Dani Pedrosa takes victory at the Japanese MotoGP, Rossi seals championship

A win from P6: Dani Pedrosa raced well today to take the Japanese MotoGP title

Dani Pedrosa of Repsol Honda won the MotoGP of Japan at the Twin Ring Motegi with some very competitive racing in rainy conditions that saw a truncated Moto2 race only an hour prior.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo, who was looking to strengthen his challenge against teammate Valentino Rossi for the championship title, raced well yesterday to qualify for today’s race on pole, and for a significant part of the race looked to be poised for the win. The Spaniard extended his lead over Rossi for a large part of the race, which saw Rossi caught out by Pedrosa, who looked set for P2.

Pedrosa, not satisfied with this, then made a move on Jorge Lorenzo to take P1, which he held on to until the end of the race. A braking mistake from Lorenzo then saw Rossi overtake his teammate to finish P2.

Rossi’s second-place finish today has meant Rossi has extended his championship lead over his Spanish teammate, who has won 6 races this year, four of them on the trot. Rossi takes 4 points extra with today’s race finish, now taking an 18-point lead in the championships.

With this race, 30-year-old Pedrosa took his 50^th career win in his 10^th year in the MotoGP class. His teammate, double world champion Marc Marquez, completed qualifying in the front row – in P3 behind Rossi, but lost out to finish in P7 behind Aleix Espargaro of Suzuki Ecstar, who stole a march early in the race. It was Pedrosa’s first win of the year.

The Twin Ring Motegi was a home race for constructors Honda, who were pleased with the win.

Currently 7^th in the championship standings, Pedrosa is not in running for the championship title; he had finished last year’s championship in 4^th, with teammate Marquez taking it instead.

Most riders used a combination of Hard-Soft tyres – hard on the front and soft on the back in a wet race, and several of them had issues with quick tyre degradation – most significantly Rossi, whose tyre appeared to be coming apart as the Italian raced on.

Following the race, Pedrosa said he had made an effort to preserve his tyre, while Lorenzo found the results “quite disappointing,” but acknowledged Pedrosa had raced very well, with Rossi saying the same.

Today’s results now mean that even if Valentino Rossi finishes behind Jorge Lorenzo for every one of the remaining 3 Grands Prix, he will still take the championship title – which would be his 7^th in the MotoGP class.