Repsol Honda duo of Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez finish 1-2 as Jorge Lorenzo finishes in third to make it an all-Spanish podium in the home grand prix.
Dani Pedrosa of Repsol Honda produced a masterclass to win his first race of the season at Jerez. Not only that, Pedrosa has also etched his name in history books as the winner of the 3000th Grand Prix motorcycle race today. The Spaniard convincingly beat teammate Marc Marquez as he led the race from start till end, without ever giving a quarter to the reigning world champion. While it was a given that factory Hondas will shine at the sunny Jerez today, Jorge Lorenzo was a surprise visitor to the podium as he finished third in the race – his maiden podium with Ducati.
Starting from pole, Pedrosa took a flyer as the lights went out; Marquez followed suit. Behind the Repsol Honda duo, though, it was a tight fight between other riders. The best of the surprises came from Tech 3 Yamaha’s Johan Zarco in the initial laps. The Frenchman passed Valentino Rossi in an unapologetically manner, and then quickly hunted down Vinales, Crutchlow, Iannone and even Marquez to take the second spot within the first few laps. Marquez, however, quickly took his place back as he wasn't too keen on losing sight of his teammate. Behind Zarco, Cal Crutchlow, who started third on the grid, crashed out while Iannone also couldn’t keep his Suzuki the rubber side down for long. Meantime, Lorenzo made quick progress and swiftly overtook his previous employer’s machines – he first overtook Rossi and then quickly went past Vinales without much of a problem. Lorenzo went on to chase Zarco and overtook him for the third spot. Lorenzo put a sensational string of consistent laps as he retained his position till the very end of the race.
Meanwhile, at the front, Marquez tried to get closer to Pedrosa but he just couldn’t match the metronomic lap times of his teammate. Pedrosa maintained a buffer of around 1.5 seconds for the entire race and upped the ante in the final three laps to finish six seconds ahead of Marquez.
The best Yamaha of the day turned out to be Zarco’s Tech 3 bike, which finished fourth, ahead of Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso in fifth. As for factory Yamahas, they suffered massively in the race - Maverick Vinales could barely manage to finish in sixth while Rossi finished a dreadful tenth in the race. Between the two factory Yamahas were Danillo Petrucci (seventh), Jonas Folger (eight) and Aleix Espargaro (tenth).
Although Rossi had had a rough weekend in Spain, he still leads the points table with 62 points. The fight for the championship, however, has narrowed down to just 10 points between four riders. Vinales sits in second (60) followed by Marquez (58). With his flawless performance today, Pedrosa is now also in the running for the championship trophy with 52 points.
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