Honda’s Dani Pedrosa kept his cool during an incident-packed Japanese MotoGP on Sunday, easing to victory over reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo by more than seven seconds.
Spain’s Pedrosa sealed his third win of the season at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in 42min 47.481sec, while championship leader Casey Stoner, who started on pole, finished third despite ending up in the gravel during the fifth lap.
Pedrosa kept his calm throughout the action-packed race which saw five riders crashing out and three others handed ride-through penalties.
But despite his victory, Stoner, who finished more than 18 seconds behind Pedrosa, still leads Lorenzo (Yamaha) in the championship standings by a commanding 40 points with just three races remaining—in Australia, Malaysia and Valencia.
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Andrea Dovizioso led the race briefly before he had to perform a ride-through penalty for jumping the start.
Ducati’s Valentino Rossi crashed out on the first lap, dragging along Yamaha rider Ben Spies, who rejoined the race, and also almost taking down Lorenzo. AFP
Simoncelli and Dovi carried their battle to the penultimate lap when Simoncelli made an inside pass of his longtime rival in the turn 11 left to take fourth. Dovi pressed for the final lap, but to no avail.
Spies saw nothing but clear track when he rejoined the race, but eventually he could see riders ahead and kept picking them off. That he landed in sixth on a weekend which began with him violently ill with food poisoning and possibly not making his flight from Dallas wasn’t too bad.
“We put together a good race and with how the weekend’s going I’m super-happy that we were able to put together a good race,” he said.
Spies was the first of three Americans in a row. Ducati Marlboro’s Nicky Hayden was seventh after he, too, ran off the track, offering no excuses for his mistake. Hayden said he made a “silly mistake going into turn one” on the 12th of 24 laps. “Stoner came past and when he went past Bautista. I wanted to try to just follow him through, and was off in the dirt. Turn one is a corner where you really sweep round; you can’t go wide. You go on the dirt, you know.”
Hayden fell back to tenth place, then picked off riders one at a time. He got Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards on the 18th lap and battled Spies until lap 23, when Spies took control of the spot.
Edwards was eighth with San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Hiroshi Aoyama eighth. Cycle News
Pos. Points Num. Rider Team Time/Gap 1 25 26 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 42'47.481 2 20 1 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha Factory Racing 7.299 3 16 27 Casey STONER Repsol Honda Team 18.38 4 13 58 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 23.55 5 11 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 23.691 6 10 11 Ben SPIES Yamaha Factory Racing 37.604 7 9 69 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 39.167 8 8 5 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 45.023 9 7 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA San Carlo Honda Gresini 49.074 10 6 14 Randy DE PUNIET Pramac Racing Team 59.022 11 5 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +1'13.964 12 4 64 Kousuke AKIYOSHI LCR Honda MotoGP +1'21.709 13 3 72 Shinichi ITO Honda Racing Team +1'26.381 Not Classified 24 Toni ELIAS LCR Honda MotoGP 7 Laps 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 11 Laps 6 Damian CUDLIN Pramac Racing Team 11 Laps 8 Hector BARBERA Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP 23 Laps 46 Valentino ROSSI Ducati Team 0 Lap
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