Dani Pedrosa’s victory in Spanish MotoGP race

Both the factory Yamaha and Honda teams had taken a turn as pace setters in the 2013 MotoGP World Championship, with a win each for Jorge Lorenzo and rookie Marc Márquez; and their respective team-mates joined them in filling the podium places in Qatar and the US.

The two race winners, and their nearest challenger Dani Pedrosa, would be racing at home for round three of the series: the Spanish Grand Prix at Jeréz. Altogether there would be six Spaniards taking part in the MotoGP race, with both Lorenzo and Pedrosa being former winners at the circuit, along with Álvaro Bautistá. Héctor Barberá and Aleix Espargaró were among the leading CRT runners. Meanwhile, Italian rider Valentino Rossi was an eight-time former Jeréz winner, the last of these having been in 2009.

Jeréz was first included on the motorcycle Grand Prix calendar in 1987, and it has corners named after several world champions from Spain: Angel Nieto, Jorge ‘Aspar’ Martínez, Sito Pons and Álex Crivillé. From 2013, the final left-handed hairpin turn, Curva Ducados, is to be named after Spain’s only double champion in the MotoGP class, Jorge Lorenzo. Fittingly, the 26-year-old Yamaha rider ended qualifying as the fastest man, and took pole position.

Lorenzo was joined on the front row of the grid by the Repsol Honda pair, with Pedrosa second and Márquez third - both of whom suffered crashes on Saturday. Bautistá was the fourth of the home riders, in sixth place with his Gresini Honda, and he followed on behind two more Yamaha men. Rossi was in fifth on the works machine, marking his best grid position since the end of 2010, before he joined Ducati. However, he was behind the fourth-placed customer bike of Cal Crutchlow, the Tech 3 team leader. Bradley Smith would start twelfth on the sister machine.

Rossi and Crutchlow were two more of several riders to crash during the Saturday sessions, the list also including Colin Edwards, Andrea Iannone and Lukáš Pešek. There were two Ducatis on the third row, with Nicky Hayden in seventh and Andrea Dovizioso ninth. On this occasion the two works riders were joined by test rider Michele Pirro in a wildcard appearance on a development version of the latest Desmosedici. He qualified in P14. Meanwhile, the LCR Honda of Stefan Bradl split the first two red bikes in eighth position.

With Ben Spies absent through injury, there was only one further MotoGP prototype machine in the line-up, that of his Pramac Racing Ducati team-mate Iannone, in P11. Iannone, Smith and Pirro were all beaten by the leading CRT bike, this time piloted by Barberá into tenth for the Avintia Blusens team. On the sister FTR-Kawasaki, Hiroshi Aoyama was back in P16. Espargaró was in P13 on the Aspar team ART, with partner Randy de Puniet two slots behind.

Danilo Petrucci was fastest of the two Ioda Suter-BMW riders, in P17, with Pešek 23rd and last. In between were Bryan Staring (Gresini FTR-Honda), Claudio Corti and then Edwards (both Forward Racing FTR-Kawasaki), and the Paul Bird Motorsport riders Yonny Hernández (ART) and Michael Laverty (PBM-ART) - all in that order. Cardion AB rider Karel Abraham was out of action again.

Conditions were perfect, and the riders almost unanimously opted for the same soft compound of Bridgestone tyres for the race. Pedrosa made a good start as usual and was into first position for the right-handed Curva Expo ’92 first corner; but the second tight right at Curva Michelin saw Lorenzo get back through into the lead. Márquez was third, with Crutchlow about to lose out to Rossi for fourth, from Hayden, Bradl, Bautistá and Dovizioso. The tight right at the end of the back straight, Curva Dry Sack, saw Dovizioso run wide and lose out to Iannone and Smith.

Lorenzo led Pedrosa, with Rossi passing Márquez for third on the inside for the Ducados/Lorenzo corner. The early shuffle behind saw Crutchlow leading Bradl, Bautistá, Hayden, Iannone, Smith, Dovizioso, Espargaró, Barberá, Pirro, de Puniet, Aoyama, Corti, Laverty, Staring, Petrucci, Edwards and Pešek. However, the early running would see a number of riders crashing out, with Hernández first, then de Puniet, Iannone, Pešek and seventh-placed Bradl, who had been passed by Bautistá on the inside at Dry Sack.

