Repsol Honda trio Stoner, Pedrosa and Dovizioso tops Estoril Grand Prix – MotoGP news
The bwin Grande Premio de Portugal event proved to be a celebration for the Repsol Honda team, as all of their three riders, Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso finished in top four positions in Estoril.
Dani Pedrosa won the event as teammate Casey Stoner stood at third place on podium while Andrea Dovizioso throttled up at the last moment to go past Rossi and finish at fourth place.
Despite of his surgery and pain in his shoulder, Dani Pedrosa was flying on the tail of Yamaha Factory Racing team’s rider, defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo. The duel between Pedrosa and Lorenzo went on for almost the whole race and the rest of the
grid sustained their positions due to tight low speed bends and fight for traction while exiting corners.
This was Pedrosa’s 13th victory of his career at the circuit where he never scored a first place in any motorcycle racing class. The Spaniard scored full 25 points and shortened Lorenzo’s point lead to just four points. The Spaniard saved his
energy for the last moments and did not feel lack of strength and numbness during the race which was a benefit for Pedrosa. He seemed pleased with the physical state of his shoulder after less than three weeks to his last surgery.
Dani Pedrosa said after winning the race, “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. I was trying to rest my arm at times as it was cramping with 15 laps to go.”
The position shuffling was caused after the fall of couple of riders. After that, it stood fairly the same to the finish line, except the tricks played by Repsol riders Dani and Andrea. The lead change happened at the fourth last lap when Dani Pedrosa passed
Jorge Lorenzo at the front stretch and galloped through the following bend to span the lead over seconds by the final lap’ finish line.
Casey Stoner was the only rider who flew alone on the track and finished seven seconds from top place, while Rossi who was trying close up with Stoner but the circuit did not allow the Italian to gain on the Aussie rider.
Stoner was glad to finish on the podium and said, “We had a pretty good start to the race but Pedrosa moved across me and I had to hit the brakes and back off. After that, I was challenging Marco Simoncelli for 3rd position in the first turn and he cut me
off which I'm not so happy about.”
After few starting laps when the race settled in its pace, Dovizioso hanged on the tail of Rossi and made it tough for the Italian to escape.
The same short trick was played by Pedrosa’s teammate Andrea Dovizioso when he moved ahead in the final few metres of the final lap to cross the finish line ahead of Ducati team rider, Valentino Rossi.
Dovizioso claimed the fourth place and dropped Rossi to a fifth place finish, the same position as he finished at the Spanish Grand Prix three weeks ago.
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