Over 120 000 spectators filled the circuit of Jerez today and they saw Dani Pedrosa show once again that with the crowd behind him and the magic of riding on home soil the Repsol Honda Team rider is capable of overcoming any setback. In this the third race of the year and the second in seven days, Dani Pedrosa was on the podium after the MotoGP race, getting a brilliant second place without being totally physically recovered and with a lot of work still to do on the development of the Repsol Honda RC212V 2009.
The race could not have started better for the Repsol Honda Team rider for the great Spanish race. He started in second place on the grid and as the race started Pedrosa opened the throttle on his red orange and blue Honda and he had shot into the lead by the end of the straight, controlling the amazing power on his RC212V 2009, which as the gears moved up a notch saw his front wheel pointing towards heaven at the packed circuit of Jerez. After just a few corners Pedrosa started to open up a gap over the chasing group.
Dovizioso, on the third row, also started well and after two laps was 6th, slowly getting closer to De Puniet who was ahead of him. On the 3rd lap, entering the home straight, the Italian Repsol Honda Team rider tried to overtake the Frenchman on the inside but after starting to take the curve a bit wide closed the opening halfway through the corner, this meant that the Italian was almost pushed to the floor. A few laps later, lap 5, Dovizioso finally got past De Puniet and was 5th. He then went after Lorenzo. But it all ended in just an idea because on lap 8 he skidded, he lost the rear wheel on corner and and he went off the track – by the time he was back on he was 16th. From then on the Italian started to fight back and after a lot of effort he finally crossed the finishing line in 8th place.
Ahead of him his Repsol Honda Team teammate, Dani Pedrosa, was still in the lead and had a gap of just one second over Stoner and Rossi. In spite of repeated attempts to get away from them Pedrosa could not increase his lead to more than one second and four tenths. Then Rossi got past Stoner and began to close the gap on the Spanish rider. The lead between the Italian and the Spaniard was then a tenth more and then a tenth less whilst an interesting psychological duel developed – one tried to get away and the other tried to catch him up. Between lap 6 – when Rossi overtook Stoner – and lap 17 this is how the race developed: Rossi cut the gap on Pedrosa by one tenth and then the Repsol Honda Team rider increased it by the same amount.
The race continued like this until lap 16 when Pedrosa’s motorbike did not let him up the pace any more, that is when Rossi began to reduce the difference very quickly. On lap 18 the Italian overtook Pedrosa, and in a little over three laps he had got away and was riding alone and this is how he took the chequered flag. And so Pedrosa, in front of his compatriots, got a well deserved second position, crossing the finishing line just 2 seconds and 7 tenths behind Rossi.
Thanks to this result the Spanish Repsol Honda Team rider is fourth in the overall classification, overtaking his teammate Andrea Dovizioso – now 5th – and has cut the gap on Stoner to 4 and on Lorenzo to 20.
Dani Pedrosa, 2nd at 2’007 secs. >> Audio
“I really wanted to win here but I knew it was going to be tough because Valentino has been very strong through the weekend and I knew he’d be fast in the race – and that’s how it turned out. I got a good start, got out in front and then I just tried to concentrate on my race and see what the would happen. Although of course I wanted to win here for me, the team and the fans, I’m actually very happy with the podium and surprised too. We struggled when we arrived on Friday and having missed so much testing in the winter – and the test here – it’s a very good result for us. So I must say thanks to my team and everyone who’s working with me. We’re having quite a difficult time at the moment to get the machine performance to where we want it, so this podium is unbelievable.”
Andrea Dovizioso, 8th at 34’625 secs. >> Audio
“I didn’t make a great start but I was able to recover some places and I’m pretty sure I could have stayed with Lorenzo if I hadn’t made the mistake. On the eighth lap while I was in fifth position, I lost the rear entering turn eight and I almost crashed. Fortunately I was able to rejoin the race and started to climb back up from 16th to eighth position. I wasn’t as fast as I wanted today because we’re still not at 100 per cent with the set-up of the bike. I’m disappointed about today’s result because we didn’t get the best out of the bike today. Dani had a great race today and I think he’s getting the maximum possible from the package, so I want to say congratulations to him.”
