Pedrosa is currently having his best ever season in MotoGP. His win on Sunday at the Japanese GP in Motegi was his 4th in the last 5 races. That’s championship winning stuff. Or should I say that would be championship winning stuff if it weren’t for Lorenzo.
For try as he might, as much as Pedrosa enjoys winning races, he can’t shake Lorenzo who always finishes 2nd at worst. Jorge’s remarkable run of consistency continued as yet again he finished 2nd to Pedrosa. Dani has cut the championship lead slightly to 28 points but with only 3 races to go it’s going to be difficult for him to overhaul Lorenzo unless he has a DNF or 2.
Alvaro Bautista celebrated his contract extension with the San Carlo Gresini Honda team for 2013 by taking the final podium slot. He was involved with a race long battle with Cal Crutchlow for 3rd position, but the Brit cruelly ran out of fuel on the last lap to leave him out of the race and Bautista to take his 2nd MotoGP podium. Mr Consistency Andrea Dovizioso took 4th, although he was off the Crutchlow/Bautista battle by some margin and had a bit of a lonely race.
Casey Stoner made his comeback at Motegi. The current World Champ is still in serious agony and 5th was the best he could manage. He would have been satisfied however as this was all in preparation for his farewell race at Phillip Island in Australia. He needed this race to see how he got on and if he could cope. I am quite sure he will be back amongst the front runners at Phillip Island, a track he normally goes very well at.
Rossi and Hayden finished 7th and 8th. The Ducati clearly way off the Honda and Yamaha at Motegi and Rossi is no doubt patiently waiting till the end of the season when he can hand his bike back to Ducati and get on something a lot sharper, the Yamaha YZR-M1 in 2013.
With only 3 races to go, Lorenzo needs to just make sure he does not have any DNF’s. If he manages that he should claim his second MotoGP title. Can Dani and Honda stop him?
Source: uk.eurosport.yahoo.com