Pedrosa wins again on a sad day at Misano

Pedrosa leads Stoner and the rest of the MotoGP field

Dani Pedrosa rode a flawless race today to take his second MotoGP win in as many weekends and claim the first back-to-back victories of his MotoGP career. The Repsol Honda rider led for all 28 laps of the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano, recording his fourth win of 2010 and the twelfth of his MotoGP career. His team-mate Andrea Dovizioso put on a fighting performance today, moving from eighth on the grid to challenge Valentino Rossi for much of the race for the last spot on the podium, eventually finishing fourth.

The racing at Misano today was overshadowed however by the death of Japanese rider Shoya Tomizawa following an accident in the Moto2 race. Coming after the fatality of Peter Lenz in a support race at last weekend’s Indianapolis Grand Prix, both Repsol Honda riders were deeply saddened by today’s events.

Pedrosa: “There are no words to say how it feels after this victory – it feels like nothing. I arrived at parc fermé very happy with the win and I immediately felt that the atmosphere among my mechanics was really strange, everybody was serious. Still with my helmet on they told me about Tomizawa and I couldn’t react. It was a big shock, a big contrast for me. I asked three times if it was true because I couldn’t believe it. It’s so sad, terrible, and these things should never happen. As a person I can only say that he was a very funny boy, always happy and making jokes, and as a rider he earned respect from everybody in a very short time, he was fast and brave. To lose two riders in a week is terrible. I believe everybody in the World Championship is feeling the same now and I want to send my condolences to the family. When you are born, life gives you the chance to choose what you want to do. Tomi chose to be a rider and in fact he was doing great. I just want to think that he’s been happy making his dream come true. Concerning the race, I want to say thank you again to my team for doing a great job. The whole weekend has been perfect: good practices, a very high pace during the race, and the second win in a row and the fourth of the season. I want to keep my feet on the ground though and just concentrate on one race at a time. The feeling on the bike is very good now and my goal is to continue in this way. But to be honest I’m not really thinking about that at this moment."

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