Honda’s Dani Pedrosa took his first win of the 2013 MotoGP series at Jerez earlier today. A dramatic last corner pass of Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo resulted in Marc Marquez (Honda) taking second place and the championship points lead. Despite contact from Marquez, Lorenzo stayed on his bike and crossed the line in third.
For additional details, results and points, visit the official MotoGP site.
Meanwhile, Dani Pedrosa’s probably wondering what he needs to do to get some respect. Even when he wins, no one notices.
It’s difficult to muster enthusiasm for a guy who nearly took out his teammate in a race, which would have resulted in Hayden loosing his Championship.
Beyond that though, yeah, I generally agree.
re: “It’s difficult to muster enthusiasm for a guy who nearly took out his teammate in a race, which would have resulted in Hayden loosing his Championship.”
3 words… let it go.
thank you. that happened 7 seasons ago???
brought home my long haired jack russel pup in ’06. he’s now 49 years old. older than me!
I think this incident should remind lorenzo that racing isnt about just riding around on rails. Its about fighting for whatever position you can get and it doesnt really matter wether or not the move was ok its (and i think it was). Hope the happy days of rubbing leather on every corner are coming back for the sake of this series
Actually, “riding around on rails” is precisely the objective late in a race, when your tires are shagged. Only a handful of racers can pull it off. You ride defensively, guarding the passing lanes, at the highest speed you can manage, making passing extremely difficult. That Marquez had to do what he did to pass is a testament to Lorenzo’s skill … not a condemnation (at least in my eyes). Marquez will learn in time that the maneuver he pulled only works one out of three times. When it goes wrong it can hurt … both you and the person you ram.
I agree. Lorenzo took a bad line into the corner. He didn’t just leave the door open, it was clearly off the hinges. Marquez wouldn’t be a racer if he hadn’t taken the opportunity. Marc wasn’t too hot in and didn’t use Lorenzo as a berm. Lorenzo realized what he’d done, but it was too late. He “came down” on Marc (as the NASCAR boys would say) thinking he could intimidate Marquez into ceding the line back, but Marquez wasn’t having it. It was Lorenzo, not Marquez that initiated the contact. Lorenzo could have avoided the whole situation by simply protecting the inside line, but Marquez had him rattled and Jorge made a mistake. Interestingly enough, nearly all the posters on Yahoo’s European Motosports news site feel exactly the same way.
In racing, youthful aggressiveness (temepered with ability) supplants older conservatism. Everyone is comparing the move to Rossi/Gibernau, but Freddie Spencer put a similar move on Kenny Roberts in Sweden in 1983 to win a world title. Roberts complained bitterly, but Spencer won the race and the title.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Swedish_motorcycle_Grand_Prix
Congrats to #93 for a fine race. Isn’t this why we watch? everyone bitches when the races are too processional. It’s good to see an actual battle.
I’m probably watching with biased eyes, but I think when Rossi did this to Gibernau, he made contact as he went through the apex, so he made the turn. Marquez, was going in way too hot. Contact was the only way to make the turn, otherwise he would have t-boned Lorenzo. Otherwise, its too bad Lorenzo didn’t have the pace to keep up with Pedrosa to make it interesting. The battle for second was the only entertainment on the track, unless you liked the CRT and “prototype” battle between Dovi and Espargaro.
On the CRT note, Espargaro is moving way up with that thing. He and a couple of others have out qualified prototypes and now he’s racing the full distance against Dovi?
Whilst the Ducati is not performing well, they were 26 seconds behind the race winner on the all-singing best bike in the world; even more remarkable is the fact that Aleix Espargaro finished less than 45 seconds after the winner. On a privateer bike. Any class of racing that we see or take part in has variations of that order, but in terms of value for money, the CRT bikes are really coming along, and Espargaro in particular.
We all want a competitive field in this class of racing, but given the undeniable abilities of the front running three riders (half a second a lap, maybe a whole second, over the mere mortals?), it’s getting mighty close.
There’s still nowhere near enough overtaking and hence entertainment in this class, though, the solution to which might never be arrived at.
Congrats to Dani, good to see him back on track.
Feel bad for Lorenzo, you could sure see it coming. Not sure if anything should be done to Marquez. On one hand its racing. At those speeds maybe it looked to him as if there was an opening, that suddenly closed up when he got there. At any rate Marquez brought that reputation with him from Moto2, where he wasn’t always the cleanest rider. There will probably be a stern talking to him ( shades of Simoncelli’s early aggressiveness before his lecture). Luckily he didnt take Lorenzo out. The kids got skills and guts and desire.Maybe his desire just needs to be tempered a bit.
