The first race of the 2009 MotoGP season, held today Monday, something very unusual, began well enough for the two Repsol Honda Team riders, but as the race progressed both Andrea Dovizioso as well as Dani Pedrosa had to lower their pace after encountering different problems. In the end, the Italian Dovizioso was fifth, and the Spanish rider Pedrosa eleventh.
The race began with Casey Stoner leading aftter putting in consecutive fastest laps. The Australian was alone at the front of the field right to the end of the race. Behind him, Rossi did more or less the same while he tried in vain to catch Stoner. Third on the first few laps was Andrea Dovizioso, who in his first race with the Repsol Honda Team tried to follow Valentino Rossi after having had a good start. But he soon found out that it was impossible to push too hard because each time he changed the steering, whenever he braked or tried to take a corner, it tended to close on him. So after just a third of the race completed Dovizioso gave up the fight and began to worry about the rivals coming up behind him.
Dani Pedrosa also got off to a good start today at the circuit of Losail, as is usually the case. The Spanish rider, still recovering from an injury to his left knee, ended the first lap in tenth position. After the first few laps Pedrosa overtook De Angelis, De Puniet & Vermeulen, and got ahead of Capirossi after he fell. On the seventh lap Dani was up to sixth position, a good placing taking into account his physical limitations. But on the 8th lap and suffering from setup problems on the front wheel of his Honda, he was passed first by Vermeulen, and then De Angelis who virtually pushed him off the track after hitting the Spaniard on his left side, exactly where the rider is injured. An unsporting manoeuvre from the San Marino rider who was warned verbally by the Race directors at the end of the race. Pedrosa protested about De Angelis`s behaviour after the race stating that he received a strong blow on his left shoulder in the collision.
From then on Pedrosa slackened his pace until he crossed the finishing line in a hard-earned eleventh position. With this result the Repsol Honda Team rider returns home with five valuable points, their exact value will be seen at the end of the season.
And whilst Dani suffered trying to keep up with the other riders, at the front his teammate, Andrea Dovizioso, was having a much better race. The Italian, after being passed by Lorenzo and losing the third step on the podium, also had to make way for the American Edwards, and in the end he crossed the finishing line in fifth position.
After this strange start to the season the World Championship has a one week break but will be back in action in Japan, at the circuit of Motegi, on 26th April. Therefore Dani Pedrosa has almost a couple of weeks to try and recover totally from his injured left knee.
Dani Pedrosa 11th, at 48.526 secs. >> Audio
“Overall I’m happy because of my progress over the weekend. I improved in every session and I’m glad to have come here and scored five points – though I’m also slightly disappointed because it could even have been ten or eleven. I got a good start and the race was going very well at the beginning. After seven or eight laps, though, I had started to get some vibration with the front wheel which became more severe as the race progressed. I started to lose grip at the front and my lap times suffered, so we’ll have to check what the issue was. I also suffered a lot physically in the race, and de Angelis gave me a big hit mid-race. The collision was avoidable I think because he could have passed me cleanly. My knee was giving me a lot of pain by the end and my left arm was pretty tired too. Still, we came away having completed the race and with a few points, which was our target, so I’m happy.”
Andrea Dovizioso 5th, at 27.263 secs. >> Audio
“I didn’t start well but I was able to overtake some riders and get into third position. During the first three laps the machine was performing really well – as it had during practice – and I tried to keep in contact with Valentino, but then I started struggling with the front. It was folding entering the corners and, later, also mid-corner, so I couldn’t turn as I would have liked. I had to slow down and compensate by turning with the rear tyre. We never had this issue during practice or the pre-season tests, so we need to understand what happened and do some more work to adapt the machine to the tyres. It was a very hard fight today, and I’m satisfied that we learned a lot here in practice and during the race. Now we’ll analyze the data and work hard for the next one in Japan.”.
