Rossi returns as Pedrosa wins at German MotoGP
Valentino Rossi made a dramatic return to the track by finishing fourth at the German MotoGP in Sachsenring, but it was Dani Pedrosa who took the race victory.
Pedrosa ended Jorge Lorenzo’s three-race winning streak by beating the Fiat Yamaha rider to the win after the race was restarted and reduced to 21 laps following a crash involving Randy de Puniet, Aleix Espargaro and Alvaro Bautista, leaving De Puniet with a broken tibia and fibula in his left leg.
Pedrosa took the lead after Lorenzo started on pole position, but while Lorenzo twice made a move, he was unable to make it last, leaving Pedrosa to take command.
While the front two pulled away, all eyes were on Rossi – who had remarkably made his comeback earlier than expected after breaking his leg at the Italian Grand Prix six weeks ago – and Casey Stoner for the final podium position. On the final lap, Stoner had a great run at the reigning world champion and overtook him to make it three consecutive podiums in a row.
Even Rossi admitted he didn’t expect to be as competitive as he was during the race.
“I didn't expect this. I thought it was maybe possible to make fourth or fifth place but I thought it would be very difficult. In the end I was fourth but I had a great battle with Casey and I was so close to the podium, so this is a fantastic result after missing four races,” Rossi said.
Rossi didn’t take it easy, and the rider, known as The Doctor, revealed that during the race he felt some pain in his shoulder from his motocross accident earlier in the season and his leg. “I felt a bit of pain in my shoulder but more in the leg when changing direction, but at the end the battle with Casey was such fun that I didn't think about it. Unfortunately though he just got the better of me on the last corner.”
Pedrosa took his second win of the season and finds himself 47 points behind Lorenzo. “I’m very happy because we are back winning races and it’s a great feeling,” he said. “It wasn’t easy today because when the race is stopped and restarted like that, sometimes you don’t have the same feeling on the machine in the second part. Also you get nervous again on the grid and it’s possible you won’t have the same pace after the restart. But it went very well for us in both races.”
Lorenzo kept up his form of finishing in the top two at every race this season. “It's always difficult when a race is split like this and I think I didn't ride quite as well in the second race as I felt I had been doing in the first,” he said.
The championship leader decided not to take any risks and give a safety-first performance instead. “Dani was very, very strong and I was on the limit trying to stay ahead. When he passed me I tried briefly to stay with him but he was much faster than me today and I was going to have to take a lot of risks to stay with him. The safest thing for me to do was finish second and take 20 points for the championship.”
Stoner, who will be joining Honda next season, provided a thrilling ending to the race by pipping Rossi to third. “I saw Valentino coming and he had a much higher pace than me and I thought he would just take off if he got past,” said the Ducati rider.
“So I tried to do everything I could to stay with him and when I got an opportunity to overtake him it came down to the last two laps. We had a few nice passes and I just had to go for it in the last corner, and it worked out. I’m pretty happy with the result, and we managed to pick up points when we needed to,” Stoner added.
Lorenzo is still in control at the top of the drivers’ standings, and is still on course to win his maiden world championship, despite the return of The Doctor.
Tags: