Rossi spoils Pedrosa’s hometown party, wins Spanish GP

by scottie_vox | May 3, 2009 at 05:21 pm

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by Scott Keller · fastmachines.com · May 3, 2009

Dani Pedrosa tried as best as he could to give his home-country crowd a reason to party in Spain, but Valentino Rossi played the role of “spoiler”. Rossi put together a flawless ride at Jerez to win the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix. Rossi was the third different winner in the three races run so far in 2009.

Jorge Lorenzo sat on the pole and had Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner with him on the front row. At the race start, Lorenzo and Stoner both beat Lorenzo to first turn, and Rossi gave chase from the fourth position.

Two laps into the race, Rossi was already on the move and was able to dispatch Jorge Lorenzo for the third position. Meanwhile, Dani Pedrosa was out front, much to the delight of his countrymen in the stands.

As the race shook down after a few laps, the top six were Pedrosa, Stoner, Rossi, Lorenzo, and Randy De Puniet who rode well at Jerez. Stoner could not find the speed to get past Pedrosa entering the middle part of the race, but he had more to worry about in his rear view mirrors. Valentino Rossi was going to the front. By lap seven, Rossi was able to overtake Stoner, despite a strong challenge by the Aussie to protect second place.

During the battle between Rossi and Stoner, Pedrosa was able to extend his lead to 1.5 seconds over second place. But Rossi had the bike to beat, and was about .1 seconds faster per lap than Pedrosa. A late race battle was shaping up.

MotoGP.com Video Highlights: Action from Jerez

Rossi’s Yamaha was quicker in the first half of each lap than Pedrosa’s Honda, but the Pedrosa had the upper hand in the second half. The battle for the lead came down to a move with 10 to go, when Rossi was able to make his final pass of the afternoon. He went on to pull away and win his first grand prix of 2009 in a convincing manner.

FINISHING NOTES

Dani Pedrosa held on for second and Stoner also finished on the podium in third position. Jorge Lorenzo’s start from pole ended in the gravel with five to go. He did not finish the race.

Nicky Hayden had a terrible weekend, and finished 15th out of 16 finishers. He has faced a steep learning curve in his move to Ducati this year. Hayden’s Ducati teammate, Stoner, finished second.

Marco Melandri is getting a handle on his Kawasaki, and posted the best finish for the their factory time. Melandri is a five time MotoGP winner, and could return to the podium soon if he keeps running in the top 5.

Andrea Dovizioso went off track on lap 8 and fell to 16th place He got back and track and rode well to fight back to an eighth place finish.

MotoGP returns to action in two weeks on May 15-17 at Le Mans.

MOTOGP GP OF SPAIN RESULTS

Pos Rider
1 Valentino Rossi
2 Dani Pedrosa
3 Casey Stoner
4 Randy De Puniet
5 Marco Melandri
6 Loris Capirossi
7 Colin Edwards
8 Andrea Dovizioso
9 Toni Elias
10 Chris Vermeulen
11 Sete Gibernau
12 Yuki Takahashi
13 James Toseland
14 Alex De Angelis
15 Nicky Hayden
16 Niccolo Canepa

DNF Jorge Lorenzo
DNF Mika Kallio