Gosh, I have been waiting to use that line for more than a year!
Sunday’s MotoGP race delivered a terrific tussle in the Sachsenring. Dani Pedrosa did something I never thought I would see this season, and that was to retake the lead from Casey Stoner and hold it right till the end.
But let me rewind to an all too familiar beginning. Stoner took pole position, as usual, and Pedrosa was on the front row, as usual. And as usual, by the first corner Pedrosa was in the lead thanks to his amazing starts.
Now the normal pattern here is for Stoner to shadow Pedrosa till a few laps from the end when he takes the lead and then leaves the Honda number 2 trailing while he takes the win. The only fly in this Honda ointment is Lorenzo, who normally gets in amongst the Honda boys and either wins or gets a podium.
Lorenzo though, by his normal high standards, finished a distant 3rd on Sunday, a legacy perhaps of his sore ankle from the previous weekend’s accident with Bautista.
But back to the front. Pedrosa is a different animal round the Sachsenring as he has won here for the past 2 seasons. This time, there was a sting in the tail. Stoner did pass Pedrosa for the lead around halfway, and as usual I was expecting him to start easing away, but this time Dani was not having it. He stuck to Stoner like crazy glue, and re-passed him with a few laps to go. Stoner strained to keep pace with the Sachsenring meister. And on the last lap going into the penultimate corner, he pushed too hard and lost the front end, crashing out and losing priceless championship points.
Pedrosa took his 3rd consecutive victory at the Sachsenring, a huge achievement for such a little man. He beat Stoner fair and square, and this time it was a case of Stoner’s “ambition outweighing his talent” as he so snidely proclaimed to Rossi last year when Rossi took him out at a wet Jerez.
The Aussie’s moaning left a bitter taste post race yet again. He complained that the marshall’s didn’t help him to get his bike back up and allow him to continue. A similar complaint he made against the marshalls at Jerez.
I find his general moaning hard to stomach, he moans about other riders, marshalls, you name it. His retirement really needs to be speeded up and give someone a chance on the works Honda that actually wants to be there.
Just like Lorenzo’s luckless first corner crash at the previous race in Assen, he got some luck this time with Stoner’s crash to go back to leading the championship. Almost amazingly, Pedrosa has ghosted in like a ninja to now be 2nd in the Championship standings with the moaning Aussie in 3rd place.
Image source: www.bbc.co.uk