The term “epic” is bandied about often these days for events that are far from it, but Sunday’s Czech MotoGP race certainly deserved that title. Dani Pedrosa made it back to back wins as he won an absolutely epic Czech GP at the Brno Autodrom. He and Lorenzo fought a tense battle at the front and were the class of the field.
Lorenzo got a great start to lead the first half of the race. Pedrosa shadowed him closely and at around two thirds distance made his move to take the lead. Lorenzo then settled in behind Pedrosa and bided his time to make his move. With one lap to go Lorenzo passed Pedrosa to take the lead and you would have thought that was that. But Pedrosa is made of sterner stuff these days. His tiny frame(see the attached image, he’s actually standing on the top step of the podium!) and extra Honda horsepower enabled him to pass Lorenzo up the back straight. Jorge left his bike wide and tried to come back at Dani, but the little man held on for a superb victory. Quite possibly the best of his career to date.
It was a vital victory for Pedrosa. If he didn’t beat Lorenzo today, the championship gap would have widened, instead it now stands at 13 points. A gap that he can overcome if he can keep winning. I do think that he will need Stoner to play the team game when he returns from his injury. Honda’s game plan from now till the end of the season is for Pedrosa to be winning and Stoner to finish 2nd to take the maximum points from every race. This must have been a massive boost to Pedrosa’s self belief that he can now go on and win the championship. He has been the nearly man of MotoGP for so many years that he must start to believe that this could actually be his year.
Behind the duelling Spaniards, Cal Crutchlow rode a rather lonely race to take his first podium in MotoGP. He is the first Briton to get on the podium in 12 years in MotoGP, the last being Jeremy McWilliams. Crutchlow has just re-signed for the Tech-3 team for 2013 and chose a fine way to celebrate the deal. I think he’s an important man to keep in MotoGP. He is a colourful character, has plenty of speed and is the kind of rider that develops a cult following. Those that follow motorbike racing will know of Guy Martin, another colourful Brit that races in the Isle of Mann TT. He has a cult fan following, despite never having won a race at the TT. Fans identify with a fallible character, someone who says what’s on their minds and has an element of fun about them. Crutchlow is also an important link to keep British fans glued to MotoGP races.
Cal’s Tech-3 teammate Andrea Dovizioso took fourth place after an initial battle with Valentino Rossi in the early part of the race. He had superior race pace however and slowly left Rossi behind. Dovizioso has just signed a 2 year deal with Ducati and would have been quietly encouraged that Rossi managed to keep pace with his Yamaha for the early part of the race at least, considering that is the bike he will be riding next year.
For his part Rossi fought hard but eventually fell to 7th as the satellite Honda’s of Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista caught and passed the Italian legend.
A special mention for Randy de Puniet. The Frenchman finished in 8th place on his CRT bike, a remarkable achievement considering he beat 2 prototype Ducati bikes in the form of Karel Abraham and Toni Elias.
Image source: www.aljazeera.com