By Dan Moakes
May 10 2012

MotoGP 2012 was shaping up as another Yamaha versus Honda contest, with a win apiece for the Japanese machines having already gone to team leaders Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner; and with Stoner’s Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa the only other podium finisher after two rounds with the new 1000cc bikes. Round three was taking place at Estoril in Portugal.

Reigning champion Stoner was once again looking like the man to beat on his Repsol Honda RC213V, but physical problems in Qatar had left him only third at the flag, and so Lorenzo was still ahead in the points after taking the runner-up position in Spain. And the track in Portugal seems to suit Jorge, who had been on pole position at Estoril for the last four years, and was three times the race winner in the same period. Stoner, on the other hand, had taken only one win at the track, when he was the victor in the 250cc event in 2005.

Pedrosa had been the 2011 winner, and other riders with past success at the track included Valentino Rossi (five times), Álvaro Bautistá (three times), Stefan Bradl (twice), Héctor Barberá and Andrea Dovizioso. The suggestion seemed to be that the 2012 winners might be the last, with Grand Prix racing possibly not due to make a return visit in the future, or at any rate with the 2013 calendar slot not yet confirmed.

Qualifying once again saw Honda and Yamaha riders setting the pace, with the top seven positions taken by the two manufacturers. This time Lorenzo missed out on pole with his Factory Yamaha. He wasn’t on the front row of the grid, in fact, and wasn’t even the fastest M1 rider. Cal Crutchlow took that honour as he matched his Qatar performance on the Tech 3 team machine, which meant he was third, a place in front of Lorenzo. First and second went to the Repsol Hondas, with Stoner on pole for the first time this year and Pedrosa next to him.

Ben Spies was right alongside team-mate Lorenzo, in fifth, and then came two more satellite riders: Bautistá improved his record to date with the Gresini Honda to take sixth, from Dovizioso (Monster Tech 3 Yamaha). Barberá was first of the Ducati riders in P8, on the Pramac customer machine, with works team star rider Rossi next, for his best starting position so far on the new machine. Nicky Hayden was tenth on the other red bike, from Bradl on the LCR Honda. The Cardion AB Ducati of Karel Abraham was in P13, and therefore behind the leading CRT runner.

The fastest CRT riders in rounds one and two were involved in an incident here during qualifying, with Colin Edwards (Forward Suter) the innocent victim when Randy de Puniet (Aspar ART) suffered a front end crash. The 38-year-old Texan broke his left collarbone when he was brought down and had to go off for surgery and miss the race. Randy was largely unhurt, but it was his team-mate Aleix Espargaró who set the best CRT time, slotting into twelfth between Bradl and Abraham.

Fourteenth place went to de Puniet, with Avintia Racing’s Yonny Hernández a best-yet fifteenth, from Michele Pirro (Gresini FTR-Honda) and Mattia Pasini (Speed Master ART). James Ellison had improved to P18 on the Paul Bird Motorsport ART, and then it was Danilo Petrucci (Came Ioda-Aprilia) and Iván Silva for Avintia. The Spaniard would go on to suffer a warm-up crash the next day but was still able to take to the grid in P20.

The race began with Pedrosa unable to convert his usual good start into the lead. Estoril has a long and fast main straight and then a tight right-hander at Curva 1, followed by a left kink before a faster right at Curva 2. The first corner saw Stoner get around his team-mate on the outside to take the lead, and Dani then suffered a wobble coming out of the kink, which let Lorenzo onto the inside for turn two to take second. These three were initially followed by Spies, Crutchlow, Dovizioso, Bautistá, Rossi, Bradl and Hayden.

Stoner’s pace in the early stages soon saw him put daylight between the leading Honda and Lorenzo’s Yamaha in second place, taking the gap out to over a second in the first few laps. Pedrosa stayed close on his countryman’s tail, with the rest soon being dropped for their own battle for fourth. Spies had in fact attempted a pass on Dani at Curva 1 on lap two, but a few corners later at the looping left Parabolica Interior he ran wide and was passed by both Crutchlow and Dovizioso on the Tech 3 Yamahas. Thereafter, Ben soon found himself pushed back by passes from Bautistá, Rossi and Bradl.

Before long, the contest for ‘best of the rest’, behind the three podium finishers from both Qatar and Spain, once again resolved itself into an intra-team race between Crutchlow and Dovizioso, as the next group of runners lost touch. The Italian was using a newer-spec braking set-up, and after a few laps he was able to make the pass. Cal got ahead again at one stage, with a move at Curva 1, but he ran deep into the corner and it let Andrea through once more. Meanwhile, Bautistá was pulling clear of the next few in sixth.

With nine laps run, the situation up front saw Stoner’s lead being reduced by Lorenzo and Pedrosa. For a while, it fluctuated in the 0.6s to 0.8s range, but by half-distance Jorge had closed right in, with Dani a little in arrears. For the last six or so laps, Stoner found he had enough in hand just to stretch his advantage again, although once more he was having some problems with his arm. The chequered flag saw this leading trio finish in the same order, with the gaps between them just about comfortable. They remained well clear of the field.

Twice already Crutchlow had got the better of his more experienced new team-mate, but in Portugal the fourth-fifth contest was reversed by Dovizioso. He finished a little way ahead this time, closing the points gap between the two Tech 3 riders. Bautistá was sixth again on the first satellite Honda, and once more he headed some of the works team riders. Rossi fought off Spies and Bradl for seventh, and for both Valentino and Ben this race marked their best finishes of the year to date. Barberá was tenth, ahead of his factory rival Hayden. Abraham had gone out of the race in a late highside crash.

Therefore, the best CRT competitors were racing for twelfth at the flag. Hernández headed the group before losing out to Espargaró then de Puniet, but the Colombian crashed out in the later stages. The battle of the Aspar pair saw Randy gain the advantage for a short time, but Aleix regained P12 on the inside for the tight uphill Saca-Rolhas hairpin-chicane, a late move that kept him ahead. Silva had run last and was in some discomfort until he withdrew, and although Pasini had headed Pirro, Petrucci and Ellison, the race ended for him with a front end fold at the Esses. Electrical problems put paid to the throttle on Ellison’s machine, so Pirro took a best-yet P14, ahead of Petrucci.

Estoril saw Dani Pedrosa break into the 100 club, as only the seventh Grand Prix rider to stand on the podium as many as 100 times. His record has so far seen him do this 17 times after a 125cc race (three seasons), 24 times in 250s (two seasons), eight times from 990cc MotoGP races (one season), 48 times with the 800 machine (five seasons), and now three times with the new 1000cc bike. All of his GP races have been with Honda machinery. The men ahead of him are led by 175-time podium man Valentino Rossi, who is followed by Giacomo Agostini, Angel Nieto, Phil Read, Mike Hailwood and Max Biaggi.

However, the race winners so far in 2012 have been Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner, with Pedrosa trailing them at this stage in the season. After two wins a week apart, Stoner has now moved in front of Lorenzo in the overall title chase, and it remains to be seen whether the Australian will repeat his form of 2011 and gradually increase his lead. And it also remains to be seen whether Ben Spies will be able to start backing up the form of his team-mate and start to get the second works Yamaha into the mix. The next race is in France.

Standings after three races: Stoner 66; Lorenzo 65; Pedrosa 52; Crutchlow 37; Dovizioso 35; Bautistá 29; Bradl 24; Hayden 23; Rossi 22; Barberá 19 ·· CRT leader: Espargaró.
Honda 70; Yamaha 65; Ducati 27; ART 11; Suter-BMW and Ioda-Aprilia 4; FTR-Kawasaki 3; FTR-Honda 2