The weekend at Donington has not been one of the season`s easiest. The weather conditions, with heavy rain on the Saturday and strong winds today Sunday, did not make things easy for the riders in the World Motorcycling Championship. In spite of the difficult meteorological conditions Dani Pedrosa was on the podium again today and is therefore on a very good run this season, with seven out of eight possible podium finishes and two victories.
That means that after today he is eleven points behind the rider who was second today and in first place in the Riders` Championship, the Italian Valentino Rossi. Pedrosa`s third position today, behind the Australian Stoner and Rossi, means that Pedrosa stays in second position in the Riders` Championship and he can continue to hunt down the current leader.
At the end of the MotoGP race, Dani Pedrosa had words of praise for the young rider Marc Márquez after his performance this morning, a Repsol teammate but in 125cc. The reality is that small Marc Márquez gave everybody a lesson in bravery today and at the same time he knew what to do on the complicated British track. With a really uncomfortable and dangerous wind, above all for somebody as small as he is, Márquez was able to keep up with the pace set by the leader and even to fight for second position. In the end the Repsol KTM Team 125cc rider became the youngest Spanish rider ever to finish third, and the second-youngest ever to have done the same in the World Motorcycling Championship.
The youngest is the deceased Venezuelan Iván Palazzese, 15 years and 77 days old, compared to Marc Márquez`s 15 years and 126 days. To round off a great weekend this is only the Repsol rider`s sixth GP start, as a pre-season fall in stopped him from participating in the first two races of his first ever top class season.In 125cc Julian Simón was not able to confirm the good sensations that he had had throughout the weekend in today`s race.
The Repsol rider made a good start and was fourth at the end of the first lap, in a position to fight with the leading group. Bautista and Simoncelli got away from the rest at the start and that is when the fight for third position began. Simón was there for several laps in spite of the tyre problems that he had had from the beginning.
After ten laps Simón began to lose positions again because of the pain in his right forearm, this stopped him from concentrating and staying on the pace. In the end he was eighth, in a race won by Mika Kallio. The Finnish KTM rider, who has technical support from Repsol, moved into the lead on the last lap when a manoeuvre by Simoncelli, trying to overtake Bautista, ended up with the two riders off their lines. Hiroshi Aoyama, his teammate, finished fifth.When the red lights went out in the 125cc race the two Repsol riders made a good start with Márquez third and Rabat eighth after the first lap.
The Italian Iannone was in the lead and when Márquez was trying to follow the wheel of Redding to catch him Gadea overtook him after he made a mistake, but both of them lost contact with the race leaders. The Repsol rider fought in the chasing group the whole race but as the laps clocked up the leader of the World Championship, Mike Di Meglio, overtook them all and went to hunt the leaders. Márquez locked onto his rear wheel and little by little they left their rivals trailing in their wake. With six laps left Iannone fell and Márquez`s fourth position became a valuable third. With the slate indicating that his position was more than acceptable, Márquez did not resign himself to a podium finish and he moved up to second place on the penultimate lap.
In the end Di Meglio overtook him and the Repsol rider got his first ever podium finish after a practically impeccable weekend.
Esteve Rabat did not have as much luck, and in spite of fighting at the beginning of the race in the same group as his teammate, saw how a mistake on the twelfth lap made him lose several seconds. He got back on the track after dropping four positions, and he moved up to eighth position after a constant battle in a group that was after seventh position. In the end he was eleventh under the chequered flag, disappointed not to have got a better reward after the progress he made in this GP.
Dani Pedrosa,
finished 3rd, 2nd in World Championship
‘This has been a difficult weekend with the weather changing all the time and only one day of dry practice. So, considering that and the effects of my crash during the tests at Barcelona I think that finishing on the podium is a good result for us. I pushed hard today and I really wanted to get second. Unfortunately, starting from the third row at a tight track with a short run to the first corner was never going to be easy. I got a good start, but I got a bit boxed in through the first corner and I lost some time while I was behind Dovizioso. Once I got up with Valentino we had a good battle, made a few passes but I made a couple of mistakes so I lost the possibility to finish second.My Michelin tyres worked well today but I struggled a bit through the direction changes. Anyway, we got some good points for the championship and we can look forward to getting a better result at Assen next weekend.
Nicky Hayden,
finished 7th, 7th in World Championship
‘We learned a lot this weekend. We could’ve done with another day in the dry to really understand things. I’m actually pretty positive, we’ll try to put everything we’ve learned to good use at Assen. We didn’t really know what to expect here, everything went smooth until this morning when we had to switch bikes. The first few laps of the race went okay and then about lap nine I had a dash light come on. I didn’t know what it was for, but if a sensor goes bad you realise just how much you use traction control, engine braking control and things like that. It was nothing serious but I lost some confidence for a couple of laps, so my lap times fell and it upset my rhythm while I got my confidence back. The guys are looking into it now. It would’ve been nice to finish higher up, because I’ve got a lot of English guys in the box. The bike was pretty consistent at the end and I got back into the 29s. We learned a lot about fuel, tyre life and so on, we got a lot of information. We knew the first race might not be easy, so I hope we can build from here. Thanks to the team and to HRC for all their hard work.’
Julián Simón,
8th at 18.007 secs.
‘The start was good and on the first few laps I was up there. But I immediately saw that I had a problem with the back tyre. I tried to keep up with the pace. With ten laps left I was still in the chasing group, but it became too difficult to follow them all, and what is more, my arm problem began to bother me again. It was difficult to maintain the fast speed and to concentrate. The other riders passed me and then I had Debón and Aoyama in front of me. There the race finished. The weekend has not been so bad since we have been fighting to be in the leading group the whole weekend. The race was not one of the best, but we are going to carry on fighting.’
Marc Márquez,
3rd at 5.806 secs.
‘The race was quite tough because there was a lot of wind and it was hard work just to stay on the line I wanted. But I was hungry, confident, and at the start I saw that I could follow the others. I grew in confidence and I was able to ride well. I am very pleased, a little over the moon, but I must now start thinking about Holland, to improve a little more there. At the beginning of the race I hit a few riders who were not on the line. But then, Sergio Gadea had a fright and this let Iannone and Redding get an advantage of a few metres. In the group we began to overtake and get in each other`s way, then they got clean away. Then Mike Di Meglio arrived, and he began to speed up, I was able to keep up with him and we left Sergio behind. In the end he was going very fast and I was not able to follow Di Meglio, but I am very pleased.’
Esteve Rabat, >> Audio
11th at 18.976 secs
‘This was a very difficult race, with a lot of fighting involved. I came out of it well and I was up with the leading group, until I went off the track on curve number four. There I lost it as I was not able to get back up with the leaders. The group behind me caught up with me, there was also a lot of fighting there. In the end, on the one hand I am pleased, since we really have taken a step forward here. I have had a few bad races but here I was able to fight with the best again. I have got more confidence and taking things step by step I will be able to continue progressing. Those ahead of me today were faster than us, it was not a question of mechanics, and you have to know that you lose sometimes.’
