Dani Pedrosa wins GP of Portugal

A great result for the Repsol Honda team that today saw its three riders placed in the first four positions of the Grand Prix of Portugal with Dani Pedrosa on the top step of the podium, Casey Stoner in 3rd and Andrea Dovizioso 4th. Valentino Rossi finished the race in 5th place.

Dani Pedrosa conquered his first win on this track, after having been glued to Jorge Lorenzo from the 1st to 24th laps, then with a perfect overtaking manoeuvre he took the lead of the race and ended with a three second advantage.

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. He remained in this position from the first to the last lap, any hope to catch the front runners was lost around the mid-race point after he was struck with a serious pain in his back that prevented him pushing harder.

His team mate Andrea Dovizioso overtook Valentino Rossi on the finishing straight clinching 4th position by just 32 tenths of a second.

With todays’ win and three podium finishes in as many races, Dani Pedrosa reduces the gap to Championship leader, Jorge Lorenzo to four points. The Spanish Repsol Honda rider celebrates today his 50th podium in the MotoGP class, all aboard a Honda machine.

Stoner is third in the Championship standings with 41 points and Dovizioso sixth with equal points to Hayden (fifth with 30 points).

Dani Pedrosa – 1st: "I'm very happy for today's win, but more than the win I'm happy for my condition and it seems that my surgery was finally successful. 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. 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 in this track and thanks to all the doctors, my physio and trainer because it's been hard work and finally we got a win".

Jorge Lorenzo – 2st: “I made a good start and I’m really happy for that then I pushed to my maximum to try to open the gap to Dani. Unfortunately today was not the day for that, he was too strong and consistent and at the end he was maybe fresher to push. Second is a good result, we have a lot of points from three races so I think we are in a good way to keep fighting for the championship. I want to thank my team who worked really hard this weekend to make sure we were as competitive as we could be.”

Casey Stoner – 3rd: "We had a pretty good start to the race but Dani moved across and I had to hit the brakes and back off so after that I was challenging Marco for 3rd position in the first turn and he cut me off which I'm not so happy about, then in turn 4 he crashed and I lost the tow to Dani and Jorge. I didn't really have a lot of confidence in the first laps with the rear tyre, it didn't seem to want to work so well especially on the left side, I nearly crashed a few times so I slowed down a little. Then during the race at some point, 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 3rd place today".

2011 MotoGP Portugal results:
1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 45'51.483
2. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Yamaha Factory Racing + 3.051
3. Casey Stoner (AUS) Repsol Honda Team + 7.658
4. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda Team + 16.530
5. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Ducati Team + 16.555
6. Colin Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 32.575
7. Hiroshi Aoyama (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 38.749
8. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 40.912
9. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Team + 54.887
10. Randy De Puniet (FRA) Pramac Racing Team + 59.697
11. Toni Elias (SPA) LCR Honda MotoGP + 1'00.374
12. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Pramac Racing Team + 1'01.793
13. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1'24.370
14. Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha Factory Racing Not classified (16 laps)
15. Karel Abraham (CZE) Cardion AB Motoracing Not classified (27 laps)
16. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini Not starting
17. Hector Barbera (SPA) Aspar Team Not starting