Dani Pedrosa roared to victory for the first time this season as he took top spot in the MotoGP Portugal ahead of pole sitter Jorge Lorenzo, while his team-mate Casey Stoner grabbed third place.
Fellow Red Bull-backed rider Andrea Dovizioso took fourth from under the nose of the legendary Valentino Rossi to round off a dominant performance by the Repsol-Honda teams.
It was Pedrosa's first win at Estoril, having stayed steadfastly stuck to the tail of the reigning world champion for the first 24th laps. Then, with a perfect overtaking move, he took the lead of the race and ended with a three-second advantage. No mean feat as the Spaniard is still recovering from his latest shoulder operation.
"I'm very happy with today's win, but more than the win I'm happy for my condition and it seems that my surgery was finally successful," said Dani. "I was trying to rest my arm at times as it was cramping with 15 laps to go, I was riding behind Jorge and waiting for the numbness to come together with the loss of power, but it didn't come! I'm just so happy to see that the surgery has worked, it's been around six months with this and it's a big relief.
'I'm very happy to win here, it's my first win on this track' – Dani Pedrosa
"For the race, I was riding at my best, Jorge is amazing here always riding so smooth and fast, I was trying to stay with him and in the end I felt comfortable and tried to make a move and I was successful. I'm very happy to win here, it's my first win on this track."
The 2007 world champion Casey Stoner suffered a difficult first few laps after experiencing a few issues with his tyres, losing contact with the leaders and settled back in third – where he stayed from the first to the last lap. But any hope of a push to the front was curtailed when his back seized up.
"We had a pretty good start to the race but Dani moved across and I had to hit the brakes and back off. After that I was challenging Marco (Simoncelli) for third position in the first turn and he cut me off which I'm not so happy about," said Casey. "Then in turn four, he crashed and I lost the tow to Dani and Jorge.
"Then I felt my back completely lock up on me and I couldn't move for three or four corners, I was struggling to do anything and had no breath. I thought I had to go back to the garage, but thankfully within half a lap it eased up a little, got better and we managed to finish so I'm very happy to stay in third place today".
Meanwhile, Dovizioso overtook Rossi on the finishing straight, clinching fourth position by just 32 tenths of a second.
“After a difficult weekend, we had a good race with the best lap at the end and a good strategy to overtake Valentino," said the Italian. "I was riding at the limit during the whole race and Valentino was stronger in 2-3 points so it was difficult to overtake him. I pushed hard to keep contact with him and at the very last lap I tried to overtake him at turn 10, even if I knew that it’s a difficult corner to overtake.
"Then at the very last long corner I tried to overtake him inside, Vale closed the door so I tried to exit faster than him, I made it and I could overtake him in the straight with the draft. I’m happy of this result but we are still too far from the first rider."
With todays’ win and three podium finishes in as many races, Dani Pedrosa reduces the gap to Championship leader, Jorge Lorenzo to four points.
Want more?
- MotoGP Portugal event page
- Dani Pedrosa Blog: I beat the Odds, now for the Op
- Official MotoGP Twitter feed
- Catch more MotoGP action on the official YouTube channel
- Dani Pedrosa profile page
- Casey Stoner profile page
- Andrea Dovizioso profile page
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