Pedrosa on form at San Marino

Added on Sunday, September 5th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Pedrosa on top again

Dani Pedrosa scored his first back to back win in MotoGP at San Marino this afternoon, after storming to his fourth win of the season.

As the race got underway Pedrosa launched into the lead immediately, transferring his pole position start into an advantage over the rest of the field, whilst Lorenzo slotted into second. As the first few laps unfolded the Spaniard was already 1.5 seconds ahead, extending the gap back to championship leader Lorenzo every chance he got.

While the top two settled into a rhythm, the battle for third really began to hot up. After starting third on the grid, Casey Stoner soon found himself defending from a very eager Valentino Rossi, with the Italian keen to impress on home soil. After pursuing the Australian for a number of laps, Rossi finally found a way passed, with Andrea Dovizioso following suit shortly afterwards.

From here it was a battle for third between the Italians, with Rossi proving successful enough to complete the podium at his home race. Dovizioso crossed the line a strong fourth place, with Stoner being able to hang onto fifth. Meanwhile the Yamaha Tech 3 pairing of Ben Spies and Colin Edwards secured sixth and seventh place finishes.

Elsewhere in the top ten, Alvaro Bautista and Hector Barbera starred, to sweep passed the chequered flag in eighth and ninth, while Marco Melandri completed the top ten.

Further afield, Loris Capirossi and Nicky Hayden crashed at the first hurdle, when both riders went down at turn one. Hayden was able to carry on for a while before being forced to retire, while Capirossi was unfortunately out of the race immediately, on what was his 200th MotoGP start. Mika Kallio was the only other retirement, with the Pramac Racing Team rider retiring just eleven laps from the end.

Lorenzo still holds a firm grasp on the championship title, leading Pedrosa by sixty-three points. Dovizioso is third in the standings, with Rossi moving into fourth, despite missing a number of races due to a broken leg. The next round of the championship is at Aragon on the 19th September.

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