Team Aspar

Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo have been threatening an explosive repeat of their battle for the win at Brno, but it hasn’t quite materialised as of yet. Whereas in the Czech Republic they tussled right up to the final corner, in recent races there has been more of a break away. Today it was Pedrosa who escaped, after he and Lorenzo had burst free from the chasing pack early on. Pedrosa passed on lap twelve and then extended his lead to over four seconds by the time the chequered flag was shown. Lorenzo was second and Bautista third, following a fight with Crutchlow that endured until the Brit’s bike gave up on him. There were three Spaniards on the MotoGP podium –just like in Moto2.

Aleix Espargaró is becoming ever more consistent as the crucial moment of the season draws ever closer. He was again the best CRT rider today, crossing the line twelfth and claiming four points for his tally. He thus regains the lead of the CRT standings, with three races remaining.

Teammate Randy De Puniet was less fortunate at Motegi. The Frenchman suffered a crash in the morning warmup at turn 10, which would hint at what was to happen in the race itself. On lap one, at that very same corner, he crashed again. He rejoined the race, but on lap fourteen he was forced to retire from the Japanese GP.

12th Aleix Espargaró: “In general I am happy with how the weekend went. We were very strong in practice and also in the race, with a great pace. This morning in the warmup we put in an old engine, because we noticed a strange sound from the new one. When the race began I noticed that the bike wasn’t going fast, but we still managed to put in a good performance. We were the best CRT and are leaders again. I hope that this rollercoaster ride in the standings comes to an end and I can finally place at the top, ahead of Randy. It is a shame for him to have had problems today and I hope that next weekend we can fight alongside one another again.”

Randy De Puniet (DNF): “This weekend was rather difficult for us. From Friday we had trouble finding our feeling. In qualifying we improved a little and today, in the warmup, we tried some changes that we liked. I had a very strange crash on turn ten. It seemed as though the brake was permanently engaged, even when I had let it go. In the race I had the same issue and fell at the same point. I will look at the reason for this with the team. It definitely hasn’t been the best weekend for us, as I have two hurt ankles from the crash this morning. I hope that in Malaysia we can go back to our positive form.”