Dani Pedrosa wins Valencia GP as Lorenzo crashes, Casey Stoner says goodbye to MotoGP

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa ended this year’s championship on a high after dominating a wet and rather strange Valencia Grand Prix today. It was his seventh victory of the season, the most by any rider this year.

Meanwhile, Pedrosa’s rival Jorge Lorenzo crashed out heavily when trying to pass CRT rider James Ellison. Lorenzo has won the championship in the last race in Australia which was the Yamaha rider’s second championship win in consecutive years.

Yamaha’s Katsuyuki Nakasuga who was in for an injured Ben Spies produced the best finish by a Japanese MotoGP rider by taking second place ahead of a charging Casey Stoner. Stoner who was riding his last MotoGP race came from behind to overtake Bautista to take the final podium for the Repsol Honda team.

Michele Piro produced the best ever resut for a CRT bike to take fifth ahead of Tech-3 Yamaha’s Andrea Dovizioso, while Dovi’s partnerCal Crutchlow crashed out after running second. It was followed by Karel Abraham, Petrucci, James Ellison and Valentino Rossi a dismal tenth.

The race started with a surprise as Pedrosa, Rossi, Crutchlow opted to start from the pits after the warm-up lap and the late planto change to wet tyres after that lap. Lorenzo lost a few places at the start and later made up for it. But Pedrosa was at his utter best and haunted Lorenzo until Lorenzo crashed behind Ellison with a slipping rear wheel. Pedrosa had a 30s lead over Crutchlow and Nakasuga.

Crutchlow then passed Nakasuga before crashing out. The track was very slippery and saw many skidding to retirement and running off the tracks.

This years MotoGP was good for Lorenzo and Pedrosa but brought woes to Stoner and Rossi. Rossi, who is switching to Yamaha next year, must be relieved that the season has ended, while Andrea Dovizioso takes over his seat in Ducati.

Earlier, 250cc champion Marc Marquez came back from last position to win the Valencia Grand Prix. Meanwhile in Moto3, Dani Kent won a last lap battle over champion Cortese in a epic and wet Valencia Grand Prix.