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

PEDROSA FIGHTS FOR FOURTH PLACE IN TOUGH RACE

This was by no means the result Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) was looking for as he finished fourth behind the three Yamahas of winner Valentino Rossi, second-placed Jorge Lorenzo and third man Colin Edwards.

With unsettled weather again the major factor it proved to be in the 125cc and 250cc races, this 28-lap race got underway in sunshine with rain clouds lurking in the skies. Casey Stoner (Ducati) rocketed into the lead at turn one with Dani and Edwards hot in his tracks.

As early as lap three a front foursome of Stoner, Dani, Edwards and Rossi had established some distance between themselves and the pack, and only Lorenzo of the pursuers, would have the pace to get among them in the closing stages.

On lap four Dani was eager to get past Stoner and tried a move up the inside of the Aussie at the Musée corner. He hit trouble mid-move and ran wide on the exit dropping back to third spot with Rossi moving up to second.

Dani was working hard to get back on terms with Rossi and moved up the inside of the former World Champion on the front straight before dropping in behind again as Rossi leaned on his rival on the entry to the chicane. This would be Dani’s best effort to stay with the race winner.

Rossi now had the measure of Stoner and on lap seven he made his move, the Aussie fighting back to retake the lead before Rossi hammered home his advantage on lap eight, establishing a one second lead in the space of two laps and never looking remotely threatened after that.

Dani worked his way back to second past Stoner on lap 11 as Rossi set a series of fastest laps stretching his advantage to nearly three seconds by mid-race distance. Lorenzo was lying fifth at this point as Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) ran off track while seventh in his unstinting efforts to haul himself into contention.

Rain began to fall at the start of lap 16, and although white flags were deployed to allow riders into the pits for a machine change if they wished, all stayed out in the tricky conditions save the struggling Marco Melandri (Ducati) who gambled on further rain by swapping bikes for a wet-tire shod version (unsuccessfully as it turned out).

Rossi was now away in the distance and as Lorenzo edged past Edwards for fourth, Dani’s second place was now in jeopardy to his countryman who was on a late race charge. On lap 21 Lorenzo moved past Stoner on the pits straight, the Aussie throwing up his left hand to indicate machine trouble.

Stoner limped round for another lap trying to get to the pits to change bike, but as he footed into pitlane on his stricken Ducati, it was clear his race was as good as over. He finished 16th, out of the points, after rejoining the race on his number two bike.

As Lorenzo stole past Dani for second, Rossi held a seven second lead that he extended to more than ten seconds before easing off the gas in the closing stages to take the flag. Edwards had taken Dani’s third place off him to complete an all-Yamaha podium.

Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda RC212V) rode a determined race to finish sixth after a slow start that left him down in 12th place at the end of lap one. Dovi was just a bike-length behind Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki). Nicky finished eighth ahead of local hopeful Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V) with Shinya Nakano (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) tenth and his team-mate Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) 12th.

Dani said: “I’m sorry because we could have been on the podium but in the race I wasn’t able to go as fast as I had during practice. From the beginning of the race I had some issues with the front tire, I couldn’t brake the way I wanted to. When we chose our race tires we tried hard to choose the best tires for the race, so we didn’t expect things to turn out like they did. Then in the second half of the race I started to lack some rear grip. When Lorenzo passed me I tried to go with him and not lose contact but I couldn’t manage it. I gave my maximum and despite the problems we finished fourth, which isn’t so bad.”

Dovi, in sixth, said: “When I caught up with James Toseland we overtook each other a few times, then when I was in one of the downhill corners, James hit me very hard from behind. I didn’t crash but his front tire hit my body, my leathers are marked from his tire and the bike has some rubber marks on the rear. For this reason I lost a lot of time and probably without this I could have done even better by the end of the race. We have to do better in qualifying – we know that – and have a better pace in the race.”

Nicky Hayden, eighth, said: “That wasn’t too pretty. All weekend we’ve been missing something, the pace hasn’t been there. I got a good start and recovered a couple of positions but couldn’t go with the group I needed to go with. I was hanging in there, then I ran off the track in turn six, got in just a little bit hot, didn’t make it and that lost me three positions. I came back on, had a little dice with Loris over the last few laps but it wasn’t the result we wanted. This has never been an easy track for me, I’d say Le Mans is the worst track for me on the calendar.”

De Puniet said: “It wasn’t easy for me today because I finally made a good start but another rider pushed me wide at the chicane and when I rejoined the race I was ninth. Hopkins overtook me on the inside in the downhill and we both went wide. So I lost five places and was 14th. I started to push hard to get back into the top ten. Finally I was behind Capirossi and Hayden but was too late to pass them.”

Tenth-placed Nakano said: “Unfortunately today I wasn’t able to put the race together as I had wanted. Starting from the fifth row always makes life difficult but over the opening few laps I couldn’t even stay with the group in front of me. It was only when it started to rain halfway through the race that I got a good pace together and went quicker. I made up ground and caught up with the group but towards the end of the race De Puniet caught me out on the brakes and I missed out on ninth place. I’m not happy finishing tenth, even though I have to say we’ve improved the feeling with the bike here.”

De Angelis, who finished 12th, said: “Despite the end position I’m happy with today because we managed to run half of the race together with the guys who are on satellite bikes just like mine. Unfortunately when it started to rain I had no choice but to drop my pace because I was getting a lot of chatter and I couldn’t feel the front. I couldn’t understand if it was the tire losing grip or if it was just the water on the track that was causing it. Anyway, I lost contact with that group but stayed in the points and that’s positive.”

The World Championship table looks like this after five rounds: Rossi 97, Lorenzo and Pedrosa tied in second on 94, Stoner with 56 points.