Pedrosa disappointed with second place as setting change doesn’t pay off
The San Marino Grand Prix saw another intense chapter of episode in the fight of the MotoGP World Championship, where Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner showed again a very high level. Second and third, respectively, the Repsol Honda Team riders achieved another important podium.
At the start, Jorge Lorenzo took the initiative, with Casey Stoner at his wheel and Dani Pedrosa third, standing the pressure from Ben Spies, who tried to pass him in the second corner without success. Not only that, but before the end of the lap the American was overtaken by a feisty Andrea Dovizioso, confirming a good start in front of his home crowd.
As laps went by, Lorenzo, Stoner and Pedrosa built some margin over the rest, although from the fifth lap Pedrosa lost some ground. Casey Stoner was comfortably behind Lorenzo’s Yamaha until mid race, when he started to lose ground as he suffered some physical problems due to the terrible heat at the Misano track and to the lack of rest after the Indianapolis Grand Prix a week ago. After losing contact with Lorenzo, he could neither prevent Pedrosa from reducing the distance and, six laps before the end, the Spaniard was able to catch him and then overtake him.
After two consecutive weeks competing in two different continents, now it is time for a well-deserved rest of a week and a half. The World Championship will resume — again in Spain — in a fortnight at the Motorland Aragón track.
Dani Pedrosa 2nd at 7.299 seg.
“I’m a little disappointed with the race because the bike didn’t feel as good as it was in practice. We wanted to make a change to the suspension to improve it a little but we had the opposite effect, sometimes it happens.
From the first lap, I realised I couldn’t keep up with Jorge and Casey, at the beginning the bike was closing the front and then it was sliding in the rear. The second part of the race was good, Jorge had a perfect race today, but I was able to improve my times lap by lap and catch Casey.
I overtook him and maintained my rhythm to the finish with another second place in two weeks, which it’s not so bad. We’ve been lucky today as it was cooler than yesterday and finally the rain didn’t come.
It’s been two very demanding races in a row and this one in particular was perhaps the toughest of the season so far, as the circuit is challenging with so many hard braking areas and it has been very hot again, also after Indy it has been difficult to recover from the jet lag and fatigue. Let’s hope we can get some rest and be stronger for Aragon”.
Source: Repsol Media