The Repsol rider climbs one position in the overall and is now third. Andrea Dovizioso finishes fourth on his debut with an Öhlins suspension.
The race in the top category at San Marino ended with a positive 3rd position for Dani Pedrosa, and he was followed by his teammate Andrea Dovizioso in 4th place. After a blistering start, typical of him, the Spanish rider dominated the first few laps but could not get away from the rest of the riders. An impaired engine did not allow him to do so; he was very lucky because just after crossing the finishing line, on his way to the podium, his bike broke down.
Andrea Dovizioso, who got better as the days went by, made good progress during the race as his tyres reached their optimum temperature and he felt more comfortable with the behaviour of his bike. His lack of experience with his new Öhlins suspension, his first time out with them was this weekend, stopped him from being in the battle for the podium at his “home” GP.
At the start Dani Pedrosa once again seized the initiative. The Repsol rider, a specialist in fast starts, was 1st to the first corner, followed by Toni Elías, Valentino Rossi & Jorge Lorenzo. A little further back Andrea Dovizioso climbed two positions at the start and was 5th one lap later, trying to catch Valentino Rossi who was 4th at that moment.
Pedrosa took the first few laps carefully, with his fall at Indianapolis 7 days ago clearly on his mind, and after lap 3 he upped the pace. He could not get away from his immediate followers though, and when Rossi got past Lorenzo and Elías on lap 6, the Italian got onto the leader`s rear wheel and waited for his chance. He got past Pedrosa two laps later, lap 8, and the Italian began to open up a gap.
At the same time Dovizioso overtook Elías, but far behind the three leaders. The Repsol rider was not able to maintain a very high pace owing to problems with the suspension set up. In his first race with Öhlins the Repsol man rode alone until a few laps from the end when Loris Capirossi tried to take 4th position away from him. He did so, but only for a moment as Dovizioso got past him just before the finishing line.
At the front Rossi increased his lead as the laps went by, but Pedrosa was caught by Lorenzo. The Repsol rider held on for 6 laps but on lap 14 he went wide and his rival got past on the inside. With engine problems Pedrosa did not want to try and catch the leaders and the first three positions did not change again. The Repsol rider finished 3rd but was not able to complete his lap of honour as the engine on his Honda RC212V suddenly stopped. Thanks to his compatriot Toni Elías Pedrosa was able to reach the pits to celebrate his 7th podium finish of the 2009 season.
Pedrosa won 16 more points and has overtaken Casey Stoner in the overall classification. Andrea Dovizioso on the other hand also moved up one place and he is now 5th.
There is now a short break of 3 weeks, this is when the Hungarian GP should have been held, but this has been cancelled. The next race is on 1st October at the Portuguese circuit of Estoril.
