Dani Pedrosa from pitlane to victory – Casey Stoner ends career with a third place

Dani Pedrosa victory today at Valencia put him on top of the charts as the rider who won the most races this season – seven – making it also his MotoGP career best and also the first year that he’s completed without any injuries, which is a miracle in itself, as is winning a race with a pitlane start – albeit Jorge Lorenzo made it slightly easier by crashing out of the lead.

Pedrosa also said that he has been waiting for Lorenzo to make a mistake only it came too late in the season.
“After Márquez’s race, I thought I should do something similar! But seriously, I’m really happy with this win, it was very difficult at the start to make the decision with tyres.
I saw Jorge on slicks on the grid and I was pretty sure with my decision, but standing there the track was drying up very quickly and before the start I didn’t know if it would be better to forget about the pole and start from the pits or go out on wets and stop after 4 or 5 laps.

In the last corner of the sighting lap, the instinct told me to get in immediately.
I started from the pit lane and I managed to be fast from the beginning, I caught Jorge and then I made a mistake and lost three seconds again, but one lap later he also made a mistake and crashed out.
From this point another race began for me.
It was tough to maintain concentration with such conditions and a big advantage, so I planned the second half of the race like a practice session, taking the corners, the lines, lap by lap.
It’s a great end of the season and I’d like to thank all the Repsol Honda Team!” said Pedrosa.
Casey Stoner concluded his fantastic career with a third place podium today after disposing of Alvaro Bautista on the penultimate lap.
The Australian has no regrets about leaving MotoGP as he proved to his fans by appearing with a “Going Fishing” message on his Repsol Honda leathers.
Stoner also revealed that his ankle injury picked up during qualifying at Indianapolis that required surgery and scuppered his final chances of taking a third world titles will take more than a year to heal properly.
“Considering everything that happened today, we’re very happy with a podium.
My motivation wasn’t particularly high today as I haven’t wanted to push in the wet and haven’t felt comfortable on the bike,” said Casey Stoner.
“I just didn’t want to take any risks of crashing and damaging my ankle again so I was very cautious and this isn’t how I like to ride.
Even with the choice of going with the wets, not the slick tyres at the beginning of the race, I took the easy option, which really isn’t me.
When I saw the slicks had a big advantage, we came in and changed bikes and went back out and pushed as hard as we could, without taking unnecessary risks.
In the end we were able to chase down Álvaro and take the last spot on the podium in our last race.
My team are like my second family, we’ve been through a lot of ups and downs together and it’s going to be difficult not to see them every week.
I’m sorry for them and for everyone who has supported me for so long but this is the way it is and it’s time to say goodbye.
Thank you to all the people who have supported us over the years and all our sponsors, and to everyone in the Repsol Honda Team.
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