Aragon MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa dominates to beat Jorge Lorenzo
Dani Pedrosa kept his slim MotoGP championship ambitions alive with an emphatic victory in the Aragon Grand Prix
The Honda rider was in a class of his own on the Spanish track, able to set such a punishing pace at the front that not even championship leader Jorge Lorenzo could live with him.
His winning margin eventually stretched to 6.4s.
Lorenzo did at least have the comfort of finishing second, surrendering just five points in the championship as a result. His lead, boosted by Pedrosa's first lap exit at Misano, now stands at 33 points with just four races to run.
While his championship hopes were not massively dented, on track the damage was more pronounced.
Lorenzo had led the opening five laps, and then tried to stay with Pedrosa once the Honda man made his move. Ultimately he had no answer to his rival's pace however, suffering one massive moment as he tried in vain to pull back an ever-widening gap.
Even as Lorenzo lost ground though he was still faster than the chasing pack, which was led for the majority of the race by Yamaha team-mate Ben Spies.
The American briefly lost out to LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl on lap three, only to see the German fall at Turn 3 half a lap later.
That still left Spies defending from Tech 3 pair Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso, with the trio separated by less than one second for much of the race.
Ten laps from the end Dovizioso completed his move from fifth to third, before Crutchlow followed him past Spies one lap later.
Crutchlow remained glued to Dovizioso's wheel for the remainder of the race, attacking several times on the final lap. Dovizioso hung on however to claim his sixth podium of the year for the satellite outfit.
In contrast to that battle, Gresini's Alvaro Bautista was able to take a quiet sixth, his progress aided by a variety of incidents, including that of Bradl.
Ducati's Nicky Hayden also fell early, getting flipped over an advertising boarding as he tried to wrestle his bike from running wide at Turn 16. The heavy impact necessitated a visit to the medical centre, although Hayden was later cleared.
His Ducati team-mate Valentino Rossi also hit trouble, making contact with Honda's Jonathan Rea - making what could be his last appearance as Casey Stoner's stand-in - on the opening lap.
Rossi dropped out of the top 20 as a result of running massively wide, but fought his way back to eighth, behind Rea.
Results - 23 laps: Pos Rider Team/Bike Time/Gap 1. Dani Pedrosa Honda 42m10.444s 2. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha + 6.472s 3. Andrea Dovizioso Tech 3 Yamaha + 11.047s 4. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha + 11.184s 5. Ben Spies Yamaha + 13.786s 6. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda + 28.166s 7. Jonathan Rea Honda + 32.290s 8. Valentino Rossi Ducati + 44.432s 9. Karel Abraham Cardion Ducati + 57.417s 10. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia + 58.525s 11. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia + 59.863s 12. Hector Barbera Pramac Ducati + 1m14.561s 13. Yonny Hernandez Avintia FTR-Kawasaki + 1m16.159s 14. James Ellison Paul Bird Aprilia + 1m16.580s 15. Michele Pirro Gresini FTR-Honda + 1m25.815s 16. Mattia Pasini Speed Master Aprilia + 1m31.801s 17. Danilo Petrucci Ioda Suter-BMW + 1m42.300s 18. Colin Edwards Forward Suter-BMW + 1 lap Retirements: Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 4 laps David Salom Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 3 laps Nicky Hayden Ducati 1 lap
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