A great result for the Repsol Honda team saw its three riders placed in the first four positions of the MotoGP Portugal with Dani Pedrosa on the top step of the podium, Casey Stoner in 3rd and Andrea Dovizioso taking 4th.
Dani Pedrosa conquered his first win on this track, after having been glued to Jorge Lorenzo from the 1st to 24th laps, then, with a perfect overtaking manoeuvre, he took the lead of the race and ended with a three-second advantage.
"I'm very happy for today's win, but more than the win I'm happy for my condition and it seems that my surgery was finally successful," said Dani. "I was trying to rest my arm at times as it was cramping with 15 laps to go, I was riding behind Jorge and waiting for the numbness to come together with the loss of power, but it didn't come! I'm just so happy to see that the surgery has worked, it's been around six months with this and it's a big relief.
"I'm very happy to win here, it's my first win on this track."
"For the race, I was riding at my best, Jorge is amazing here always riding so smooth and fast, I was trying to stay with him and in the end I felt comfortable and tried to make a move and I was successful. I'm very happy to win here, it's my first win on this track."
Casey Stoner suffered a difficult first few laps after experiencing a few issues with his tyres, losing contact with the leaders and settled back in third. He remained in this position from the first to the last lap, any hope of catching the front-runners was lost around the mid-race point after he was struck with a serious pain in his back that prevented him pushing harder.
"We had a pretty good start to the race but Dani moved across and I had to hit the brakes and back off so after that I was challenging Marco for 3rd position in the first turn and he cut me off which I'm not so happy about," said Casey. "Then in turn 4, he crashed and I lost the tow to Dani and Jorge. I didn't really have a lot of confidence in the first laps with the rear tyre, it didn't seem to want to work so well, especially on the left side. During the race at some point, I felt my back completely lock up on me and I couldn't move for three or four corners, I was struggling to do anything and had no breath. I thought I had to go back to the garage, but thankfully within half a lap it eased up a little, got better and we managed to finish so I'm very happy to stay in 3rd place today".
Dani and Casey's team mate Andrea Dovizioso overtook Valentino Rossi on the finishing straight, clinching 4th position by just 32 tenths of a second.
“After a difficult weekend, we had a good race with the best lap at the end and a good strategy to overtake Valentino," said Andrea. "I was riding at the limit during the whole race and Valentino was stronger in 2-3 points so it was difficult to overtake him. I pushed hard to keep contact with him and at the very last lap I tried to overtake him at turn 10, even if I knew that it’s a difficult corner to overtake. Then at the very last long corner I tried to overtake him inside, Vale closed the door so I tried to exit faster than him, I made it and I could overtake him in the straight with the draft. I’m happy of this result but we are still too far from the first rider."
With todays’ win and three podium finishes in as many races, Dani Pedrosa reduces the gap to Championship leader, Jorge Lorenzo to four points. The Spanish Repsol Honda rider celebrates today his 50th podium in the MotoGP class.
Want more?
- MotoGP Portugal event page
- Dani Pedrosa Blog: I beat the Odds, now for the Op
- Official MotoGP Twitter feed
- Catch more MotoGP action on the official YouTube channel
- Dani Pedrosa profile page
- Casey Stoner profile page
- Andrea Dovizioso profile page
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