Pedrosa destroys the competition in Barcelona
Written by Scott Keller · June 8, 2008
Spain’s Dani Pedrosa won today’s Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain much to the delight of his countrymen. He fared much better than fellow Spaniard, Jorge Lorenzo who suffered a concussion in a crash during Friday practice. Lorenzo sat out the GP on Sunday and was hospitalized for observation, and further examination of whether or not he will need a skin graft on a couple of fingers. We wish Jorge the best in getting back on the bike and in competition soon.
Lorenzo started second and took a commanding lead from the start, passing polesitter, Casey Stoner, for first place going into turn one. The field cleared turn one with Lorenzo, Stoner, and Doviziso in the top three. Dovizioso jumped to second quickly as Stoner struggled on lap one.
The fans, all 130,000 of them, stood on their feet, and were going crazy for Lorenzo at the start. The Spanish fans love their motorcycle racing.
After the first two laps, Stoner was able to gather up his first lap problems, and took second place back from Dovisioso. Meanwhile, Nikki Hayden was creeping back toward the front after a horrible start, and was running sixth with 23 to go.
With 20 laps to go, it became clear that unless something went terribly wrong for Pedrosa, that the real race was going to be for second place. Pedrosa was setting a blistering pace, pulling a huge gap on the entire field.
In that battle for second with 17 laps to go were Stoner, Dovizioso, and Valentino Rossi. Stoner was all over the track, and Dovizioso didn’t have the horsepower, and both of them were holding up Rossi. Rossi’s answer was to pass both of them in consecutive corners with two impressive moves.
Other than the fight for second, the only excitement in the first half of the race was Randy de Puniet crashing out of the race. Lorenzo was checking out on the field, and had pulled a seven second lead on Rossi. The race had the makings of a total blow out.
With ten to go, the top eight were Pedrosa, Rossi, Stoner, Dovizioso, Edwards, Heyden, Vermeulen, and Toseland. The fight for second raged on with Rossi unable to pull a gap on Stoner, while Dovizioso faded a bit. The gave Stoner and Rossi room to engage in some awesome head-to-head racing.
With nine to go Stoner was able to set up a pass on Catalunya’s long straight going into turn one to regain second place. And in the following laps, Rossi relentlessly gave chase. Both riders were riding on the knife’s edge, and were putting on one heck of a show. Amazing stuff.
Finally on lap 23, Rossi was able to make a pass stick and pull a bit of gap on Stoner, but what a race! Of course, neither of the past world champs had anything for Lorenzo who was cruising to a win, over five seconds ahead.
A couple of observations from the race and coverage on SPEED TV:
- Wow, what a horrible picture. I think I’ve seen higher resolution video on YouTube. What’s the deal with the horrible picture? It is hard enough to tell the bikes apart as it is. With a blurry picture, only seasoned fans can tell who is who.
- The MotoGP coverage seems to only focus on the top six riders, which make it tough to follow all of the riders. Sure, the race between Stoner and Rossi was the most compelling, but how about showing some of the battles further back in the field.
- Wow, the European fans sure do show up for motorcycle racing. 130,000 people for a 25-lap motorcycle race? That’s insane.
- Jorge Lorenzo is blowing Nikki Hayden out of the water this year. Will the new Honda bike with the pneumatic engine give Hayden better performance? Lorenzo and Hayden are scheduled to test the new bike this week.
- Stoner seemed to be all over the place, and he even admitted that he wasn’t happy with his riding today. He said he wasn’t comfortable on the bike, so they have some work to do to get him feeling confident on the Ducati.
The MotoGP series heads to Donington Park for the British GP in two weeks.
RESULTS - BARCELONA
Pos. Rider Nation Team Total time
1 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team 43′02.175
2 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team + 2.806
3 C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team + 3.343
4 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 10.893
5 C. EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha + 16.426
6 J. TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha + 21.482
7 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 21.548
8 N. HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team + 22.280
9 S. NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini + 22.375
10 J. HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team + 46.835
11 M. MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team + 57.991
12 A. WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team + 59.168
13 S. GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team + 1′00.779
14 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 14 Lap
15 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini 15 Lap
16 L. CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 15 Lap
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