Dani Pedrosa bounced back from dramatic highside at Aragon – Marc Marquez’ disabled the traction control system of his team mate’s Honda with a contact – and his bothersome hip injury, to take his third victory of the season in an energy sapping Sepang GP.
The Repsol Honda rider managed to take the race lead from Jorge Lorenzo after the lap and cleared out, while Marquez (punished with a point penalty after Aragon) and the Yamaha rider became involved in a highly incendiary duel for second place.
Lorenzo tried to fluster Marquez overtaking attempts even going as far as bashing fairings – unusually aggressive for the reigning World champion – during the sixth lap, however it was the rookie who won the battle for the second spot on the podium after Lorenzo’s tires starting sliding under braking.
Despite Pedrosa‘s victory, Marquez’s second place and another 20 points still gives him a highly comfortable lead in the standings over Lorenzo, and he can mathematically take the 2013 MotoGP crown in next weekend’s round at Phillip Island, while Pedrosa‘s chances of the title more or less evaporated with his DNF at Aragon, but he still has a shot in becoming the season’s runner-up.
Valentino Rossi was once again subscribed to a distant fourth place finish, unable to capitalize on his best ever qualifying session of the season (2nd on the grid), as he too like Lorenzo, began to have tire issues under braking, but received a round of applause from everyone as he carried a Marco Simoncelli tribute flag on his cool down lap.
Alvaro Bautista won the a very heated battle for fifth against a suffering Cal Crutchlow.
The Gresini rider almost rammed Valentino Rossi during the fifth lap which made him run wide losing contact not only with Italian but also with the frontrunners.
Bradley Smith took sixth, unable to join the Bautista-Crutchlow fray, but he was well ahead of Andrea Dovizioso in 7th, who no doubt is waiting for the arrival of Gigi dall’Igna to help turn around Ducati’s fate, as ‘not revolution but evolution’ has consigned the Italian manufacturer to another bad race, as both Nicky Hayden and Andrea Iannone had to pull out with technical issues.
Aleix Espargaro was once again the best CRT rider in 9th while Yonny Hernandez on the Pramac Ignite Ducati closed out the top ten.
Colin Edwards, Hector Barbera and Michael Laverty were punished with a ride-through penalty for a jump start.
2013 MotoGP Sepang Race Results:01- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 20 laps in 40’45.
191 02- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 2.
757 03- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 6.
669 04- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 10.
351 05- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 22.
149 06- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 22.
301 07- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 30.
864 08- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 45.
111 09- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 59.
264 10- Yonny Hernandez – Ignite Pramac Racing – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1’01.
417 11- Hiroshi Aoyama – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 1’03.
665 12- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP13 – + 1’14.
256 13- Claudio Corti – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – FTR Kawasaki – + 1’21.
603 14- Hector Barbera – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 1’27.
976 15- Colin Edwards – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – FTR Kawasaki – + 1’29.
442 16- Danilo Petrucci – CAME Iodaracing Project – Ioda Suter BMW – + 1’29.
551 17- Luca Scassa – Cardion AB Motoracing – ART GP13 – + 1’47.
930 18- Bryan Staring – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – FTR Honda MGP13 – + 1’52.
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