MotoGP news

Pedrosa lucks into second place

Dani Pedrosa earned a fortunate second place at Brno on Sunday after compatriot Jorge Lorenzo lost control of his Yamaha and retired from the Czech Grand Prix. Now only fifteen points behind the absent Casey Stoner, the Repsol Honda rider looks likely to cease third place in the championship standings.

Pedrosa made no mistakes on his way to second place

Although Stoner is likely to return at the Portuguese Grand Prix, Pedrosa - who suffered with injures for much of the first half of the 2009 season - is perfectly placed to take third in the championship this year; the Spaniard looked placed to do the same on in Sunday's race although P3 became P2 when Lorenzo slid out with five laps to go.

"At the start of the race I pushed really hard to stay with the leaders and for the first few laps I was with them," Pedrosa recalled. "Then they kept getting faster on every lap and, though I was pushing to the maximum, I couldn't maintain that sort of pace so for the rest of the race I just had to concentrate on not making a mistake because there was a big gap in front of me and also behind me."

With winner Valentino Rossi over 11 and a half seconds ahead at the finish and third placed Toni Elías nine in arrears, Pedrosa cruised home to the second rostrum spot. "Second place is a good result for me and the team, though obviously we would have wanted to be closer to front-running pace," he continued.

"It's great to finish a race on the podium and feel in good physical condition after the problems I had in the first part of the season - especially because it was very hot out there and this is a demanding track; we have a test tomorrow (Monday) and it is going to be really important for us to work on the areas we still have to improve so that we can challenge for wins again."

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