The first five began to move clear of their pursuers, and with gaps also developing between some of the leaders. Lorenzo and Pedrosa threatened to get away until Márquez regained third from Rossi with a move on the inside at Dry Sack, a heavy braking zone. Valentino was then subject to the attentions of Crutchlow, who dropped back a bit at one stage but then closed the gap again. Meanwhile, Márquez was closing on the first two when Dani made a move on Jorge, passing him on the brakes for the inside of the corner at Dry Sack.

Thereafter, the 27-year-old Honda rider started to pull away, and after eight of twenty-seven laps he was ahead by a whole second. From there his lead extended to over 3.5s with six laps to run. Lorenzo had Márquez closing in, and at one stage the Yamaha man went a bit wide at Dry Sack. By about half-distance there was nothing in it. Turn five is the long right-handed Curva Sito Pons, and this location saw Marc get close when Jorge went a bit wide and the Honda used a tighter line, cutting the kerb on the way out. This put him right behind at Dry Sack; and the same corner also saw Márquez miss his braking point on a subsequent lap, forcing him to dodge to the outside to avoid contact, which meant he lost ground again.

The gap behind Lorenzo extended, but was down to only 0.3s with six laps to go. With Pedrosa easing off on his way to victory by just over 2.0s, Márquez got on the case behind Lorenzo. The last lap saw him make a move at Dry Sack, braking late on the inside line but then running wide and leaving space for the Yamaha to cut back through. The final Ducados/Lorenzo corner offered the last opportunity to pass, and Marc went to the inside for the left-hander. In the event, he couldn’t quite slow down sufficiently and so he ran out from the apex, which meant contact between the two bikes. With echoes back to 2005, Lorenzo was forced wide and so Márquez secured second, with an unhappy looking Jorge third home.

The fans got to see a Spanish one-two-three, but the last minute incident involving hard-charging Márquez brought back memories of an uncomfortable finish to the same race eight years ago. On that occasion, Valentino Rossi defeated his main rival, Sete Gibernau, in a very similar manoeuvre, with Sete on that day forced right out to the gravel. The latest result meant that each of the three Spaniards had won a single race, but Márquez’s efforts put him at the head of the championship by three points, with Lorenzo third. The Yamaha rider was careful not to make any hasty comments to the media.

Behind all this, Crutchlow had lost ground to Rossi, which meant the Italian maintained fourth place to the flag, while Cal had to respond to the attentions of Bautistá. The Gresini rider made it past, then they exchanged positions back-and-forth at Dry Sack and again at the turn nine Nieto right-hander, where Cal went through on the inside. From there he stayed ahead, and Álvaro took sixth ahead of Hayden, who’d been in a lonely seventh for some while. Team-mate Dovizioso was next, after fighting back against Espargaró, who was again the CRT winner.

Smith got the better of Pirro for tenth, with Barberá next. Laverty had gained a couple of positions, taking thirteenth, from Petrucci, Edwards and Staring, with Corti and Aoyama having fallen to the back of the field. Several consecutive finishers achieved their best result of the season to date, namely Espargaró, Smith, Pirro, Barberá, Laverty, Petrucci and Edwards; similarly Hayden in seventh.

Dani Pedrosa’s 23rd premier class Grand Prix win took him beyond the tallies recorded by multiple 500cc champions Geoff Duke, John Surtees and Kenny Roberts. Meanwhile, Jorge Lorenzo moved beyond the 1500-point mark for his MotoGP career. However, it was the actions of rookie championship leader Marc Márquez that gained most notice, not least in the light of criticisms and penalties earned for some of his riding in the Moto2 class. Of course, his move on Lorenzo was not illegal, and he wouldn’t be the first person to earn a warning - but it would be no surprise if he were put ‘on notice’ after this. Where will this all take us next time out?

Standings after three races: Márquez 61; Pedrosa 58; Lorenzo 57; Rossi 43; Crutchlow 35; Bautistá 28; Dovizioso 26; Hayden 24; Espargaró 17; Iannone 13 ·· CRT leader: Espargaró.
Honda 66; Yamaha 57; Ducati 27; ART 17; FTR-Kawasaki 7; PBM-ART 3; Ioda Suter-BMW 2.