Michelin man Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) left the rest of the pack racing for second place at Catalunya this afternoon, the local hero smashing lap and race records during his awesome start-to-finish victory. Pedrosa was Michelin’s top performer in a great day for the French tyre brand, four of the first six finishers using Michelin tyres.
Local hero Pedrosa – who grew up in Sabadell, less than 20km from the track – chose hard-compound front and rear Michelins for this aggressive track and yet was able to set a stunning pace from the very beginning that quickly left his pursuers behind. At one point he had built an eight-second advantage, finally crossing the line 2.8 seconds ahead after easing his pace during the final laps. Nonetheless Pedrosa broke the Catalunya race record by more than 14 seconds. His performance was particularly impressive because the track has not been in great shape this weekend with riders complaining of a lack of grip. Lap records were not broken in the 125 and 250 GPs.
Impressive MotoGP rookie Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Team Scot Honda RC212V-Michelin) equalled his best MotoGP result with a fine ride to fourth, seven-seconds off the podium. The Italian was followed over the line by team-mates Colin Edwards (Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin) and James Toseland (Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin).
“Dani was fantastic today, he rode very fast lap times from the early laps, which was very impressive to see,” said Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin’s d irector of motorcycle racing. “We felt quite confident he would be very strong today and when we saw the lap times he was doing we were certain that the tyres he had chosen would allow him to be consistently fast to the end of the race. It’s great when a rider can choose hard tyres that still allow him to be fast at the start, because that way you know you will have a good pace to the finish, which is the most important thing. We are also very happy with the speed of our other riders. Andrea rode a brilliant race and thanks once again to the Tech 3 guys who were great, just like they were at Mugello last weekend. It was a shame that Nicky (Hayden, Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) couldn’t keep running strong over race distance and it was unfortunate that Randy (de Puniet. Honda LCR RC212V-Michelin) crashed. Now we look forward to two important days of testing with our riders.”
Pedrosa’s second win of the year moved him to within seven points of the World Championship lead. “I’m very happy about this win, my thanks to all the people around me: the team, Honda, Michelin, everyone,” he said. “Today was also very important for the championship, I am now five points closer to the lead, but there are still many races ahead of us, so we need to keep pushing and be consistent.”
After back-to-back races at Mugello and Catalunya the MotoGP circus now heads north for the British GP on June 22nd and the Dutch TT on June 28th.
Catalunya Race Classification:1. Dani PEDROSA (Repsol Honda Team-Michelin), 43'02.175
2. Valentino ROSSI (Fiat Yamaha Team), + 2,806
3. Casey STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team), +3.343
4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (JiR Team Scot MotoGP-Michelin), + 10.893
5.Colin EDWARDS (Tech 3 Yamaha- Michelin), + 16.426
6. James TOSELAND (Tech 3 Yamaha- Michelin), + 21.482
7. Chris VERMEULEN (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP), + 21.54
8. Nicky HAYDEN (Repsol Honda Team-Michelin),+ 22.280
9. Shinya NAKANO (San Carlo Honda Gresini), +22.375
10. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki Racing Team), + 46.835
11. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team), + 57.991
12. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki Racing Team), + 59.168
13. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Alice Team), + 1'00.779
Jorge LORENZO (Fiat Yamaha Team- Michelin, DNS
Loris CAPIROSSI (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP), DNF
Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda Gresini), DNF
Randy DE PUNIET (LCR Honda MotoGP- Michelin), DNF
Toni ELIAS (Alice Team DUCATI), DNF
