Dani Pedrosa battled from behind to beat championship leader Jorge Lorenzo at the Japanese Grand Prix yesterday, closing up on the fellow Spaniard in his pursuit of a first MotoGP title.
The Honda rider overtook front-running Yamaha ace Lorenzo with 13 laps to go in the 24-lap race. He never looked back to win in 42min 31.569sec at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit under cloudy skies.
Lorenzo followed home 4.275 seconds behind, with another Spaniard Alvaro Bautista third on a Honda 2.477 seconds farther back.
With his four wins in the last five races, Pedrosa’s points gap with Lorenzo narrowed to 28 from 33, with three races remaining in the season.
“It was a hard race because from the beginning the pace was very fast,” said the 27-year-old Pedrosa.
“At the beginning, I tried to understand the bike because yesterday it had some chatter (vibration after braking).”
Lorenzo, starting from his sixth pole position of the season, was first around the bend with Pedrosa trailing in his slipstream.
They were followed by Britain’s Yamaha rider Cal Crutchlow, Bautista and Australia’s factory Honda rider Casey Stoner, back from an ankle injury which has sidelined him in the last three races.
On the 12th lap, Pedrosa got a better line out of a right-hand corner and overtook Lorenzo on the straight.
“Then I put in some good laps and controlled the gap,” Pedrosa said after his 20th career win in the premier class.
“I suffered quite a lot of chattering during the race but I could manage,” said Pedrosa, who also beat Lorenzo into second spot in Japan last year.
“I am very happy to win again here for myself and my team.”
The Grand Prix tour will stop in Malaysia and Australia in the next two weeks with its finale set for Valencia in Spain on November 11.
The two Spaniards and Stoner have won the season’s 15 races so far among themselves. Lorenzo finished top or runner-up in all of them except for the Dutch Grand Prix, in which he crashed out.
Lorenzo has won six races against five for Pedrosa and four for Stoner.
Meanwhile, MARC MARQUEZ roared to his eighth Moto2 win of the season as he beat title rival Pol Espargaro in a Spanish one-two-three finish.
The 19-year-old, riding a Suter, clocked 42 minutes 56.171 seconds on the 4.8-kilometre (three-mile) circuit with Espargaro following home 0.415 seconds behind on a Kalex.
Esteve Rabat, also Spanish, on a Kalex finished third 9.584 seconds behind the winner.
Britain’s 18-year-old DANNY KENT won the Moto3 race in Japan yesterday for the first Grand Prix victory of his career.
Spaniard Maverick Vinales was second and Italian Alessandro Tonucci third.
MotoGP standings
1. Lorenzo (Yamaha) 310, 2. Pedrosa (Honda) 282, 3. Stoner (Honda) 197, 4. Dovizioso (Yamaha) 192, 5. Bautista (Honda) 144, 6. Rossi (Ducati) 137, 7. Crutchlow (Yamaha) 135, 8. Bradl (Honda) 125, 9. Hayden (Ducati) 101, 10. Spies (Yamaha) 88.