MotoGP: Pedrosa wins the race in Mugello

The Repsol Honda Team enjoyed an excellent Italian Grand Prix at Mugello today with Dani Pedrosa taking a runaway win and his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso joining him on the podium with a competitive ride to third place. The result elevates Pedrosa to second in the World Championship behind Jorge Lorenzo, and confirms the competitiveness of the Honda RC212V - with Pedrosa setting the 11 fastest laps of the race today. His best lap, a new race lap record of 1m 49.531, was 0.762 seconds clear of his nearest rival.

Pedrosa made it look easy today on his RC212V, converting pole position into a lead at the first corner, and the 24-year-old Spaniard was never headed for the entire 23-lap race. Riding with metronomic precision, he opened the gap to today’s second place man, Jorge Lorenzo, lap-by-lap and his biggest challenge today was maintaining concentration and avoiding mistakes as he navigated Mugello’s glorious sweeping curves. The gap stretched to as much as eight seconds before Pedrosa began to ease back slightly and control the pace. He crossed the line four seconds clear of Lorenzo to record the ninth MotoGP win of his career and his 32nd in all classes of Grand Prix racing.

Dovizioso’s performance was almost as impressive as his team-mate’s as the Italian converted eighth on the grid into third at the chequered flag to make it three podiums from the first four races of 2010. Dovizioso made a fantastic start and gained four places as he guided his RC212V up the inside of Mugello’s Turn One and into fourth place. At the end of lap one he climbed to third and locked onto Lorenzo’s tail for the entirety of the race. The gap to Lorenzo never opened to more than one second, and Dovizioso pressed the Mallorcan rider right to the end, without quite managing to find a way past. It was an emotional moment for Dovizioso - who lives in Forli, just 95 km from Mugello - as he appeared on the podium in front of his home crowd.

With Marco Melandri in fifth and Randy de Puniet in sixth it was a good day for Honda, with RC212Vs filling four of the first six places. This is the first time that two Repsol Hondas have been on the podium since Germany in 2007, when Pedrosa won the race and Nicky Hayden took third. The next round of the MotoGP season takes place at Silverstone in two weeks’ time and the Repsol Honda team will arrive in Britain in search of another strong result as Grand Prix racing returns to the historic circuit.

This was the first time Rossi has not started a race since he began his illustrious career over fourteen years ago in Malaysia at the age of 16, and the Italian holds the record of 230 consecutive starts. He is currently recuperating at the Centro Traumatologico Ortopedico in Florence following surgery yesterday to repair his broken right leg.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling to win again and I’m so happy for myself and the Repsol Honda Team. We’ve been working really hard and we had some problems through the winter and in the first races, so I’m really delighted with this victory, especially after leading at Jerez for so long but not quite making it. It looks like we are back near where we need to be and the team deserves the victory. I had a great feeling on the bike today, especially at the beginning section of the race and I could open up a gap. To be honest I didn’t see who was behind me, I just looked for the gap on my pit board and tried to ride consistently. It’s important that we are competitive now because we have one weekend off and then three races in a row. The next race is at Silverstone which is a legendary track so I hope that we can match this kind of performance there - and also that this part of England has better weather! I’d like to thank the team again for this result. And I also want to thank the fans here for pushing for Valentino because he’s having a hard time and everyone in the paddock wishes him well” - Dani Pedrosa.

"Unfortunately my pace today wasn't as good as yesterday and I could only finish second; something happened and I couldn't ride in the same way but in the circumstances I am happy with my result. Anyway Dani had a perfect race today; he had an amazing pace and I don't know if I could have beaten him even if I had been as fast as yesterday! To take 90 points from 100 is great and I am leading the championship, so I cannot ask for more. I need to make some improvements to my riding style and Yamaha needs to try to improve the power of the bike a bit so we have some things to work on, but I am confident about the next weeks. It was very strange today without Valentino, I am so glad the fans honoured him so well. I wanted to win to dedicate the victory to him but that wasn't possible so all I can do is say ‘get well soon!'" - said Jorge Lorenzo.

“It’s so special to be on the podium at Mugello in front of my home crowd because I’ve never made the podium in MotoGP here - I always had to watch it on the TV in the garage! It was a really emotional experience up there with all the fans supporting us. I made a good start and this was really important for my race. I wanted to finish the race fighting with Lorenzo because I think it could have been a good battle on the last lap, but I couldn’t catch him. We are getting closer to the front but we are not quite there yet and we have to take the next step so that we can fight for victories. Three podium finishes is a good start to the season and is very important for the championship, and it’s thanks to the hard work we’ve done over the winter and in the first races. I’d like to say congratulations to Dani on the win because he had an incredible pace, and this is an extra motivation for us to take that extra step forward so we can fight for the win” - Andrea Dovizioso.

Results Grand Prix of Italy:
1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 42'28.066
2. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team + 4.014
3. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda Team + 6.196
4. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team + 25.703
5. Marco Melandri (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 25.735
6. Randy de Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP + 25.965
7. Ben Spies (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 28.806
8. Aleix Espargaro (SPA) Pramac Green Team + 40.172
9. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 41.394
10. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 42.107
11. Hiroshi Aoyama (JAP) Interwetten-Honda MotoGP + 43.095
12. Hector Barbera (SPA) Aspar Team + 43.363
13. Colin Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 1'14.393
14. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1'24.389

NOT CLASSIFIED
Mika Kallio (FIN) Pramac Green Team 15 Lap
Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team 18 Lap

NOT STARTING Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team

Championship Standings:
1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 90
2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 65
3. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 61
4. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda Team 58
5. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team 39
6. Randy de Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 36
7. Marco Melandri (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 32
8. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team 24
9. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 23
10. Ben Spies (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 20
11. Colin Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 19
12. Hector Barbera (SPA) Aspar Team 19
13. Hiroshi Aoyama (JAP) Interwetten-Honda MotoGP 18
14. Aleix Espargaro (SPA) Pramac Green Team 16
15. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 13
16. Mika Kallio (FIN) Pramac Green Team 12
17. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 8