MotoGP Jerez race
By: Mitchell Adam
Summary
Status: Stopped
A successful afternoon for the now teary Pedrosa, then. Missed out on the race? Find out how he won with our comprehensive race report, below.
We're shutting up shop now in terms of live coverage, but do stay check back in with Autosport throughout the afternoon and evening for reaction to events in Spain plus more from the DTM season opener, BTCC at Thruxton and some Blancpain and NASCAR thrown in for good measure.
Thanks for joining us.
We're shutting up shop now in terms of live coverage, but do stay check back in with Autosport throughout the afternoon and evening for reaction to events in Spain plus more from the DTM season opener, BTCC at Thruxton and some Blancpain and NASCAR thrown in for good measure.
Thanks for joining us.
Pedrosa holds his winner's trophy aloft wearing a huge grin, after shaking hands with the King of Spain. Casual Sunday afternoon for the Spaniard.
Here's your final top 10:
1 Pedrosa
2 Marquez
3 Lorenzo
4 Zarco
5 Dovizioso
6 Vinales
7 Petrucci
8 Folger
9 Aleix Espargaro
10 Rossi
1 Pedrosa
2 Marquez
3 Lorenzo
4 Zarco
5 Dovizioso
6 Vinales
7 Petrucci
8 Folger
9 Aleix Espargaro
10 Rossi
And here's Pedrosa:
"It was an extremely hard race to stay calm because I wanted to be faster but the feeling was not there. I had to pick the hard front which was not my favourite, and I wasn't very comfortable so I had to stay focused. [But] I was able to control my pace and manage my lap times and riding. It's so nice to win at this track."
"It was an extremely hard race to stay calm because I wanted to be faster but the feeling was not there. I had to pick the hard front which was not my favourite, and I wasn't very comfortable so I had to stay focused. [But] I was able to control my pace and manage my lap times and riding. It's so nice to win at this track."
"Honestly, I was pushing and trying to stay there to try and attack at the end but from the beginning I felt the front tyre was too soft," says Marquez. "In those conditions I knew Dani was the best. I had a big moment and said OK, second was a really good end to the weekend."
"I was very tired at the end of the race, [but] we can enjoy this result," says a clearly delighted Lorenzo. Monkey. Off. Back.
Pedrosa has finally made it back to the pitlane and embraces his Honda team, as the winner of the 3000th MotoGP race.
Despite surprise about the pace of the Ducati, third does maintain Lorenzo's run at Jerez. That's his seventh podium in eight years in the Spanish Grand Prix, with a fourth-place finish in 2014 the only 'blot' (if you can call it that) on his copybook.
Lorenzo is another man soaking up the applause, as he's mobbed by his Ducati team after returning to parc ferme.
Pedrosa leaps off his bike, over the tyre stacks and over to the grandstands to deservedly lap up the applause from the Spanish crowd.
Zarco came home fourth, while Dovizioso gets the better of Vinales and Petrucci in the scrap for fifth.
Folger and Espargaro are eighth and ninth, with Rossi a subdued 10th.
Folger and Espargaro are eighth and ninth, with Rossi a subdued 10th.
Marquez crosses the line second, with Lorenzo - somewhat remarkably - coming home to complete the podium.
Huge cheers as Pedrosa approaches the final corner, before crossing the line to win the Spanish Grand Prix!
Just as that's said, Marquez works his way to within a second for the first time since the early stages of this race. The gap is 0.976s over the line.
The lead fight remains cagey, but with four laps to go it doesn't look like the 1.2s gap is one that can be erased. Pedrosa is definitely closing in on victory here.
Wowee. Espargaro is now past Rossi and has pulled well clear!
Replays show Rossi struggling to get the bike turned in at the first corner.
Replays show Rossi struggling to get the bike turned in at the first corner.
Five laps to go now, and the lead gap is back to 1.3s. Lorenzo has cleared off a bit from Zarco, and has a second in hand now.
Folger now squirms underneath Rossi at the final corner, relegating the championship leader to ninth.
Rossi's woes continue. He's dropped away from the Vinales-Dovizioso-Petrucci squabble, and is now trying to fend of ninth-place Folger.
This battle between Pedrosa and Marquez feels like the one between Rossi and Lorenzo this time last year. Rossi led throughout, Lorenzo challenged briefly early in the second half, but couldn't unseat his team-mate.
Some way behind the leading Hondas, Lorenzo has far from shaken of Zarco. The Frenchman can sniff a podium on his satellite Tech3 Yamaha.
Current results would mean Rossi still leads the championship on 64 points, but with four in hand over team-mate Vinales and only a further two over Marquez.
"I made a mistake at Turn 11. We've been struggling a bit with set-up, [and] when I closed the throttle I was still rolling," says Crutchlow after his early retirement.
Pedrosa managed the gap back to Marquez for the majority of that lap, but Marquez finds something in the final sector to reduce the gap to 1.1s.
Petrucci and Rossi are now having a nice little ding-dong for seventh. It's Petrucci who's currently worked his way ahead.
Is Marquez's harder tyre strategy starting to pay dividends? He's cut the gap on that previous lap to 1.3s.
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