Crutchlow has the determination, just needs to hone his skills a little longer. He is fun to watch when he’s not running into the gravel traps.
Nicky places where Nicky is going to place, around 7 th usually, and gets paid very well to place 7 th. No one else is going to offer him a ride. Bet Dovi wishes he hadn’t!t given up a satellite Honda ride for the factory Duc ride. Wonder if Val warned him.
Valentino…sure wish he was mixing it up, up front, but 4 th place is better than where he was last year and the year before.
Wish Stoner were still competing.
Race is tight now..can’t wait for two more weeks to pass.
re: “Nicky places where Nicky is going to place, around 7 th usually”
he’s got orange cones forming a perimeter.
Congrats to Dani, good to see him back on track.
Feel bad for Lorenzo, you could sure see it coming. Not sure if anything should be done to Marquez. On one hand its racing. At those speeds maybe it looked to him as if there was an opening, that suddenly closed up when he got there. At any rate Marquez brought that reputation with him from Moto2, where he wasn’t always the cleanest rider. There will probably be a stern talking to him ( shades of Simoncelli’s early aggressiveness before his lecture). Luckily he didnt take Lorenzo out. The kids got skills and guts and desire.Maybe his desire needs to be tempered a bit.
Crutchlow has the determination, just needs to hone his skills a little longer. He is fun to watch when he
door was left open, if he had turned sooner he might have low sided and taken Lorenzo with him, nothing illegal about it, bad judgement, yes. It was no Capirossi on Harada
That’s not what I saw. Intentional or not, his mistake should not result in his earning a higher finish/more points than his victim. Now Lorenzo and others have received the message that “rubbin’ is racin'”. Maybe it’ll bump up the ratings…
I agree with Dave. There was no open door. Marquez created one. If Lorenzo hadn’t been there, he would’ve drifted way wide … maybe crashed. Also, IMHO, Rossi did precisely the same thing with Giberneau. I don’t know how you can allow one incident and not the other. Both are highly questionable … and highly dangerous.
re: “I agree with Dave. There was no open door.”
it was a HUGE open door. big enough to drive a truck through and even bigger than the one gib’s left open back in ’05.
I felt a little sorry for Lorenzo, but there wasn’t anything especilly dirty about the pass, other than it was very risky and dangerous for both riders. But he didn’t do anything illegal to gain an advantage. The only unfortunate part is that Lorenzo was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If he’s not there, Marquez goes wide and finishes third.
MArquez should be relegated to 3rd if not diasqualified. It was a completely illegal and intentional hit. He waited to tip in even though he had his speed low enough to make the turn. This isn’t NASCAR…
re: “The only unfortunate part is that Lorenzo was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
the only unfortunate part is lorenzo forgot has racecraft. he made 2 mistakes. the 1st was leaving “the roll up door to a storage area” open. the 2nd was failing to meter his own speed while monitoring MM93’s whereabouts. after suckering marc into an outbrake/overshoot, the burden was on j-lo to jump on the binders and cross back under him. afterall, jorge had already successfully accomplished “moto ju-jitsu” on the kid just a few turns earlier. marc was lunging wildly. the trick was to use his over-exuberance against him. instead, he ended up letting himself get used as a “berm”. carmichael thought he was watching the national at hangtown.
Where’s the “new and improved” Rossi?
He was 4th, which compared to last year is definitely new and improved.
By one or two places? The GOAT on a fully developed bike? One podium in three races. Hardly auspicious. Is that all it takes to be the GOAT? Perhaps a new acronym is in order. Instead of “GOAT” how about…
GHBSR: “Greatest has-been still racing.”
or
GMPROAT: “Greatest mid-pack rider of all time.”
Lorenzo got Gibernau’d.
Oh, and nice race, Dani. Wouldn’t want to forget about you, now would we?
Gotta feel a bit (relatively) sorry for Nicky and all the Ducati riders.
Lorenzo left the door open a bit too much, but there is no way Marquez makes that corner without running far wide unless he has the benefit of using Lorenzo as a bumper rail. Lorenzo easily goes right back beneath him were it not for Marquez punting him off his line.
Fun to watch, though. Marquez has given the Usual Suspects a nice wake-up call, and now it’s time for Rossi to join the party. #46 running a distant fourth on the Yamaha is not what this series needs.
re: “#46 running a distant fourth on the Yamaha is not what this series needs.”
not it is not, but unfortunately yamaha doesn’t have cash for much else. ross and them don’t work for scale.