MotoGP- LeMans

Pedrosa Wins in Wet of France

With his title contenders struggling in the wet of Le Mans, Pedrosa fought off competition from Crutchlow and Marquez to take a dominant win which gives him a six point lead in the standings.

It was a poor day for defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo who finished seventh. Pole sitter Marc Marquez fell as low as eighth at the start but fought back to finish on the podium.

Second place for Cal Crutchlow goes down as the British rider's best finish in MotoGP fighting off the attentions of Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez. During free practice the previous day, Crutchlow had taken a heavy fall and had been diagnosed with a fracture in his right tibia, but rode through the injury to a well deserved second ahead of Marquez.

Pedrosa was fighting with Dovizioso for most of the race with the pair swapping positions throughout an exciting race. With thirteen laps left the Honda rider finally shook off the Italian and eventually won the race by five seconds.

From the start it was the Ducati of Dovizioso that led out of the first two turns from Lorenzo as pole sitter Marquez dropped down to eighth. It seemed the winner from the American round was struggling in the wet as he started to fall back from the race contenders but he finally fought back to secure yet another podium finish.

It was a day that started well for championship leader Lorenzo, but his pace deserted him through the race and he could only manage seventh behind Alvaro Bautista and Nicky Hayden.

Ever since his scintillating ride to second in Qatar, Valentino Rossi has struggled to match the pace of the three Spaniards, but he managed to run as high as third before he inexplicably threw the Yamaha into the gravel and could only finish twelfth.

For Pedrosa, his second successive victory moved him ahead of Marquez and understandably he had a big smile on his face at the end of the race.

“I am so happy for today.” Pedrosa told the press at the end. “Last year I struggled in conditions like this. I was on the limit but the bike was working well.”

The riders and teams will now have a two week break before the next race at Mugello in Italy.

Results:
1. Dani Pedrosa
2. Cal Crutchlow
3. Marc Marquez
4. Andrea Dovizioso
5. Nicky Hayden
6. Alvaro Bautista
7. Jorge Lorenzo
8. Michele Pirro
9. Bradley Smith
10. Stefan Bradl

Others:
12. Valentino Rossi
17. Michael Laverty