Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa rode to a fantastic victory in the Grand Prix of Valencia today and in doing so took a surprise second place in the riders World Championship.
The 22-year-old from Barcelona converted pole position into the win and also set the fastest lap of the race to become the first rider to claim victory in all three Grand Prix classes at the Ricardo Tormo circuit. The 25 points Pedrosa earned today were enough to overturn the 24-point championship deficit he held to Valentino Rossi coming into the final race of the season and Pedrosa took second in the world standings by just one point. Rossi retired from today's race.
Despite leading for 25 of the 30 laps and crossing the line 5.447s ahead of Casey Stoner, this was far from an easy win for Pedrosa. From pole position the Spaniard slipped to third behind Stoner and Repsol Honda team-mate Nicky Hayden, who made an excellent getaway from third on the grid. Pedrosa passed Hayden into turn two and began his pursuit of Stoner, closing in on the Australian before making his decisive move at the beginning of lap six. Riding on the absolute limit, Pedrosa set the fastest lap of the race – a new lap record of 1m 32.748s – as he gradually stretched a two second gap to Stoner. Only in the final two laps did the pressure ease as Stoner settled for second and a delighted Pedrosa took the chequered flag in front of 132,500 delirious home fans.
Hayden put up a valiant fight today. The 2006 World Champion was second from the start and held third place for the first three laps as he extracted the maximum performance from his RC212V. It was always an uphill struggle for the 26-year-old American who had battled grip issues for the entire weekend. Hayden duelled with Marco Melandri for two thirds of the race but in the final ten laps he couldn't maintain the pace and slipped to eighth at the finish. Despite this Hayden climbed one place in the World Championship today to finish in eighth overall.
With the 18-race 2007 season over, preparations for 2008 begin immediately with the Repsol Honda Team remaining at Valencia for two days of testing, beginning on Tuesday.