Pedrosa dominates at Valencia
Daniel Pedrosa dominated the MotoGP season finale in Valencia and snatched second place in the championship from rival Valentino Rossi
The Repsol Honda rider passed the Marlboro Ducati of new world champion Casey Stoner on lap 6 and won by over five seconds, while Rossi retired from the race after running into techical problems on his Fiat Yamaha while he was 14th.
That position would have been enough for the Italian to keep second place, while the retirement meant that Pedrosa edged ahead by one point.
The Spaniard started the race in pole position but dropped to third at the start, after being overtaken by Stoner and by Honda teammate Nicky Hayden. But during the first lap Pedrosa overtook the American and set off to catch the Australian.
Rossi, by contrast, started the race with a broken hand from 17th place after crashing heavily in qualifying yesterday. But after overtaking Tech 3's Makoto Tamada for 14th, he ran wide on lap 17th and lost two positions.
He kept running at a slow pace for three more laps and eventually retired, blaming an engine failure on his Yamaha M1.
John Hopkins, on his way to Kawasaki next year, waved goodbye to his Rizla Suzuki team with a performance that took him to the last step of the podium behind Pedrosa and Stoner.
Marco Melandri had a strong run to fourth place in his last appearance on Honda Gresini, before the rider moves to Marlboro Ducati for 2008.
The Italian will take the place of Loris Capirossi, who finished the race just behind in fifth.
Sixth place went to Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen, who classified ahead of Pramac d'Antin Alex Barros in his last race in MotoGP before retiring.
Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden ended his reign as world champion with an eighth place, with Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet ninth and Honda Gresini's Toni Elias tenth.
CLASSIFIED: Pos Rider Make Time 1. Daniel Pedrosa Honda (M) 46:43.533 2. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) + 5.447 3. John Hopkins Suzuki (B) + 20.404 4. Marco Melandri Honda (B) + 24.827 5. Loris Capirossi Ducati (B) + 25.804 6. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) + 25.862 7. Alex Barros Ducati (B) + 29.470 8. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) + 30.333 9. Randy de Puniet Kawasaki (B) + 30.895 10. Toni Elias Honda (B) + 31.030 11. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha (D) + 38.763 12. Carlos Checa Honda (M) + 42.506 13. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) + 46.572 14. Shinya Nakano Honda (M) + 50.220 15. Makoto Tamada Yamaha (D) + 56.879 16. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) +1:15.369 NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS: Rider Make On Lap Valentino Rossi Yamaha (M) 19 Kurtis Roberts KR (M) 10 Fastest Lap: Daniel Pedrosa, 1:32.748 on lap 5
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