CAFÉ RACER 76

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via Racing Café

Moto GP : Dani Pedrosa second place still important, Marquez happy with Catalunya result

with Twowheelsblog

Dani Pedrosa may not have won his 200th Grand Prix in Catalunya, but the Repsol Honda veteran was only mildly disappointed with his second place.

The track conditions were extreme and considering that the front of his Honda continued to close on him when he was hitting the corner apex whenever he pushed, he was content to finish second and keep his lead in the standings.

“Today was a bit of a strange race. We could not get maximum performance and physically it was very hard, because of the heat of the bike and the tyres. When I tried to open the throttle the bike wobbled in the front and I had to be very careful. We three front-runners were battling the track conditions today.It was a bit disappointing not to be able to push more, since the differences between us all was minimal. We rode practically the entire race without any overtaking. It was very easy to make a mistake and in fact, on the closing laps, Marc made one and I had a slide, but in the end we were able to take a very important second place,” said Pedrosa.

Marquez was relieved to avoid contact with his teammate in a Turn 4 lunge on the penultimate tour, but would finish on the podium from sixth on the grid.

Repsol Honda may not have brought home a victory, but they still had two riders on the podium, and no one was more surprised than Marc Marquez who took a third place podium.

The MotoGP rookie is a race animal, and was the only rider who actually livened up a dull race in the finale, when he attempted to get past his team mate in the penultimate lap and to avoid hitting him braked so hard that his bike shuddered.

A candid Marquez admitted that he tried the pass in the wrong place, “I thought I was stronger there, but on that lap Dani also braked quite hard. I nearly crashed and lost too much time. We didn’t touch but it was very, very close. I already said to him, ‘when you see the video - sorry!’

Talking about the race he said, “It was a difficult race. We expected it to be tough, but we never imagined that we would be fighting for the podium with Jorge (Lorenzo) and Dani and I’m very happy with this result! It gives us confidence after a slightly tricky weekend, as in the end we found the ideal setup. During the race I learned a lot from riding behind Dani, trying to figure out how to ride a MotoGP bike at this track, and in the end we did quite well. We knew it would be difficult to finish in the top five, but we managed to get on the podium. I can only say I’m thrilled with the result. Now we look to Assen and we’ll see if we can improve anything for that race during the test at Aragon.”

Moto GP: Jorge Lorenzo takes dominating victory at Catalunya

from Twowheelsblog

Reigning World champion Jorge Lorenzo took another stunning victory - his second in a row - and his third of the season with a dominating lights-to-flag win over Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez.

Despite his stunning and record breaking qualifying lap (the race was much slower than expected due to the heat), Dani Pedrosa lost the pole position just a few yards before the end of the straight to Lorenzo who would lead the entire 25 lapper despite being pressured by the Repsol Honda riders for two third of the race.

Marc Marquez stuck to the tail of Pedrosa and in the penultimate lap tried to overtake his team mate to take second, but Pedrosa chopped back across the nose of Marquez, forcing the rookie to hit the brakes and giving his Honda a big front end shake. The slight scare didn’t stop Marquez who tried to latch onto his team mate’s rear again, but couldn’t get close enought to line up another pass and would finish just 0.090s from Pedrosa.

Valentino Rossi finished a lucky and also a very lonely fourth. Rossi was graced with spot when Cal Crutchlow crashed out losing the front of his M1 during the fifth lap, and he was lucky because Alvaro Bautista almost repeated the same pass that took himself and Rossi out of the Mugello race. Rossi resisted Bautista’s inside pass at the Caixa and the Spaniard was forced to grab his brakes sliding out and barely missing the Yamaha rider’s rear tire.

Stefan Bradl finished fifth after battling with Nicky Hayden who without any warning lost the front of his Ducati, sending the American angrily tumbling into the gravel pit. Hayden, Crutchlow and Bautista weren’t the only riders to crash as only 16 riders finished the physically punishing and incident packed race.

Bradley Smith despite his injuries took an excellent 6th which is his best result of the season and beating Andrea Dovizioso, while Aleix Espargaro and Colin Edwards and Ducati’s Michele Pirro closed out the top ten.

2013 MotoGP Catalunya race results:

01- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – 25 laps in 43’06.479
02- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 1.763
03- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 1.826
04- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 5.874
05- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 26.756
06- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 32.228
07- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 32.692
08- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 58.615
09- Colin Edwards – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – FTR Kawasaki – + 1’03.142
10- Michele Pirro – Ignite Pramac Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1’09.774