Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa took the win in Germany over Jorge Lorenzo closing the title gap to 47 points.
Round 8 at the Sachsenring circuit in Germany was a two-part affair with Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa taking top honors after a red flag incident. The original race was brought to an immediate halt when Frenchman Randy de Puniet crashed and broke his leg on Lap 9. Rounding out the eventual podium were Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo in second and Ducati’s Casey Stoner in third. Valentino Rossi returned to Grand Prix after his own leg fracture with a strong fourth at the German circuit. Taking his second win of the season, Pedrosa made up ground on championship leader Lorenzo and now trails the Spaniard by 47 points.
Nine laps into the race De Puniet crashed at Turn 4, and in the process took out both Rizla Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista and Pramac Racing Ducati’s Aleix Espargaro. The incident was made even more dramatic when De Puniet’s bike burst into flames. At this time the top-five order was Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso and Rossi. All three riders who were involved in the crash were unable to continue in the restarted race after they failed to make it back to pit lane within five minutes of the red flag. Suffering extreme disappointment was De Puniet, who sustained fractures to his left tibia and fibula in the accident.
After 25 minutes the race was restarted and Mika Kallio of Pramac Racing Ducati took an early crash while heading into Turn 1. Edging slightly ahead of the competition on the opening lap was Pedrosa, but Lorenzo was right alongside the Honda rider and he was able to power ahead of Pedrosa for the early lead.
As Lorenzo tried to fend off Pedrosa, Stoner ran third with Rossi and Dovizioso behind battling for fourth. Despite riding with a bum leg the Doctor eventually overtook Dovizioso, pushing the Honda rider back to fifth.
Jorge Lorenzo (#99) had to settle for second-place at Sachsenring after Dani Pedrosa (#26) made the final pass for the lead.
Up front the battle for the lead intensified as Pedrosa caught up with Lorenzo. The two began swapping positions back and forth, and in the process Pedrosa set a new circuit record on Lap 10 and once again on Lap 12. After breaking his own record and consistently riding in the low 1’22”s, Pedrosa crossed the line in first with 3.355 seconds to spare. Lorenzo took second after a solid run, and added another 20 points towards the championship.
"It's always difficult when a race is split like this and I think I didn't ride quite as well in the second race as I felt I had been doing in the first,” said Lorenzo. “Dani was very, very strong and I was on the limit trying to stay ahead. When he passed me I tried briefly to stay with him but he was much faster than me today and I was going to have to take a lot of risks to stay with him; the safest thing for me to do was finish second and take 20 points for the championship.”
Stoner rounded out the podium in third after making the pass on Rossi during the final corner. Rossi meanwhile took a surprising fourth-place despite his delicate condition.
"I didn't expect this! I thought it was maybe possible to make fourth or fifth place but I thought it would be very difficult,” said Rossi. “In the end I was fourth but I had a great battle with Casey and I was so close to the podium, so this is a fantastic result after missing four races.”
Finishing fifth was Dovizioso, with San Carlo Honda’s Marco Simoncelli taking his best premier class finish of his career in sixth. Americans Nicky Hayden and Ben Spies took seventh and eighth respectively, while Paginas Amarillas Aspar’s Hector Barbera and San Carlo Honda’s Marco Melandri rounded out the top-10.
2010 MotoGP Sachsenring Results:
1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
3. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
4. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
The Doctor returns to MotoGP, though not quite to full Rossi-like form, with a solid fourth at the German Grand Prix.
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)
6. Marco Simoncelli (Honda)
7. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)
8. Ben Spies (Yamaha)
9. Hector Barbera (Ducati)
10. Marco Melandri (Honda)
11. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)
12. Alex de Angelis (Honda)
DNF Mika Kallio (Ducati)
DNF Randy de Puniet (Honda)
DNF Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki)
DNF Aleix Espargaro (Ducati)
DNF Colin Edwards (Yamaha)
2010 MotoGP Championship Points:
1. Jorge Lorenzo, 185
2. Dani Pedrosa, 138
3. Andrea Dovizioso, 102
4. Casey Stoner, 83
5. Nicky Hayden, 78
6. Valentino Rossi, 74
7. Randy de Puniet, 69
8. Ben Spies, 67
9. Marco Simoncelli, 49
10. Marco MelandrI, 45
Toni Elias took his third win of the 2010 season and increased his lead in the championship to 42 points ahead of Thomas Luthi.
Current championship leader Toni Elias of Gresini Racing took the Moto2 win at Sachsenring. In his third win of the 2010 season Elias performed a terrific comeback victory over Fimmco Speed Up’s Andrea Iannone to take a 42-point lead in the series over Swiss rider Thomas Luthi.
In the opening lap the tight, twisting circuit claimed five riders with only two managing to rejoin the contest. Out front were Fimmco Speed Up’s Gabor Talmacsi and Iannone with Mapfre Aspar’s Julian Simon trailing in third.
Tech 3 Racing’s Yuki Takahashi, who took a victory in the last round at Catalunya, crashed out early in the race as did Simon who slid out while pushing toward the front. Germany’s own Arne Tode also had a miserable day when he along with Aeroport de Castello-Ajo’s Alex Debon and Tenerife 40 Pons rider Sergio Gadea fell about halfway into the race.
Meanwhile, Elias was making the best out of a poor start as he charged through the order and eventually passed Talmacsi for second-place on Lap 11. As the race wore on JiR Moto2’s Simon Corsi saw his chance of winning abruptly ended when he lost the front of his bike at Turn 12 while running third.
All the while Elias was honing in on leader Iannone, and with just six laps remaining Elias made his move and successfully went around Iannone to take the lead. Also making big gains in the final laps was Italtrans STR’s Roberto Rolfo who, despite being one of the five unlucky riders claimed in the opening lap, came back to take fourth with just a few laps left.
Elias went on to take the win by 3.297 seconds from Iannone. A last minute battle occurred between Rolfo and Fonsi Nieto of G22 Holiday Gym, with Rolfo ultimately crossing the finish line ahead of Nieto in third. Karel Abraham of Cardion AB Motoracing took fifth with Talmacsi dropping back to finish sixth. Taking a DNF in Germany was runner-up in the championship Luthi, who now remains just 4 points ahead of Iannone.
2010 Moto2 Sachsenring Results:
1. Toni Elias (Moriwaki)
2. Andrea Iannone (Speed Up)
3. Roberto Rolfo (Suter)
4. Fonsi Nieto (Moriwaki)
5. Karel Abraham (FTR)
6. Gabor Talmacsi (Speed Up)
7. Damian Cudlin (Pons Kalex)
Fimmco Speed Up's Andrea Iannone took second-place behind Toni Elias and remains just four points behind Thomas Luthi in the championship.
8. Dominique Aegerter (Suter)
9. Stefan Bradl (Suter)
10. Yonny Hernandez (BQR-Moto2)
11. Alex Baldolini (I.C.P.)
12. Jules Cluzel (Suter)
13. Anthony West (Honda)
14. Vladimir Ivanov (Moriwaki)
15. Xavier Simeon (Moriwaki)
2010 Moto2 Championship Points:
1. Toni Elias, 136
2. Thomas Luthi, 94
3. Andrea Iannone, 90
4. Julian Simon, 77
5. Shoya Tomizawa, 76
6. Simone Corsi, 65
7. Jules Cluzel, 61
8. Yuki Takahashi, 52
9. Gabor Talmacsi, 52
10. Sergio Gadea, 47
