- Pedrosa wins in Germany, Rossi back in action

Following the French Grand Prix, the two Fiat Yamaha riders had led the way: Jorge Lorenzo had 70 points and Valentino Rossi was next with 61. Honda’s leading challengers were about twenty points down on him. Then in Italy, where Rossi had won nine previous GPs at the Mugello circuit, a crash on the Saturday put him out of the series with fractures to the tibia of his right leg. In the four races that Valentino missed, Jorge kept up his record of finishing first or second. He now heads Dani Pedrosa by 52 points, and with Rossi down in seventh and over one hundred adrift.

The original prediction for Rossi was that he would be out of action for five months, which would have meant until November. ‘The Doctor’ is more formidable than most mere mortals, however. Having recently been able to test ride Yamaha’s racing-spec R1 Superbike pretty competitively at Misano and Brno, Valentino was able to get back into the Grand Prix action only 43 days after his accident. He was back for round eight, at the Sachsenring in Germany. He may have been helped by the fact that the track has many left-handers and not too many right-handers.

Also appearing in Germany was 26-year-old San Marino rider Alex de Angelis, taking over the Interwetten Honda of injured Hiroshi Aoyama. Alex had raced the 800cc Honda RC212V in 2009, finishing second in Indianapolis, and is an experienced GP racer. Sachsenring was also the venue for the announcement on Casey Stoner’s future. He will be racing for Honda in 2011, presumably with the Repsol-backed works team. His exit from Ducati makes room for the expected switch for Rossi.

Lorenzo made it four consecutive pole positions with his qualifying performance, but his Yamaha also suffered an engine blow up in the session. Unfortunately for Ben Spies and Randy de Puniet, the Fiat machine dropped oil which caused the other two to crash. Randy was hurt as he hit Ben’s bike in his get-off. The French rider had started from the front row of the grid at the last three races, but this early finish left him only seventh on the LCR Honda. Spies was also worse off than usual, in P13 with the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha.

You would have expected Rossi, still using crutches when off the bike, to be somewhat tentative on his return. Sure enough, his qualifying result was his worst of the season - but only by one place, as he ended up fifth. This impressive performance put him behind only the leading works riders. Marlboro Ducati rider Stoner was second, and Repsol Honda men Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso were third and fourth respectively.

There was another good performance from class rookie Héctor Barberá (Aspar Ducati), the 23-year-old qualifying next to Rossi in sixth position. Eighth and tenth went to the San Carlo Gresini Honda riders, Marco Simoncelli ahead of Marco Melandri. Between them was Pramac Ducati’s Aleix Espargaró, and team-mate Mika Kallio was in an improved P11. Spies was just behind team-mate Colin Edwards, twelfth; and the final positions went to Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), Nicky Hayden (Marlboro Ducati), Álvaro Bautistá (Rizla) and de Angelis.

The warm-up session took place in wet conditions, but by the time of the race it was cool but dry. Edwards, Spies and de Puniet opted to run softer compound front Bridgestone tyres than the rest of the field. Pedrosa got away from the line with his usual spurt, taking the lead ahead of Lorenzo, Barberá, Dovizioso, Stoner, Simoncelli and Rossi. Third place for Barberá was notable in only his eighth MotoGP race, but soon enough experience and works machinery began to tell: into one of the series of connected left-handers he lost a place to Dovizioso, and Stoner and Simoncelli were soon to follow suit.

The mostly downhill series of left-handers lead into the fast right at turn eleven, plunging from there down to the heavy-braking Sachsenkurve left-hander. Lorenzo passed Pedrosa on the inside there for the lead. Rossi passed Barberá on the inside through turn eleven; and further back Melandri would soon be past Capirossi, Hayden and Barberá for seventh place. The Sachsenkurve is followed by the uphill left Quickenburgkurve, where Nicky got by Héctor on the inside, only for the customer Ducati man to get it back on the power as they moved into the main start-finish straight.

Lorenzo and Pedrosa led the field, tailed by Stoner and Dovizioso. The Australian set fastest lap now as Andrea began to lose touch gradually. Simoncelli and Rossi had a separate contest for fifth, and the pursuit was led by Melandri, Hayden, Barberá and Capirossi. Nicky moved up a place and then a close contest developed behind him, Melandri initially losing out to Barberá and then de Puniet, with Capirossi, Espargaró, Kallio, Spies and Bautistá following. Edwards went out now in a lowside crash. He restarted, but only to get back to the pits where he ended his day.

Lorenzo set a new fastest lap in the lead, but team-mate Rossi now got past Simoncelli for fifth and he improved Jorge’s time. Lorenzo and Pedrosa both took turns in being faster at this stage. Stoner was on his own in third as Valentino now caught up to Dovizioso. As well as the left-handers from turn four to turn ten, the first part of the lap snakes in and around in loops and turns. This section would see the next dramatic action.

Turn four is The Boot, a left which follows the long right Castrol Omega turn. Part of a large group, de Puniet crashed at this turn. Some of those following were lucky to avoid his fallen Honda, which caught alight, but not all managed it. Espargaró was launched into a highside when he struck Randy’s bike, and Bautistá was similarly unsighted and also went down. There was no option but to red flag the race, which would lead to a restart with the new grid taking the positions from the end of lap nine, the last one everyone had completed. There would be 21 laps still to run.

