Dani Pedrosa wins Japanese MotoGP race at Motegi.

Is this Dani Pedrosa in his best form? He sure cracked the whip in the Japanese MotoGP race. He is only tiny, pint sized if you want, but at Motegi he was racing against the worlds best and won. The Japanese MotoGP race started in damp conditions and everyone opted for wet weather tyres.

Jorge Lorenzo started from pole and was leading the race from the early corners. Valentino Rossi gave chase and got him in the first corner, but Lorenzo managed to get through at the next turn. He pulled a gap straight away and never looked back. His lead was quickly up to 3 seconds. He surely has this one bagged up. But, as you could tell by the title of this blog, it wasn’t to be.

They all started the Japanese MotoGP race on wet weather tyres and it didn’t really rain any more. These tyres were in for a hard time. You see, these bikes generate a huge amount of heat into these tyres and if it doesn’t rain, they start to melt. They fall apart and if feels like you’re riding on a sponge. It’s not a good feeling if you ride a normal road bike, but a MotoGP machine is another world. They are beasts at the best of times. But there were only a few who binned it. Jack Miller was one of them. He was running in 12th at some stage when he threw it away. He remounted and managed to stack it again, more permanently.

At the front it seemed all sorted out. Lorenzo in a comfortable lead and Rossi in a comfortable second. Then, a bit further back there was Dani Pedrosa. He didn’t start so well. By half  race distance he found something extra and started to move up the order. He was in third and begun to eye out second, Rossi was a sitting duck. Chunks were flying off the tyres and all of a sudden we had a race on our hands.

The Japanese MotoGP race was started wet and by now we have a dry line appearing. The reason why it took pint sized Dani Pedrosa half the race to get up to speed has something to do with his size. In the wet it is harder for a small rider to generate heat into these tyres. He just hasn’t got the weight to load up the front. Now that the fuel is getting less and the others have ruined their tyres, his bike came to life. He’s now in third and quickly closing in on Rossi. Once he passed him he hunted down Lorenzo, who was in trouble. His tyres were shot and there was nothing he could do to fend off Pedrosa and shortly after Rossi as well. The new order, Pedrosa, Rossi and Lorenzo remained until the end.

At the end of the Japanese MotoGP race Valentino Rossi is extending his championship lead, ahead of Dani Pedrosa. With only a handful of races to the end of the season, it looks good for him to win his 10th world championship. I bet there is a cartoon coming up about that.

Danny

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