Pedrosa wins again on a sad day at Misano

Pedrosa leads Stoner and the rest of the MotoGP field

Dani Pedrosa rode a flawless race today to take his second MotoGP win in as many weekends and claim the first back-to-back victories of his MotoGP career. The Repsol Honda rider led for all 28 laps of the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano, recording his fourth win of 2010 and the twelfth of his MotoGP career. His team-mate Andrea Dovizioso put on a fighting performance today, moving from eighth on the grid to challenge Valentino Rossi for much of the race for the last spot on the podium, eventually finishing fourth.

The racing at Misano today was overshadowed however by the death of Japanese rider Shoya Tomizawa following an accident in the Moto2 race. Coming after the fatality of Peter Lenz in a support race at last weekend’s Indianapolis Grand Prix, both Repsol Honda riders were deeply saddened by today’s events.

Pedrosa: “There are no words to say how it feels after this victory – it feels like nothing. I arrived at parc fermé very happy with the win and I immediately felt that the atmosphere among my mechanics was really strange, everybody was serious. Still with my helmet on they told me about Tomizawa and I couldn’t react. It was a big shock, a big contrast for me. I asked three times if it was true because I couldn’t believe it. It’s so sad, terrible, and these things should never happen. As a person I can only say that he was a very funny boy, always happy and making jokes, and as a rider he earned respect from everybody in a very short time, he was fast and brave. To lose two riders in a week is terrible. I believe everybody in the World Championship is feeling the same now and I want to send my condolences to the family. When you are born, life gives you the chance to choose what you want to do. Tomi chose to be a rider and in fact he was doing great. I just want to think that he’s been happy making his dream come true. Concerning the race, I want to say thank you again to my team for doing a great job. The whole weekend has been perfect: good practices, a very high pace during the race, and the second win in a row and the fourth of the season. I want to keep my feet on the ground though and just concentrate on one race at a time. The feeling on the bike is very good now and my goal is to continue in this way. But to be honest I’m not really thinking about that at this moment."

Results

Race Result – Round 12
1 Dani Pedrosa 44m 22.059 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Jorge Lorenzo +1.900 SPA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team
3 Valentino Rossi +3.183 ITA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team
4 Andrea Dovizioso +6.454 ITA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
5 Casey Stoner +18.479 AUS DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team
6 Ben Spies +28.385 USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha
7 Colin Edwards +34.934 USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha
8 Alvaro Bautista +38.157 SPA SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
9 Hector Barbera +40.943 SPA DUCATI Paginas Amarillas Aspar
10 Marco Melandri +42.377 ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
11 Aleix Espargaro +45.906 SPA DUCATI Pramac Racing
12 Hiroshi Aoyama +46.394 JPN HONDA Interwetten Honda MotoGP
13 Randy De Puniet +50.481 FRA HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
14 Marco Simoncelli +1m 23.143 ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
Championship standings
1 Jorge Lorenzo 271 pts SPA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team
2 Dani Pedrosa 208 pts SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Andrea Dovizioso 139 pts ITA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Valentino Rossi 130 pts ITA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team
5 Casey Stoner 130 pts AUS DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team
6 Ben Spies 120 pts USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha
7 Nicky Hayden 109 pts USA DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team
8 Randy De Puniet 81 pts FRA HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
9 Marco Melandri 67 pts ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
10 Colin Edwards 66 pts USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha
11 Marco Simoncelli 65 pts ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
12 Hector Barbera 61 pts SPA DUCATI Paginas Amarillas Aspar
13 Aleix Espargaro 44 pts SPA DUCATI Pramac Racing
14 Alvaro Bautista 41 pts SPA SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
15 Loris Capirossi 41 pts ITA SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
16 Mika Kallio 31 pts FIN DUCATI Pramac Racing
17 Hiroshi Aoyama 26 pts JPN HONDA Interwetten Honda MotoGP
18 Alex De Angelis 11 pts SM HONDA Interwetten Honda MotoGP
19 Roger Lee Hayden 5 pts USA HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
20 Kousuke Akiyoshi 4 pts JPN HONDA Interwetten Honda MotoGP
21 Wataru Yoshikawa 1 pts JPN YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team