Honda’s Dani Pedrosa made a brilliant run from a pit lane start to victory at the Valencia MotoGP race earlier today. The pit lane start was necessitated by Pedrosa’s switch from rain tires to slicks following the warm-up lap. Pedrosa caught early race leader, and new champ, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) midway through the race, and then passed him after Lorenzo suffered a huge highside crash (he appeared uninjured). Following Pedrosa home more than 1/2 a minute back was second place Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Yamaha) and third place Casey Stoner (Honda). Stoner also changed tires during the race.
For additional details, results and points, visit the official MotoGP site here.
| Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time/Gap |
| 1 | 25 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 149.0 | 48’23.819 |
| 2 | 20 | 21 | Katsuyuki NAKASUGA | JPN | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 147.0 | +37.661 |
| 3 | 16 | 1 | Casey STONER | AUS | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 145.9 | +1’00.633 |
| 4 | 13 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 145.8 | +1’02.811 |
| 5 | 11 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | ITA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | FTR | 144.6 | +1’26.608 |
| 6 | 10 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 144.5 | +1’30.423 |
| 7 | 9 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | CZE | Cardion AB Motoracing | Ducati | 144.4 | +1’31.789 |
| 8 | 8 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | ITA | Came IodaRacing Project | Ioda-Suter | 143.5 | 1 Lap |
| 9 | 7 | 77 | James ELLISON | GBR | Paul Bird Motorsport | ART | 143.1 | 1 Lap |
| 10 | 6 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 142.9 | 1 Lap |
| 11 | 5 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | 141.1 | 1 Lap |
| 12 | 4 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | FRA | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | 138.3 | 2 Laps |
| 13 | 3 | 73 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | JPN | Avintia Blusens | BQR | 136.7 | 2 Laps |
| 14 | 2 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | USA | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | Suter | 132.6 | 3 Laps |
Rossi finishes with Ducati with a whimper. It’s been a disaster for both parties, and in one slight positive (for him) is that he’s starting out on the Yamaha with no expectations from the public. Oh, and the countless millions he was paid for doing not-very-well.
It’s been a very bad experience for Ducati for sure. Whilst they mightn’t have done everything VR and JB wanted, there’s no doubt that he has given them directions and they’ve ended up nowhere other than being a (realistic) target for CRT machines.
Well done especially to Katsuyuki and Pirro for theuir outstanding results.
Nasty high side and “oh crap” wobble prior to it. Glad he walked away from it. Pedrosa was brilliant coming from the pits to the lead. What a competitor. When the announcer said Crutchlow was going to finish his highest ever, second, I told my wife he had just Jinxed him and sure enough a minute later Crutchlow gets spit off and nearly runs over himself. Cal is going to be a great rider someday if he doesn’t bust himself up first.
That was a nasty crash by Lorenzo, glad he wasn’t hurt. I was really happy for Nakasuga, it looked like a podium was a dream come true for him.