Repsol Honda riders place second and third in Catalonia on Dani Pedrosa’s 200th Grand Prix.
The sixth round of the MotoGP World Championship saw action through to the end, as Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez finished second and third, respectively. Jorge Lorenzo won the Catalan GP, which was Dani Pedrosa’s 200th Grand Prix appearance. Pedrosa now leads the standings with 123 points, ahead of Lorenzo on 116 and Marquez on 93.
The overtaking at the front occured in the early stages, but the tensión continued right up to the chequered flag. Dani Pedrosa had started from pole, but was overtaken for the holeshot by Lorenzo as Marquez slotted into third from sixth on the grid.
The trio rode almost side-by-side for the entirety of the race, but Pedrosa experienced difficulties and dropped back. Lorenzo eventually crossed the line with an advantage of 1.763s over the Repsol rider. Marquez also tried to push to the maximum, keeping up with his teammate. He tried to overtake shortly before the end, but a mistake meant that his move was unsuccessful and he would have to settle for third. The Repsol Honda Team now focuses their attention on the next round, in the Netherlands in under two weeks’ time.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
2nd at 1.763 sec.
“Today was a bit of a strange race. We could not get maximum performance and physically it was very hard, because of the heat of the bike and the tyres. When I tried to open the throttle the bike wobbled in the front and I had to be very careful. We three frontrunners were battling the track conditions today. It was a bit disappointing not to be able to push more, since the differences between us all was minimal. We rode practically the entire race without any overtaking. It was very easy to make a mistake and in fact, on the closing laps, Marc [Marquez] made one and I had a slide, but in the end we were able to take a very important second place. We expected to do better after yesterday, but we now have an extra twenty points and we continue to lead the standings.”
Marc Marquez >> Audio
3rd at 1.826 sec.
“It was a difficult race. We expected it to be tough, but we never imagined that we would be fighting for the podium with Jorge [Lorenzo] and Dani [Pedrosa] and I’m very happy with this result! It gives us confidence after a slightly tricky weekend, as in the end we found the ideal setup. During the race I learned a lot from riding behind Dani, trying to figure out how to ride a MotoGP bike at this track, and in the end we did quite well. We knew it would be difficult to finish in the top five, but we managed to get on the podium. I can only say I’m thrilled with the result. Now we look to Assen and we’ll see if we can improve anything for that race during the test at Aragon.”
