DANI Pedrosa firmed his grip on the second in the World Championship standings with victory at Sachsen ring in the ENI Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland on Sunday, his second win of the season, as Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo took the second place and Casey Stoner third ahead of a courageous Valentino Rossi in his first race back after the injury.The original race was red flagged on lap nine when a crash for Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) at turn four brought down both Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) and Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Racing), neither of whom could avoid the Frenchman’s bike which burst into the flames. The top five order at that stage was Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso and Rossi, and the trio involved in the accident were unable to line-up for the shortened 21-lap new race after failing to return to the Pit Lane with their bikes within the five minutes of the red flag. De Puniet was physically not able, having sustained with fractures in his left tibia and fibula in the incident.
After a 25-minute interval the new shortened version to began, and Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) slid out at turn one in an unfortunate end to his weekend. As he had done in the original race Pedrosa and got his nose in the front on the first lap, but Lorenzo quickly assumed the race lead – that would have change again however.
The top order was much the same as it had been in before the red flag, with the Lorenzo holding off Pedrosa, Stoner in the third, and Rossi and Dovizioso battling for the fourth. The reigning World Champion was in front of his Italian compatriot before too long, and the Repsol Honda man was caught by the chasing pack to shortly after.
The battle between the Lorenzo and Pedrosa was developing into a thriller with the two Spaniards swapping the lead as they constantly looked for ways through on one another, and Pedrosa was at his best as he set a new circuit lap record on the lap 10 and then again on 12, assuming the race lead and breaking his own record from the previous year and consistently riding in the low 1’22”s.
