Mixed fortunes awaited the Repsol Honda riders at Brno today as the 2010 MotoGP World Championship season entered its second half. A fast-starting Dani Pedrosa led from pole position and guided his RC212V to a strong second place at the chequered flag, while Andrea Dovizioso was unfortunate to fall early in the race as he battled to stay in contention with the frontrunners.
Pedrosa made one of his patented fast getaways from the front of the grid when the start lights went out and led through the first corner. Exercising caution on cold tyres, the 24-year-old Spaniard slipped back behind Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo into turn three, before re-passing Spies a lap later and latching onto the back of Lorenzo. Pedrosa and Lorenzo were clearly in a class of their own today and exchanged fastest laps in the early stages of the race, with Pedrosa closing right in, only for Lorenzo to stretch a small gap the next time round.
Try as he might though, Pedrosa was unable to prevent Lorenzo from edging away in the second half of the race and finally crossed the line 5.494s behind his fellow countryman to secure 20 world championship points. It was a welcome return to the MotoGP rostrum for Pedrosa and was his fourth podium finish from the last five races, and his sixth in total this season. The result consolidates Pedrosa’s second place in the world championship, with the gap to Lorenzo now standing at 77 points.
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Dovizioso started the race well and fought his was from sixth on the grid into fifth place on lap one. The Italian, who was fastest in this morning’s damp warm-up session, quickly fought his way past Casey Stoner for fourth and looked capable of staying with the leaders in the race’s early stages. However, with a strong wind blowing at Brno making for tricky riding conditions, Dovizioso was caught out in turn nine and lost the front end of his RC212V, sliding to a halt in the middle of the track. Indeed the 24-year-old was fortunate not to be hit by the following riders as he scrambled to his feet.
Dovizioso remounted and continued for three more laps, but with a severely bent right handlebar it was impossible for the Italian to maintain race pace and he had to pull into the pits. Having missed out on championship points today, Dovizioso has slipped one place to fourth in the MotoGP standings.
The Repsol Honda Team remains at the Brno circuit tomorrow for a rare and precious day of official testing - the last such day permitted until after the end of the season in November. Once complete, the Team packs the crates and ships them to Indianapolis in the USA for the next race which takes place in two weekends’ time.
DANI PEDROSA – 2nd – World Championship position 2nd 158 points
“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 – DNF – World Championship position 4th 115 points
“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 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 it 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 to try to bounce back well in Indianapolis.”
TOSHIYUKI YAMAJI - REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER
“Dani was clearly pushing very hard for the victory and in the early laps he was exchanging fastest laps with Lorenzo and it looked like he might be able to challenge, but in the end he had to settle for second. We’d hoped for the victory of course, but today Lorenzo made a very good race and we have to say congratulations to him. On the other hand, this result simply means that the Repsol Honda Team must continue to work as hard as possible and to improve our performance for the next races. Today the conditions were quite windy and I think it could have been the wind that caught Andrea out at that moment and he was unlucky to fall. Without the crash he could have had a good race and a possible podium, so it’s unfortunate, but this can happen when you’re pushing hard. He’ll come back fighting next time.”
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