Pedrosa Storms To Victory In Japan, Rossi Extends Championship Lead

Oct 11, 2015
5 min read

Dani Pedrosa took a stunning victory at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit after a mid-race fightback to steal the win away from a struggling Jorge Lorenzo.

The race had been preceded by foul weather, so bad in fact that there was some doubt as to whether there would be any racing at all. Luckily the weather began to clear as the day wore on and a cracking MotoGP race was had.

With the rain abating, attentions turned to tyre choice. The whole field opted for the hard front wet, whilst all but Scott Redding and Nicky Hayden went for the soft rear. Both Yamahas had been separated by just 0.081s in qualifying, and both needed to get a result on the board to improve their respective title situations. Valentino Rossi got the holeshot at the start and took the lead into turn one. Lorenzo tried to fight back around the outside of T2, proving unsuccessful, but made a move stick into turn four.

The general feeling was that, in the wet, Rossi should be able to stick with his team-mate and the race would come to him as the fuel burnt away. Lorenzo knows this, thus pulling the pin straight away and extending the gap to nearly a second by the end of the opening lap. The Spaniard continued to extend his advantage over the next ten laps or so to nearly four seconds.

Rossi also had to keep an eye out for the chasing Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso. Dovi's pace wasn't as strong as the Yamaha rider's, but the sheer grunt of the GP15 kept him right behind his compatriot. Eventually, Dovizioso began to suffer with tyre wear and Rossi was able to pull away. But the damage had been done. Lorenzo was sure to take the win and close the gap in the standings to nine points, barring any major issues.

Things looked even worse for the Doctor when Dani Pedrosa finally cleared Dovizioso on the tenth lap. The Honda demolished the Italian's gap over the next five laps and passed him at turn nine. Rossi had worked his front tyre too hard trying to stave off Dovizioso, and the drying track didn't aid the situation. But Lorenzo was suffering too. His pursuit of perfection destroyed his front tyre as well, and it was in a far worse state than Rossi's.

With seven laps to go Pedrosa took the lead. Dani struggled at the start of the race after switching to the soft rear after his sighting lap. Struggling to generate temperature in the tyre, Pedrosa slipped back to nearly six seconds behind the leader. As the grip came to him and the feeling with the bike improved enough to allow him to push, by the time he had passed Dovizioso he was lapping two seconds quicker than both Yamahas.

As he crossed the line, Dani had extended the gap to 2nd to over seven seconds. This is his 50th Grand Prix victory and fifth at Motegi, which sees him go 8th on the all-time winners list.

Pedrosa's charge through the field has completely changed the outlook of the world championship fight, because after he passed Lorenzo it backed the Yamaha into the grasp of Rossi. Jorge tried all he could to stay in front, but this only destroyed his front tyre further and he ran wide at turn four on lap twenty, allowing his team-mate through. In the space of two laps the title fight swung from a five-point lead for Rossi to an eighteen-point one.

Marc Marquez made a horrible getaway and found himself swarmed into turn one. He didn't waste much time in getting past Andrea Iannone through turn five on the following lap, though the Italian did try and fight him through six and seven. Ten laps after his team-mate, Marc overtook Dovizioso for 4th but was too far back to pick off the ailing Yamaha of Lorenzo and had to settle for 4th. With Motegi being heavy on the arms due to it's stop/start nature, the Spaniard did well to finish as high as he did.

The fight for top Satellite rider went right to the wire. Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith spent of their race fighting through the pack after difficult starts. As riders fell or took trips through the gravel, the pair were there to pounce and were soon line astern. Smith held the upper hand in the closing stages, but the LCR Honda rider took the position on the final lap to finish as top non-Factory and top Brit for the second race in succession. Compatriot Scott Redding's gamble on the hard rear didn't appear to have paid off as he fell to 18th in the early stages of the race. But, as the grip improved, he was able to ascend the order to a decent 10th.

Hector Barbera took a crucial Open class win after a superb ride to finish a fighting 9th. The Avintia Ducati rider capitalised on a tough day for Open class rival Loris Baz to go two points clear. Baz suffered front tyre issues which forced him to change bike early on, before sending him into retirement.

Pol Espargaro's Japanese Grand Prix ended with a nasty crash at turn eleven whilst he was chasing down his brother Aleix. Thankfully he was unhurt, and he wasn't the only crasher. Jack Miller fell whilst running close to the top ten on lap seven, then came off again with eight laps left. Danilo Petrucci crashed at turn seven on lap eight, his second DNF of the season. Maverick Vinales went down at turn eleven after braking on the white line at the edge of the track, and Andrea Iannone pulled up with a bike problem.

It was a successful day for two of the Japanese wild cards. Katsuyuki Nakasuga was involved in the fight 6th, finishing a respectable 8th. Takumi Takahashi ended his Premier Class début in 12th.

2015 Japanese Grand Prix – Result

1st Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team

2nd Valentino Rossi, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

3rd Jorge Lorenzo, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

4th Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

5th Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

6th Cal Crutchlow, LCR Honda

7th Bradley Smith, Monster Yamaha Tech 3

8th Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Yamalube Yamaha Factory Racing

9th Hector Barbera, Avintia Racing Ducati

10th Scott Redding, EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda

11th Aleix Espargaro, Team Suzuki Ecstar