Dani dedicates commanding Aragon win to team, fans and family

In an intense battle between the two Championship contenders, it was Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa who emerged as victor, for the fourth time this season. His team mate, Jonathan Rea, took an impressive 7th in just his second MotoGP outing.

After an early crash in yesterday’s qualifying session, Dani’s team had to completely rebuild the bike to prepare for today’s 23 lap race and the dominant victory was the best present for himself and his crew on his birthday weekend.

Starting from second on the grid, Dani took the lead on the seventh lap, after setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 3 (1’49.109) and running consistently in 1’49’s he pulled away from Lorenzo until crossing the finish line with more than a 6 second gap. Pedrosa is now 33 points behind Lorenzo in the World Championship standings with 4 rounds remaining.

Honda lead the Constructors Championship by 6 points as they head to their home Grand Prix in Motegi, Japan. It will be confirmed next week by Honda Racing Corporation if the 2011 World Champion, Casey Stoner, will return for the next round in two weeks time, he remains 3rd in the standings with 186 points.

DANI PEDROSA
“It’s been a tough weekend in general, with discussions about the last race with race direction and the crash in qualifying yesterday which created a lot of hard work for the mechanics. In the race I remained calm and was able to focus, Jorge began very fast in the early laps but I was able to stay with him and then after a few laps I saw I could increase the pace and I passed him and tried to find my own rhythm. I was concentrating so hard that I almost forgot that it was a race, then I realised there were only 4 laps to go! I had a few issues with the clutch into the corners, shifting down, as I did yesterday, but overall the bike was working well so thanks to all my team for their hard work last night and to my fans and family for their support, this victory is for them all!”.

Source: Repsol Honda Team