In a dramatic race hit by torrential rain and a raft of crashes, Repsol Honda Team's Dani Pedrosa put in a wet-weather master class to win the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix in Sepang.
Pedrosa finished ahead of Yamaha Factory Racing's Jorge Lorenzo and Australian Casey Stoner.
The result has moved Pedrosa 23 points behind Lorenzo in the title chase with two rounds remaining.
In a race that was declared wet from the start, Lorenzo opted for the softer option wet rear tyre and had a small margin over Pedrosa with 18 laps to go, but it was not enough to ward off Pedrosa, who passed him soon after and raced on to the win.
The rain came down extremely heavily with 15 laps left, and Lorenzo suffered a very scary moment, where he saved a near crash just seconds before the red flag was shown due to safety concerns.
After much deliberating, conditions deteriorated, and the win was awarded to Pedrosa, with Lorenzo and Stoner completing the rostrum.
Ducati duo Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi finished fourth and fifth, with the latter making up all of his ground at the start after a brilliant launch, making it into Turn 1 fourth. Despite dropping back for a small period, he fought back to fifth with skill and luck as others around him fell by the wayside.
Of the casualties in the wet race, Yamaha's Ben Spies suffered a heavy crash out of 10th place. He was taken to the medical centre to check on a shoulder injury.
Tech 3 Yamaha's Andrea Dovizioso slid out of the race, Cal Crutchlow crashed on Lap 9, Stefan Bradl lost the front end of his satellite Honda while NGM Mobile Forward Racing's Colin Edwards retired with a mechanical gremlin.
The next round of the championship is at Phillip Island for the Australian MotoGP.
Results, Malaysian Grand Prix
Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time/Gap |
1 | 25 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 146.8 | 29'29.049 |
2 | 20 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 146.5 | +3.774 |
3 | 16 | 1 | Casey STONER | AUS | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 146.2 | +7.144 |
4 | 13 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | USA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 145.9 | +10.518 |
5 | 11 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 145.4 | +16.759 |
6 | 10 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 145.4 | +17.276 |
7 | 9 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Pramac Racing Team | Ducati | 142.7 | +50.282 |
8 | 8 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | 142.6 | +51.585 |
9 | 7 | 77 | James ELLISON | GBR | Paul Bird Motorsport | ART | 142.2 | +56.676 |
10 | 6 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | CZE | Cardion AB Motoracing | Ducati | 142.1 | +57.622 |
11 | 5 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | ITA | Came IodaRacing Project | Ioda-Suter | 141.7 | +1'02.805 |
12 | 4 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | ITA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | FTR | 141.7 | +1'02.891 |
13 | 3 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 139.7 | +1'28.989 |
84 | Roberto ROLFO | ITA | Speed Master | ART | 0 Lap | |||
Not Classified | ||||||||
6 | Stefan BRADL | GER | LCR Honda MotoGP | Honda | 145.5 | 2 Laps | ||
35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 145.7 | 3 Laps | ||
14 | Randy DE PUNIET | FRA | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | 142.7 | 3 Laps | ||
22 | Ivan SILVA | SPA | Avintia Blusens | BQR | 140.8 | 3 Laps | ||
5 | Colin EDWARDS | USA | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | Suter | 137.5 | 3 Laps | ||
11 | Ben SPIES | USA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 144.8 | 5 Laps |
Championship standings
Pos. | Rider | Bike | Nation | Points |
1 | Jorge LORENZO | Yamaha | SPA | 330 |
2 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | SPA | 307 |
3 | Casey STONER | Honda | AUS | 213 |
4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Yamaha | ITA | 195 |
5 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Honda | SPA | 154 |
6 | Valentino ROSSI | Ducati | ITA | 148 |
7 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | Yamaha | GBR | 135 |
8 | Stefan BRADL | Honda | GER | 125 |
9 | Nicky HAYDEN | Ducati | USA | 114 |
10 | Ben SPIES | Yamaha | USA | 88 |
11 | Hector BARBERA | Ducati | SPA | 79 |
12 | Aleix ESPARGARO | ART | SPA | 63 |
13 | Randy DE PUNIET | ART | FRA | 53 |
14 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | CZE | 43 |
15 | Michele PIRRO | FTR | ITA | 30 |
16 | James ELLISON | ART | GBR | 28 |
17 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | BQR | COL | 28 |
18 | Colin EDWARDS | Suter | USA | 25 |
19 | Jonathan REA | Honda | GBR | 17 |
20 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ioda-Suter | ITA | 16 |
21 | Mattia PASINI | ART | ITA | 13 |
22 | Ivan SILVA | BQR | SPA | 11 |
23 | Toni ELIAS | Ducati | SPA | 10 |
24 | Katsuyuki NAKASUGA | Yamaha | JPN | 7 |
25 | Steve RAPP | APR | USA | 2 |
26 | David SALOM | BQR | SPA | 1 |