Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden (Photo: Honda Pro Images) » More Photos

PEDROSA TAKES CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD WITH PODIUM

In a race packed with drama at both start and finish Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) took control of the World Championship with a sound ride to second behind runaway winner Casey Stoner (Ducati). Colin Edwards (Yamaha) finished third when Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) ran into machine trouble on the final lap. Edwards snatched the rostrum spot on the line as Hayden coasted forlornly across.

Uncertain weather was a factor in both the 125cc and 250cc Grands Prix held prior to this 26-lap race around the sinuous 4.555km Circuit van Drenthe, but the track remained dry despite brooding skies throughout this eventful MotoGP race.

Dani launched his RCV off the line clinically quickly and headed the pack into turn one with Stoner inches behind him and Nicky fending off Shinya Nakano (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) in fourth, the Japanese having burst through the field from ninth on the grid.

As the riders filed into the slow left-hand Horseshoe turn Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), who had not enjoyed the best of starts, lost control of his machine and collected the blameless Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V) in the crash. Rossi restarted, De Puniet could not.

Another lap one victim, this time of his own invention, was Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V). With two Honda men down and out, there was encouragement at the front of the race with Dani, Nicky, Nakano and Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda RC212V) in the top five.

None would be able to make any impression on Stoner however. The Aussie World Champion relieved Dani of the lead at the end of lap one and was never again troubled as he powered to a decisive win, his third of this 2008 campaign.

Nicky harried Dani for second early in this race, but in only his second outing on the pneumatic-valve-engined RC212V he had to consolidate third place as the contest wore on. It looked as if the Kentucky Kid would achieve his first podium of the season, but he would be denied – freewheeling to the flag as Edwards sped past. But the signs for the new machine are encouraging, despite today’s disappointment.

Nakano rode his strongest race so far this season but faded in the second half to come home eighth. It was an encouraging performance from this intense campaigner. Dovi road another strong race to finish fifth and confirm his status as the most successful of the Honda satellite riders so far.

There were just 13 riders on track in the final laps, laps where Rossi overhauled Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati) to take 11th place and garner a valuable five points after all looked lost on lap one. Of concern to all World Championship hopefuls will be the margin of Stoner’s victory – 11.3 seconds – a little too convincing for comfort.

The implications for the World Championship are substantial: Dani now heads the standings after another podium, his eighth in nine races, with 171 points, Rossi sits second on 167 and Stoner now looks a serious title threat with 142 points and the momentum of a winner of consecutive races.

Dani said: “I’m happy with this result because it was a difficult race and I’m happy to be in the World Championship lead once again, the 20 points we got here are very important. We’ve struggled a little bit during practice here, but my team have worked really hard, so a big thanks to all of them. Yesterday I was able to qualify on a MotoGP front row for the first time at Assen. Today I did my best in the race but unfortunately we couldn’t go with Casey because he was so fast. Now we need to keep working hard because we must try to close the gap over the next few races. Sachsenring is next. We had a great win there last year and we will try to do the same again this year.”

A resolute Nicky, fourth, said: “Man, we had a pretty good race. Unfortunately this game can be cruel sometimes. To be so close to a really good result is tough, but we still finished, we made it across the line and still got some good points out of the deal, but it would’ve been nice to stand on the podium. The team certainly deserved it, they’ve worked really hard this weekend. I had a dash light come on at the start of the race, though it went off after the start. She finally quit right before the finish line. Nonetheless the bike is working good. Now they’ve got a week and a half to hopefully sort it out in Japan and we can keep moving on.”

Dovi said: “I’m very happy with this fifth place, I believe this is the maximum we could achieve today. I started well and in the early stages I was faster than some of the other riders, managing to stay in front, even though we started from the fourth row of the grid where usually it’s hard to recover and get with the leaders. Yesterday I thought we would be able to have a better rhythm, but our result today could not have been better. We struggle to fight for the podium positions and it seems that fourth or fifth is ‘our’ position in the race. We are working well and happy with the results, even if we want better!”

Nakano in eighth said: “I’ve finished ninth for the last three races and our objective today was to improve on that! Eighth place isn’t a fantastic result, but the most positive thing about this race was the start. I got away really well and managed to get straight into a good pace. Unfortunately after a few laps my rhythm dropped off and I lost positions, from fourth back to seventh. I would have liked to finish higher but I’m still happy because eighth isn’t bad and I think we’ve taken a step forward today.”

Non-finisher De Angelis said: “I started quite well but Valentino and De Puniet crashed in front of me coming onto the back straight and I had to slam the brakes on, allowing a couple of riders past. In the next corner I’d barely opened the throttle when the bike lost grip and threw me into the air. It was probably the tire that wasn’t up to temperature and I just lost control, the rear came around and I crashed. Luckily I’m not hurt and I’m looking forward to the next race.”

Crash victim De Puniet said: “We deserve a lot better than this. Since the beginning of this weekend my pace was consistently fast and I could stay with the top five riders today. I made a very good start and was in the fifth position when Rossi crashed and I was ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’. We both went in the gravel but he rejoined the race. Probably he arrived too fast and lost the rear hitting my bike. I’m very disappointed because we could have fought for a good result here.”