German MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa thrilled with vital win

Dani Pedrosa put the brakes on Jorge Lorenzo’s relentless surge to the 2010 MotoGP world title with a deserved victory in Germany yesterday.

Pedrosa lost the lead in the restarted race on the second lap to Lorenzo as the Spanish pair had little trouble in quickly stretching away from the chasing pack.

Pedrosa stalked Lorenzo until lap ten when he opted to make his crucial move at the first corner.

Expecting Lorenzo to try and counter attack, Pedrosa turned in a series of impressively fast laps and his speed was too much for the Fiat Yamaha rider to contend with.

Pedrosa continued to pull away and eventually claimed a comfortable second win of the season by 3.35s to claw back five precious points in the title hunt.

The Repsol Honda rider now trails Lorenzo by 47-points as he heads to Laguna Seca bidding for a second successive victory in the American MotoGP.

Pedrosa, who has now won ten MotoGP races, said: “It was very hard because in the first race Jorge and me were going so well and suddenly we saw the red flag. We were going so well we didn’t want to stop and sometimes when you stop it is not the same afterwards.

“Sometimes you don’t have the same feeling on the machine in the second part. Also you get nervous again on the grid. I was a little bit worried about this but when I restarted I felt good again.

“He passed me on the first lap but we were going good again and alone at the front. I passed him but tried to go a little bit faster and my bike worked very well this weekend. Then it was a great feeling to stretch ahead and get the victory – the team deserve it.

“This victory is even better than the one in Italy because at Mugello I just went away in front and there was no battle with anybody, but here I was battling with Lorenzo in the first and second race, and finally beat him, so this is even more important.”

Pedrosa denied he could have inflicted a similar comprehensive defeat on Lorenzo if the race had not been stopped after a major collision involving Randy de Puniet, Aleix Espargaro and Alvaro Bautista.

The 24-year-old said: “I don’t know because when the race was stopped I just switched off my brain from the first part. If you think about it you can make a mistake in the second race.

“It is a completely different race with the tyres used already and you have to restart. It is not easy to stay cool and do the race again in a perfect way but I could do this.”

Pedrosa’s win was his third straight podium and he believes now that he is finding some consistency with the factory Honda RC212V.

Finding a competitive set-up quickly has been a big issue for Pedrosa in 2010 but he said “The team has its feet on the floor because the bike is so sensitive this year and it is easy to make mistakes with the set-up.

“We try not to make any mistake with the setting decisions and we know the bike is so sensitive that we can’t make any mistake.

“It is easy to get lost but we have found some consistency. We are being more constant than in the start of the season and this is good.”