Honda works team leader Dani Pedrosa took his first win of this year’s MotoGP World Championship at Jerez on Sunday, as team mate Marc Marquez spiced up proceedings by barging past Yamaha ‘s World champion Jorge Lorenzo for second place in the final corner.
Tito Rabat (Kalex) convincingly took his maiden Grand Prix win to snatch the Moto2 championship lead, after starting from his first pole position, while KTM rider Maverick Viñales became the third Moto3 winner in as many races when red flags came out for the second consecutive race.
MOTOGP
Lorenzo had been the rider to beat for much of the weekend, comfortably sealing his second pole position of the season on Saturday, but Pedrosa overtook him at the start of the 27-lap race. Lorenzo immediately struck back, but Pedrosa made a move that stuck with a pass at Dry Sack on lap six.
The Yamaha than steadily dropped back into the clutches of Marquez, who had demoted Lorenzo’s team mate Valentino Rossi to fourth at the end of lap one. Marquez tried several different lines in a bid to distract the champion and finally got by, ironically, in the newly-named Jorge Lorenzo Corner at the end of the very last lap, by diving up the inside and literally elbowing the Yamaha rider out of the way, leaving Lorenzo in a less than happy mood in Parc Fermé.
Rossi had a lonely ride to fourth place on the second Yamaha factory bike, with Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow finally getting by Honda privateer Alvaro Bautista for a top five spot at the end of a difficult weekend, which included two big crashes on Saturday.
Ducati works riders Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso rounded out the top eight.
RESULTS
1 Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda - 45min17.632
2 Marc Marquez (Spain) Honda + 2.487sec
3 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha +5.089
4 Valentino Rossi (Italy) Ducati +8.914
5 Cal Crutchlow (Britain) Yamaha +12.663
6 Alvaro Bautista (Spain) Honda +15.094
7 Nicky Hayden (United States) Ducati +25.632
8 Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Ducati +41.881
9 Aleix Espargaro (Spain) ART +43.812
10 Bradley Smith (Britain) Yamaha +44.461
POINTS after 3 of 18 rounds
1 Marc Marquez (Spain) Honda – 61
2 Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda - 58
3 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha – 57
4 Valentino Rossi (Italy) Ducati - 43
5 Cal Crutchlow (Britain) Yamaha - 35
6 Alvaro Bautista (Spain) Honda – 28
7 Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Ducati – 26
8 Nicky Hayden (United States) Ducati – 24
9 Aleix Espargaro (Spain) ART - 17
10 Andrea Iannone (Italy) Ducati – 13
MOTO2
Rabat held the advantage from Scott Redding (also Kalex-mounted) as the red lights went out, and went on to make the victory look easy as he won by more than four seconds. Redding’s ride to second place was a calm one, as he looks to achieve consistency in the 2013 season.
Rabat’s team mate Pol Espargaro, a pre-season favourite for many, was desperate to make up ground after crashing out at the Circuit of the Americas two weeks ago. Running fourth and catching Kalex rider Takaaki Nakagami, Espargaro was held up by Speed Up rookie Topan Sucipto, who was running a lap down.
He caught Nakagami again with only a handful of laps to go, finally getting by on the penultimate tour as the Nakagami made an unforced error exiting Michelin curve. After the race, Sucipto apologised to Espargaro for delaying his progress.
Texas winner Nico Terol (Suter) came fifth while Xavier Simeon (Kalex) got the best of a spirited battle with Jordio Torres for a career-best sixth.
South African rider Steven Odendaal finished 22nd, nearly a minute off the pace, after a difficult weeked.
RESULTS
1 Esteve Rabat (Spain) Kalex - 45min04.450
2 Scott Redding (Britain) Kalex +4.261sec
3 Pol Espargaro (Spain) Kalex +7.517
4 Takaaki Nakagami (Japan) Kalex +7.721
5 Nicolas Terol (Spain) Suter +11.535
6 Xavier Simeon (Belgium) Kalex + 13.264
7 Jordi Torres (Spain) Suter +13.762
8 Dominique Aegerter (Switzerland) Suter +21.105
9 Toni Elias (Spain) Kalex +24.221
10 Marcel Schrotter (Germany) Kalex +24.419
22 Steven Odendaal (South Africa) Speed Up +52.405
MOTO3
KTM’s Alex Rins stormed to his second consecutive pole position off the back of a maiden career victory in Texas. He defended from Viñales off the start, but lost the lead when the Vinales slipped through at Dry Sack on the third lap. Pushing hard to stay in touch, Rins lost the front end of his bike and crashed at Alex Criville corner on lap 12.
That left Viñales in front with a small gap back to KTM rider Luis Salom, who rapidly caught the leader and looked set to make a move when the red flags came out after TSR Honda rider Alan Techer went down hard on lap 17.
South African rider Brad Binder (Suter Honda) put in a brilliant ride to comer ho9me fourth, ahead of Kalex KTM pilot Jakub Kornfeil (who did well after missing the whole of Friday’s official practice because he was busy writing school exams!) and Niklas Ajo (KTM).
Vinales’ win was his first since Mugello in 2012 and came at the same circuit where he crashed and injured his right hand in pre-season testing. It also gave him the championship lead.
RESULTS
1 Maverick Vinales (Spain) KTM – 26min57.338
2 Luis Salom (Spain) KTM +0.263
3 Jonas Folger (Germany) Kalex KTM +4.475
4 Brad Binder (South Africa) Suter Honda +15.104
5 Jakub Kornfeil (Czech Republic) Kalex KTM +18.412
6 Niklas Ajo (Finland) KTM +19.064
7 Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Malaysia) KTM +19.204
8 Efren Vasquez (Spain) Mahindra +19.680
9 Romano Fenati (Italy) FTR Honda +22.763
10 Alexis Masbou (France) FTR Honda +23.138