Pedrosa wins German Grand Prix

Spain’s Dani Pedrosa sealed his return from injury by winning the German Grand Prix on Sunday while compatriot and MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo snatched second place for Yamaha at the final corner.

Australian Casey Stoner, who had started on pole position and led for a while, finished third and his overall championship lead over Lorenzo was cut to 15 points with nine races left.     

    Pedrosa’s win was his first podium finish since he won in Portugal in May, before he broke his collarbone in a collision with Italian Marco Simoncelli at the French Grand Prix that same month.     

    The Catalan, also last year’s winner at the Sachsenring ahead of Lorenzo and Stoner, missed three races after two rounds of surgery and only came back at this month’s Italian round.     

    “(It was an) unbelievable race because the pace was so high all the time,” said Pedrosa.     

    The Spaniard had seized the lead briefly at the start and fought a three-way battle with both Stoner and Lorenzo taking turns at the front before Pedrosa again led for the last nine laps.     

    “Finally a perfect result. I didn’t expect it at all,” he said, thanking his fans, family and doctors for their support. 

“They know how hard it was for me this time. To come back and already win a race is an unbelievable feeling.”     

    Lorenzo, who crossed the line 1,477 seconds adrift of Pedrosa, had led for eight laps before Pedrosa made his telling move and fell back to third with six laps remaining.     

    The champion was delighted with his day anyway after surging past Stoner with the chequered flag waiting.     

    “From the middle of the race I got tired very soon in my left hand, so I don’t know where I could find the force to keep pushing to the end,” he said.      

    “Then Casey stopped a lot the bike two corners from the end so I took profit, I opened full throttle and in the last corner I took so many risks. I think I made a miracle,” added the Mallorcan.     

STONER STRUGGLES     

    Stoner, on his seventh successive podium, said he had struggled throughout the race.     

    “At the beginning of the race we just felt we wanted to warm the tyres up slowly and not overheat them like we did in Mugello. So I took my time, came through when I thought I was faster.     

    “I got to the front, tried to push for some laps and realised that...it was going to be hard to make an advantage and decided just to drop my pace a little bit.     

    “We had the pace there but we just didn’t have any confidence,” he added.      

    The next round is at Laguna Seca in Calfornia on July 24.     

    Italy’s Andrea Divizioso was fourth for Honda with American Ben Spies fifth for Yamaha.     

    Italian Valentino Rossi finished ninth for Ducati after starting 16th, his lowest grid position since 2007.     

    In the Moto2 category, Spain’s Marc Marquez won from pole position for the third race in a row to deny Germany’s Stefan Bradl the honour of becoming his country’s first home winner since the grand prix returned to Sachsenring in 1998.     

    Bradl leads Marquez by 47 points in the standings.     

    Spain’s Hector Faubel won the 125cc race after finishing absolutely level with France’s Johann Zarco on the same time.

After video evidence failed to separate the two, Faubel was handed victory for having set a faster lap.     

    Compatriot Nicolas Terol’s overall lead was cut to 32 points over Zarco.