Courtsey of Repsol Honda
Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) scored his first everpodium in a wet MotoGP race with a second place
finish before nearly 60,000 fans in the rain-lashed Malaysian Grand Prix.
Tropical, torrential rains hit the Sepang Circuithalf an hour before the scheduled start of thepenultimate weekend of the MotoGP WorldChampionship, which, up to that point, had been held in mostly sunny, humid conditions. Racedirection moved the start to 3:35 p.m., though the riders had only their traditional sightingand warm-up laps to acclimatise themselves to the wet surface.
From third on the front row, Pedrosa got his usual lightning start before being passed on the first lap by Casey Stoner (Ducati). Stoner then sped away to the victory, his second in a row.
Pedrosa slotted into second with teammate Andrea Dovizioso third, the duo leaving the rest of the
field in the mist. They circulated as a pair until the 15th lap when Dovizioso lost the rear end and crashed from third place. Fortunately, the Italian was unhurt, but he wasn't able to continue.
Then Pedrosa began to come under pressure from Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), but the Spaniard upped his pace and held Rossi off to not only finish second, but score his fourth podium in a row and tenth of the season.
Rossi finished third and clinched the MotoGP World Championship.
Toni Elias (San Carlo Honda Gresini) made it three Hondas in a row for the first six laps, and though he would fall back to finish seventh, the Spaniard was pleased with how the day finished. Now he heads to Valencia in the middle of the a six-rider battle for seventh in the championship, but with the added advantage of home field advantage.
Alex De Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini) never felt comfortable in the rain. There were rear traction issues that caused him to concentrate on finishing the race, rather than moving up theorder. Going into the final race of the season,De Angelis is tied with his teammate in their battle to take seventh overall.
With very little wet weather MotoGP experience to draw on, Gabor Talmacsi (Scot Honda) found it difficult adapting to the conditions. Still, hescored two points with a 14th place finish.
Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) crashed on the second lap while holding fifth position. De Puniet had gotten off to a lightning start and was well placed before the unfortunate high-side ended his race prematurely.
