Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa has claimed his fourth win of the season on Sunday as the Spaniard won the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano. Pedrosa was joined by Yamaha team riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi on the podium.
Dani Pedrosa took his fourth win of the season and achieved his first back-to-back premier class victories on Sunday, finishing first at Misano ahead of Championship leader and rival Jorge Lorenzo and home favourite Valentino Rossi.
Repsol Honda rider Pedrosa set a stunning pace from the start and was almost 1.5s clear of Lorenzo by only the third lap, as he set a lap record early on in the 28-lap contest. Before the action had even begun to unfold however there were two fallers at turn one as Loris Capirossi and Nicky Hayden went down together. The American rejoined the race but later had to retire with the Italian suffering the disappointment of a DNF on his 200th premier class start.
With Pedrosa pulling away and Lorenzo riding a relatively lonely race in second position the real battle was for the final podium spot, with Rossi attacking Casey Stoner as he sought a result that would please the home crowd. The pair swapped positions a couple of times before the Italian made a move stick, with Andrea Dovizioso also passing the Australian shortly after.
Rossi and Dovizioso pulled away as they contended for the honour of highest placing Italian rider, and it was a battle the reigning World Champion eventually won comfortably. Pedrosa by that stage had crossed the finish line in first position and exactly 1.9s clear of Lorenzo, with Rossi just over a second behind his Fiat Yamaha team-mate.
Following Dovizioso and Stoner were Monster Yamaha Tech 3 pair Ben Spies and Colin Edwards in sixth and seventh respectively, with Álvaro Bautista, Héctor Barberá and Marco Melandri completing the top ten. Melandri’s team-mate Marco Simoncelli crashed but rejoined the race to finish 14th, whilst Mika Kallio was forced to retire late on.
Lorenzo’s lead at the top of the standings is now 63 points over Pedrosa, with Rossi moving into fourth overall at nine points behind Dovizioso.
Hopefully there's more fights to come as I do not wish for the championship to be wrap up so soon :)
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