the first laps after Lorenzo had passed me I was pushing very to try to take him back. I couldn’t do it with my first attempt, but when I got a second chance I just went for it. Then it was a great feeling to stretch ahead and get the victory – the team deserve it. This victory is even better than the one in Italy because at Mugello I just went away in front and there was no battle with anybody, but here I was battling with Lorenzo in the first and second race, and finally beat him, so this is even more important. Also before the race we were not 100 per cent sure about what the weather would do, but it stayed clear and finally the weekend has ended perfectly. I was really looking forward to wear the Spain shirt on the podium. It was difficult to get it because it wasn’t in the shops and I really wanted to celebrate a win like that. I also want to thank the team because they worked really well this weekend, the bike was very good from Friday onwards and this is the form we need so we can to keep this consistency going from now on”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 5th at 17.158 sec. >> Audio
“I really gave it everything today so of course I cannot be happy to finish fifth, especially after qualifying in fourth. Simply I was not fast enough to stay with the top riders today and in fact I was riding very aggressively and maybe even overriding a little to try and stay with them. When you do this you use up the tyre more quickly and also use more energy so I knew it wasn’t the right way, but I had to try to stay with the frontrunners. This weekend we didn’t quite find the right electronics set-up and machine settings, and between the first and second parts of the race we tried to change some electronics settings because the set-up was not 100 per cent in the first part. I was losing a lot in turn seven, turn 12 and on the straight because I didn’t have the perfect set-up to use all the potential of the bike. Now I’m just looking forward to Laguna Seca next week and to getting right up front and being fully competitive again. My compliments go to Dani today. He rode at an incredible pace and the win is good for the team”.
