Michelin riders dominated today’s Spanish GP at Jerez, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) running away with the race to score his first victory of the year and take the World Championship lead. Fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) finished third, just four seconds down on Pedrosa, with Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) taking an excellent fourth-place finish.
Pedrosa led from turn two on lap one all the way to the finish line, running a stunning pace that saw him stretch his advantage lap after lap until he had a 4.6 second lead with eight laps remaining. During the 27 laps he broke the three year-old lap record by 0.480 seconds and the 2005 race record by more than eight seconds. After the race he was presented the winner’s silverware by King Juan Carlos, a frequent visitor to Spanish rounds of the motorcycling World Championships.
Rookie Lorenzo, who started from pole position for the second successive race, followed his second-place finish at the Qatar GP with another impressive podium result. The double 250 World Champion chose similar Michelin tyres to Pedrosa – medium compound front/hard compound rear – and spent most of the race with his team-mate Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha Team YZR-M1).
Lorenzo wasn’t Michelin’s only rapid rookie here, because James Toseland (Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin) and Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Team Scot Honda RC212V-Michelin) were in the midst of a thrilling four-way contest for fifth.
“The race was very fast and Dani kept up an incredible pace throughout,” said Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin’s director of motorcycle racing. “His times were consistent, which is what we always try to allow our riders to achieve, this proves that the tyres gave good and consistent performance. Jorge had another great race and is showing wonderful speed, he’s also very good to work with. It’s really nice for us to have two riders on the podium again, but with the winner and the third-place man on our tyres this is even better than Qatar. We were also happy to see Nicky fighting up front again and both James and Andrea enjoying that great battle for fifth place.
“Now we go to Estoril. It’s a completely different track to Jerez, but we have worked hard over the winter and we hope our tyres will continue to work as well as they’ve worked at the first two races.”
Pedrosa was delighted to take the points lead, just nine weeks after he broke bones in his right hand during winter testing at Sepang, Malaysia. “I’m very happy about today’s performance because it comes after a difficult winter during which we couldn’t test so much after I broke my hand,” he said. “I focused on not making mistakes and I was able to manage the race all the way to the finish and get a win in front of the Spanish fans. I want to thank all my team and Michelin for giving me a good bike and tyre package here.”
MotoGP Race Classification:- 2 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 45'35.121
- 46 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 45'38.004
- 48 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 45'39.460
- 69 Nicky HAYDEN Repsol Honda Team 45'45.263
- 65 Loris CAPIROSSIRizla Suzuki MotoGP 46'02.645
- 52 James TOSELAND Tech 3 Yamaha 46'02.929
- 21 John HOPKINS Kawasaki Racing Team 46'03.417
- 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO JiR Team Scot MotoGP 46'03.570
- 56 Shinya NAKANO San Carlo Honda Gresini 46'07.690
- 7 Chris VERMEULEN Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 46'10.212
- 1 Casey STONER Ducati Marlboro Team 46'17.344
- 33 Marco MELANDRI Ducati Marlboro Team 46'19.619
- 13 Anthony WEST Kawasaki Racing Team 46'20.928
- 15 Alex DE ANGELIS San Carlo Honda Gresini 46'20.992
- 24 Toni ELIAS Alice Team 46'44.679
- 50 Sylvain GUINTOLI Alice Team 46'49.563
