Honda Racing:

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) came within the length of his Honda RC212V of finishing on the podium in the greatest race of the 800cc era. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) won the instant classic with a brave pass of teammate Jorge Lorenzo in the final corner of the Catalunya Grand Prix before a sun-drenched crowd of 88,502 on the Montmelo circuit north of Barcelona. Almost as exciting was Dovi’s late charge on Casey Stoner (Ducati), who held him off by a scant .052s.

Held in 36 degree heat, the race was not only the hottest of the season atmospherically, but on the track as well. There was the battle for the front, mostly waged between Rossi and Lorenzo, and the race just behind, with Dovizioso making a late charge. The heat ruined the tires after five or six laps leaving the riders slipping and sliding on a race course where much time is spent at maximum lean angle and the right side of the tires is increasingly subject to abuse.

Sixth ending lap one, Dovizioso passed fellow Honda rider Randy De Puniet (LCR Honda) on the fourth of 25 laps only to find teammate Dani Pedrosa just ahead. Two laps on Dovi passed Pedrosa and settled into fourth, but at a distance of 2.5s to Stoner. For the rest of the race, Dovizioso inched ever forward, making huge inroads in the final six laps. The interval continued to shrink on every lap, but on the crucial run from turn 13 to the stripe Stoner was just able to hold him off. Still, Dovizioso took solace in knowing the gap to the winner was only nine seconds.

Pedrosa was riding hurt and in pain from incidents two weeks ago in Mugello, but you wouldn’t know it from his performance. With the help of a pain-killing injection, Pedrosa was racing better than expected given the seriousness of his right leg and hip injuries. Once passed by Dovizioso, he came under attack from Loris Capirossi (Suzuki). But it would take the Italian ten laps to slip past the gritty Spaniard, who was hoping for better in front of the home crowd. Pedrosa, who grew up not half an hour from the track, gave way on lap 17, but finished a valiant sixth, exhausted and in pain.

De Puniet got little rest once he was passed by Dovizioso. Pedrosa and Capirossi also passed him, as did Colin Edwards on lap 14. But the Frenchman was close enough to re-take the position until the final few laps when the Texan edged ahead. He finished eighth, 1.7s behind Edwards.

Alex De Angelis was the final Honda finish in a deceptive 12th place. The San Marinese was in the thick of a six-way battle that spread out over the final several laps. The Montmelo circuit is configured with a number of long, sweeping turns where riders are at maximum lean angle for up to 15 seconds. It’s at full lean that De Angelis said he’s currently struggling with rear tire grip. And today’s ground temperature of 46 degrees was stressful on the dual compound tires.

Not as lucky were his teammate Toni Elias and Yuki Takahashi (Scot Honda). Takahashi crashed on the first lap while Elias lost the front end in the La Caixa left-hander at the end of the back straight on the tenth lap.

Hungarian Gabor Talmacsi finished his first MotoGP race in 17th place for the Scot Honda team. Talmacsi had only ridden the Honda RC212V for the first time on Friday afternoon and was suffering from a slight virus.

The MotoGP World Championship now makes its first northern European stop for the Dutch TT on the venerable Circuit van Drenthe, the Cathedral of Racing, on June 25/26/27.

HONDA MotoGP RIDER QUOTES

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), fourth finisher, said: “We had a great race today and we finished only nine seconds behind the winner – this is a very important point and we are getting closer every time. We only missed the podium by 52 thousandths of a second, which is a pity because I really like this racetrack and we were fast for the whole weekend, so the podium was the target and it was within the reach. I didn’t have a good start and it took me some time to overtake Randy and then Dani which meant I had a gap to close before I could reach Stoner. Maybe I should have tried to attack Casey with six laps to go, when he slowed down, because later I didn’t have any other chance. The race conditions were really demanding because it was really hot today, but the result was promising and we can move on from here.”

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), sixth finisher, said: “It’s been a very hard weekend and I finished the race exhausted and in a lot of pain, but I don’t regret being here this weekend trying to do my best. I didn’t want to miss my home race and even though sixth position is not the best result in front of my fans, I’m happy with it. I could feel their enormous support during the whole weekend and it helped me a lot to race. It also wouldn’t have been possible without the doctors’ help: They kept me in the best possible condition to bear the pain. The injections I’ve had on each day worked, but obviously to do 25 laps it’s been very hard. The doctors told me that this fracture needs time to heal so I’m going to rest as much as possible and see what the progress is for Assen. The team asked me not test tomorrow to give me the best chance to recover and it’s a sensible decision. I didn’t have a great start today, but I could manage to stay in the second group in the race. I tried to stay with Capirossi, but I couldn’t, so I choose to maintain the sixth position. I’m really tired now, but it was a worthwhile race.”

Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda), eighth finisher, said: “I am very happy because I think we had a great weekend. It has been a hard race for everybody but I took a perfect start from the third row ending the first lap in fourth place. After that I set my rhythm but some guys (Pedrosa, Dovizioso and Capirossi) overtook me on the straight in the following laps. I am not surprised about that and we have to accept it.
Edwards was a bit faster than me but I push to keep his slipstream for the last 10 laps. I could not do better than this and we deserve this 8th place behind the factory bikes. We are ninth in the provisional world standing and we need to continue in this way for the future races.”

Alex De Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini), 12th finisher, said: “The position is clearly not what we want and I don’t think it’s a true reflection of my potential, which I showed last season is in the top six. This year we’re having a few more problems and we haven’t managed to resolve them as quickly as we would have liked. The only positive thing is that in the opening race in Qatar I was fifty seconds behind the winner and now we have reduced that gap to thirty seconds so we’re obviously doing something right. What we need now is to find more grip at full lean because when the bike is at a higher angle the traction is good and we get a glimpse of the potential of the bike. When I can improve my corner speed, which is one of my strengths as a rider, we can make bigger steps forward and this is the target for the test tomorrow and the next race at Assen.”

Gabor Talmacsi (Scot Honda), 17th finisher, said: “Not bad. Less tired than after some 125 races. After four laps, in which I tried to keep the pace of the others, I understood that that was not my rhythm, so I decided not to risk. This is learning time for me. I had a lot of fun and I understood a few things, for example, that I want a wider handlebars. The fever? Gone. I feel really well.”

Yuki Takahashi (Scot Honda), DNF, said: “I had a good start. I overtook De Angelis and Vermeulen was in front of me. My bike was good, and the feeling was excellent. So I said to myself, ‘Let’s go.’ He braked sooner than expected and to avoid him, I went wide. I broke my little finger against his bike.”

Toni Elias (San Carlo Honda Gresini), DNF, said: “I was riding on the limit today to try and finish tenth and that tells you everything about our situation. I didn’t make any mistakes when I crashed – I wasn’t going any faster and I didn’t brake any harder than I had done on the previous laps, the bike just let go and that was it. It’s disappointing but racing can be like this sometimes. We have to keep thinking positive and look ahead to the test tomorrow, when hopefully we can make some progress. We’ve shown we can do a fast lap but we need to improve our race pace so that is the objective for the test, even though we have no new parts to try. Tomorrow is another day!”