The Repsol rider claims his sixth podium finish of the season in a race in which Andrea Dovizioso fell while battling for a place of honour.
Another podium finish for Dani Pedrosa in the Czech Republic Grand Prix, who consolidates second place in the World Championship by taking second, after falling in the previous race. His Repsol Honda Team team-mate, Andrea Dovizioso, fell in the fourth lap when he was in fourth and battling for third and although he tried to continue, in the seventh lap, he headed back to the garage.
Pedrosa got off to better start than anyone from pole position but when he reached turn three, he erred on the side of caution and braked early as he was tackling it with cold tyres and was overtaken by both the Yamahas of Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies at the same time. Behind him, Dovizioso also had a good start from sixth, allowing him to climb to fifth after the first few turns, wheel-to-wheel with Casey Stoner.
In the second lap, Pedrosa managed to overtake America’s Spies and set off in pursuit of Lorenzo, setting the fastest lap of the race. He rode wheel-to-wheel with him, looking for a gap through which to take the lead. However, little-by-little his compatriot pulled away and set the fastest laps of the race mid-race, securing first until the end. Dani Pedrosa finally accepted second and preferred not to push too hard so as to avoid a repeat performance of what happened in Laguna Seca.
In the battle for third, Dovizioso climbed to fourth after the third lap, after overtaking Casey Stoner. However, in the next lap, the Italian’s steering closed in turn nine and he could not avoid falling. He was left lying in the middle of the track and was lucky that none of his rivals ran over him and was able to get back on his Honda and try to complete the race. However, although he was able to do another three laps, the damage to his bike forced him to head back to the garage, scoring his first nought points of the season, which puts him in fourth place in the standings.
The MotoGP World Championship will now set sail for the United States, where the Indianapolis Grand Prix will be held in two weeks time.
Dani Pedrosa, 2nd at 5.494 sec. >> Audio
“It’s good to be back on the podium after the crash at the last race at Laguna Seca so I’m happy about this. My start was good and I was in first place through the first corner but in the first left-hander I was a little bit too concerned about my tyre temperature and braked too early, which allowed Ben and Jorge to get past. When I was in second place behind Jorge again I was trying as hard as possible to stay close, which I could do for a few laps, but for some reason I wasn’t quite able to go as fast as yesterday – I had quite a lot of wheelspin and was struggling to get good drive out of the corners. I tried to adjust my riding to improve this but Jorge was gradually able to open the gap. So today wasn’t the best result for us, but still the podium is ok and we can build on this result. After the test tomorrow we go to Indianapolis and I was strong there last year – despite the mistake in the race – so I’m confident we can be competitive again at the next race.”
Andrea Dovizioso, fell >> Audio
“I recovered a couple of positions at the start and in the first few laps I didn’t want to lose contact with the riders in front so I was really pushing as hard as possible. Already in a few corners I had some warnings from the front and then it went in turn nine. It’s a pity – I made a mistake and it cost me dear because the 1m 58.0s pace that the lead bunch were running was a one that I could also have maintained today. During the whole weekend we’ve been at the limit with the front end and today the strong wind made it worse. We needed a good result here so it’s disappointing. When I was in the middle of the track is was pretty scary because the riders behind were going either side of me, so actually I was lucky that the consequences weren’t worse. We have a test tomorrow and then we’ll have try to bounce back well in Indianapolis.”