The surviving riders returned to the pits while the debris was cleared, and unfortunately de Puniet had to be removed to the medical centre. It would soon become known that he had fractured bones in his left leg, and a strong season (fourth equal after seven races) would be severely curtailed for him at this point. Meanwhile, Espargaró’s bike was wrecked, although Bautistá was able to extract his Suzuki and get round to the pits. Aleix wouldn’t be able to restart, but in the event the same was true of Álvaro. He hadn’t got his bike back within five minutes, the rule which prevents riders from causing a race stoppage and benefiting from it.

The positions for those able to restart ran with Lorenzo heading Pedrosa, Stoner, Dovizioso, Rossi, Hayden, Simoncelli, Barberá, Melandri, Capirossi, Kallio, Spies and de Angelis. The absentees had been ninth (de Puniet), twelfth (Espargaró) and fifteenth (Bautistá). Riders were able to add more fuel, change bike settings and replace tyres. In truth, most riders had no option to go with new tyres, as there were no untried sets remaining, but both Stoner and Hayden did opt for different tyres from those already used in practice.

The weather had brightened by the time of the restart, and this time Pedrosa led away from Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Stoner, Hayden, Rossi, Simoncelli, Melandri, Barberá, Capirossi, Spies and de Angelis. Dovizioso tried the outside line at the first right Coca Cola Curve, but didn’t gain any places. Meanwhile, Kallio crashed out at the same corner. Fifth man Hayden went wide at the Sachsenkurve, losing ground, and Rossi was then able to overtake on the inside for turn one.

Initially, the first seven riders began to pull away from the rest, but soon Hayden and Simoncelli were dropped by the first five. Once again Lorenzo took the lead away from Pedrosa with a pass on the inside at the Sachsenkurve. Meanwhile, a new fastest lap from fourth man Stoner put him in position to overtake Dovizioso, getting on the inside to pass at Coca Cola. Dani improved the fastest lap as the first two began to edge further away from Stoner.

There was also a gap opening from Stoner back to Dovizioso and Rossi, who were contesting fourth. Valentino finally made it past at the Sachsenkurve, then he started to leave the Honda man in his wake, with attention from Simoncelli and Hayden. Pedrosa was on the attack behind leader Lorenzo. He was on the inside for the Coca Cola Curve, but just went wide turning in and let his rival back through. Next time he was able to pull ahead on the power over the line, going inside for the same corner and this time getting past.

There were twelve laps to go, and Pedrosa was already starting to ease clear, helped by a new lap record. Six laps later he had more than a two-second advantage, and it was 2.5s with four laps to go. Lorenzo remained clear of Stoner, but Rossi had caught up to the Australian with nine laps left to run. The Sachsenkurve saw a couple of moves from Valentino, initially going wide and letting Casey back through, but getting it done there on the second attempt a couple of laps later.

At this stage the not fully fit Rossi was in a podium position in his first race back, heading a works-mounted former champion and 27-time GP winner. But Stoner wasn’t about to give up. He just got back through on the brakes at Coca Cola, then lost out again at the Sachsenkurve. Casey took a turn a pulling off the same move, but Valentino soon paid him back. Rossi was in third place on the last lap, but Stoner made a firm move at the final Quickenburgkurve, just sneaking onto the inside and giving the Italian no option but to move onto a wider line. This gave Casey the place as they took the flag.

Fifth man Dovizioso had been caught by Simoncelli and then passed at the Sachsenkurve, with Hayden now trailing this pair. Marco had an out-of-seat moment in one of the left-handers, and both the works men went through at that point. Soon Nicky was heading the trio, with Andrea at the back, but then the Repsol re-established himself in fifth at the end, from Simoncelli (his best MotoGP result) and Hayden. Barberá, Melandri and Spies had contested the next position, with the Yamaha man heading the Ducati and the Honda at the finish, from Capirossi and de Angelis.

Dani Pedrosa celebrated his success by wearing the Spanish football shirt recently seen on the backs of the new World Cup winners, but championship leader Jorge Lorenzo seemed more than happy with second on the day. His record of only first and second place results this year means that he still leads by 47 points. And anyway, the comparison shows that Pedrosa has always looked strong at this track. This was his fourth win, but there had also been the 2008 race, in which he’d had a good lead in the wet until he crashed. Lorenzo has not won at this venue, and this was only his third podium appearance in nine attempts.

But the story of the race, even allowing for the stoppage, was surely Valentino Rossi’s impressive return. He didn’t reach the podium, but clearly got very close. Even though Casey Stoner’s pass at the final corner might have reminded Rossi of the last gasp defeat he was handed by Sete Gibernau at this circuit in 2003, he has to have been happy to achieve this level so soon after his accident. Before long you would expect him to be once again racing on terms with Lorenzo, which will be interesting. It’s also worth how the fortunes have turn for Ducati’s men, with Stoner finally overtaking Nicky Hayden in the points at this race. You would expect the Australian to be threatening third overall before too long.

Standings after eight races: Lorenzo 185; Pedrosa 138; Dovizioso 102; Stoner 83; Hayden 78; Rossi 74; de Puniet 69; Spies 67; Simoncelli 49; Melandri 45; Barberá 41; Edwards 39.
Yamaha 190; Honda 162; Ducati 113; Suzuki 24.

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