Dani Pedrosa wins dramatic MotoGP season finale

Dani Pedrosa has won a dramatic final MotoGP of the season, holding on for victory at Valencia.

In what was a race mixed by a rain shower prior to the start, the Repsol Honda driver led home first time podium finisher Katsuyuki Nakasuga and retiring MotoGP great Casey Stoner.

The race was declared wet before the start, despite a dry line having formed. Only Yamaha’s world champion Jorge Lorenzo, his team-mate Nakasuga, and LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl chose the softer option slick tyres. All others started on the hard wets. However, in a twist unseen this season, Pedrosa, Ducati’s Nicky Hayden, Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow and San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Álvaro Bautista decided to start from pit-lane after their sighting lap, with all of them switching to a bike with slick tyres.

At the start, Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaró led the early exchanges, becoming the first CRT bike to lead a Grand Prix. Within three laps, however, Lorenzo was in front and looked to have nailed the strategy.

But the track quickly dried and many riders that started on wets came into the pits to switch bikes (to slicks), the first of which being Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner, Pramac Racing Team’s Héctor Barberá and Tech 3’s Andrea Dovizioso.

The race looked like it would settle down from that point, but it only got more interesting, with riders falling off their bikes left, right and centre.

Hayden, Iván Silva, Roberto Rolfo crashed out of contention, while Bradl saw a potential podium slid into the gravel trap early.

The biggest news of the race, though, was a huge crash for Lorenzo, who highsided off his Yamaha as he was passing back markers. He was lucky to walk away from the crash.

This left Pedrosa in the lead, who also had his work cut out getting past the slower riders. Once through, it was a (slippery) Sunday ride to victory for the pole-sitter.

Second place would have gone to pit-lane starter Crutchlow but was caught out by the conditions and fell off his Yamaha.

Wildcard Nakasuga inherited second place, securing the first podium finish of 2012 for a Japanese rider.

Bautista was third after Crutchlow’s exit, although Stoner caught and passed him on the penultimate lap.

Race result, Valencia

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time/Gap
1	25	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	149.0	48’23.819
2	20	21	Katsuyuki NAKASUGA	JPN	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha	147.0	+37.661
3	16	1	Casey STONER	AUS	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	145.9	+1’00.633
4	13	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	145.8	+1’02.811
5	11	51	Michele PIRRO	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	FTR	144.6	+1’26.608
6	10	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	144.5	+1’30.423
7	9	17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	Ducati	144.4	+1’31.789
8	8	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Came IodaRacing Project	Ioda-Suter	143.5	1 Lap
9	7	77	James ELLISON	GBR	Paul Bird Motorsport	ART	143.1	1 Lap
10	6	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	142.9	1 Lap
11	5	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	141.1	1 Lap
12	4	14	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	138.3	2 Laps
13	3	73	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	Avintia Blusens	BQR	136.7	2 Laps
14	2	5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	Suter	132.6	3 Laps
Not Classified
		35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	146.7	8 Laps
		71	Claudio CORTI	ITA	Avintia Blusens	Inmotec	130.0	13 Laps
		8	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	134.5	14 Laps
		99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha	146.6	17 Laps
		6	Stefan BRADL	GER	LCR Honda MotoGP	Honda	141.8	21 Laps
		84	Roberto ROLFO	ITA	Speed Master	ART	128.3	24 Laps
		22	Ivan SILVA	SPA	Avintia Blusens	BQR	126.9	28 Laps
		69	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	Ducati	126.9	28 Laps

Final championship table

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	Jorge LORENZO	350
2	Dani PEDROSA	332
3	Casey STONER	254
4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	218
5	Alvaro BAUTISTA	178
6	Valentino ROSSI	163
7	Cal CRUTCHLOW	151
8	Stefan BRADL	135
9	Nicky HAYDEN	122
10	Ben SPIES	88
11	Hector BARBERA	83
12	Aleix ESPARGARO	74
13	Randy DE PUNIET	62
14	Karel ABRAHAM	59
15	Michele PIRRO	43
16	James ELLISON	35
17	Yonny HERNANDEZ	28
18	Katsuyuki NAKASUGA	27
19	Danilo PETRUCCI	27
20	Colin EDWARDS	27
21	Jonathan REA	17
22	Mattia PASINI	13
23	Ivan SILVA	12
24	Toni ELIAS	10
25	Hiroshi AOYAMA	3
26	Steve RAPP	2
27	David SALOM	1