Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) scored a storming victory in today’s sun-blessed San Marino Grand Prix, the former 125cc and 250cc World Champion coming from behind to win his first race of the season and his 29th MotoGP success. He also gave Honda its fourth victory from the last six races to increase Honda’s lead in the Constructor’s World Championship.

Team-mate and World Championship leader Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) finished fourth in the tense, tight race to take a 43-point lead into the last five of 18 races. The 2013 and 2014 MotoGP World Champion continued his brilliant consistency with his 13th-point-scoring ride from the 13 races so far. The 23-year-old is the only rider across all three Grand Prix classes – MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 – to have scored points at every race.

His result also played its part in the Repsol Honda Team’s 26-point advantage in the MotoGP Teams’ Championship.

Thirty-year-old Pedrosa was in irresistible form, making his way through from an eighth-place start, picking off the riders ahead of him to claim his first win since Sepang, last October. He was also the eighth different winner in the last eight races, a feat never before achieved since the dawn of Grand Prix racing in 1949.

Building his way into the race, Pedrosa overtook Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) for the lead on lap 22 of 28 and from there maintained a scintillating pace to finish 2.8 seconds ahead of Rossi. Reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) was third.

Pedrosa’s result moved him back into fourth overall, following a challenging earlier part of the season during which he visited the podium twice. The Spaniard’s win was partly built on set-up improvements made during last weekend’s British GP which allowed him to set a fast, consistent pace throughout the Misano race.

His ride also showed the recent gains HRC engineers have made with electronics set-up, while his improved feeling with the latest Michelin tyres was also a factor.

Marquez had been confident of challenging for a race win but midway through the race realised that he could not fight with the leaders. He was pleased enough with his pace, which was similar to FP4 but soon saw Pedrosa could go even faster.

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda RC213V) had a tough race to eighth place, struggling with vision issues caused by sweat on the inside of his visor that caused him to miss his braking marker at the end of the front straight. The 30-year old was confident he could have placed inside the top six, had it not been for his vision issues.

Rookie Tito Rabat (EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V) crashed on the second lap, spoiling his chance of scoring more points. The 2014 Moto2 World Champion returned to pit lane for repairs and then posted some promising times toward the end of the race.

Still struggling with injuries sustained at last month’s Austrian Grand Prix, Jack Miller (EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V) withdrew from the 13th race of the season before the start. The Australian cracked a vertebra and broke a bone in his right hand at the Red Bull Ring. Tge hand injury made it too difficult to deal with Misano’s numerous heavy braking points and tight corners.

The MotoGP paddock now has one weekend in which to catch its breath before the Grand Prix of Aragon, on September 25.


Dani Pedrosa 26 - 1st

“It was a great race, and it has been a long time since I have had these feelings. The performance I put in today surprised even myself, because I had not expected to go so fast; we were fantastic. The key was the pace; I was able to fight my way through, especially in the final part, and being consistent allowed me to catch the riders at the front. It’s very nice for me to take victory again, after all the effort made by those who have been with me in this challenging season so far: my family, my team and my fans. It has been very difficult, so I’m very happy for all of them. Today I enjoyed myself, although I was a little worried about the choice of front tyre because I had not used it in hot conditions. In the end we were focused and everything went very well; it was an opportunity of which we had to take advantage and I think we have achieved a great victory."

Marc Marquez 93 - 4th

“Today’s race was perhaps not one of my better days. I went out with great desire and I felt strong, able to recover the ground I had lost on the first few laps and close in on Valentino and Jorge. Then I saw I had problems with the front tyre, because I was losing it a lot. When Dani passed me, I tried to follow him, but I saw that it was more likely that I would crash than finish on the podium, so I concentrated on finishing the race. We have to keep improving, but the positive thing is that we only lost a few points on a weekend that had been good but that we weren’t able to capitalize in the race. Now we are very motivated for Aragon.”

Cal Crutchlow 35 - 9th

“First and foremost I ran across turn one five times during the race, simply because sweat was on the inside of my visor and I couldn’t see a thing from lap eight onwards. I usually have a sweatband but it moved into the wrong position and sweat was dripping everywhere. This is essentially why we were dropping back. I would have had a better race but I couldn’t see anything. In the race, I used the medium front tyre. We were struggling with the front of our bike all weekend. We tried our best to fix it but essentially we were losing too much time in sector three, and I couldn’t get the time back anywhere else because I didn’t have confidence in the front.”

Tito Rabat 53 - 17th

“I made a very good first lap but then made a mistake. I braked too hard, lost the front and could not save it. The footpegs were broken, so my thanks to the team for quickly fixing this problem. I re-joined and settled into a good rhythm in the group with Petrucci and Bradl who finished in the top twelve and I learnt a lot of things riding with these guys. Now I will focus on the next race at Aragon.”

Jack Miller 43 - DNS

“Misano is a much more physically demanding track to ride than Silverstone and my right hand has been getting worse each day. Every time I got off the bike the swelling was more. It’s not painful, but I was lacking power in the hand and you need to have that here for the hard braking areas. I thought long and hard about it last night, but it simply wasn’t safe for me to ride a 28-lap race with this problem. Now I am focused only on recovery and getting back on the bike as soon as I am fully fit again.”