The Repsol Honda Team scored another double podium at the British Grand Prix today, with Casey Stoner in second and Dani Pedrosa third.
It's the fourth double podium of the season in six races for the factory Honda riders and it comes after a tough weekend working on the set up of the RC213V for the fast, flowing and long Silverstone circuit, further complicated by the unpredictable British weather and the introduction of the new Bridgestone front tyres.
Starting from third position on the grid, Stoner took the lead within five laps and tried his best to pull away, with Pedrosa running in seventh after a bad start. Jorge Lorenzo was moving through the pack and when he caught Casey in the middle of the race, the two riders entertained the 66,230 Silverstone spectators with some spectacular overtaking manoeuvres before Lorenzo took the lead.
With eight laps to go, Stoner began loosing contact with Lorenzo, and Pedrosa managed to close the gap to his team mate, both crossing the finish line with less than half a second separating them.
Casey maintains second position in the championship standings with 115 points and Pedrosa is third, 14 points behind.
Casey Stoner
"It wasn't a great race for us today, we saw the pace the Yamahas had in the early laps and it was really worrying to me. As early as lap three the bike wasn't feeling good, especially on the left side, the tyre destroyed itself almost immediately. My plan was to try and get to the front and hold them up but Ben was proving difficult to pass, then he made a small mistake and I was able to slip through and I tried to hold it from there. We knew we didn't have a better pace than the other riders and it wouldn't be long until they were on us so I did what I could to stay in front. Today we needed a little more grip and we would have been able to fight for the win but looking at the rear tyres at the end of the race, there was definitely something wrong with ours.”
Dani Pedrosa
"I have mixed feelings after this race. I'm happy to be on the podium at this circuit for several reasons: it's a track where I have always struggled a lot, we had a very tough weekend - it wasn't easy for us to learn the circuit and set up the bike with these weather conditions, also I didn't have one of my best race starts. I saw that Jorge was the man to follow, so I managed to pass Dovizioso, Bautista and Spies and caught Casey, who was second. But at this time, Jorge was gone and I tried twice to pass Casey, but he pulled a little again and in the last chicane, I tried to overtake him but I had a flash in my mind and I saw both Repsol Honda's on the ground, so I settled for third place.”
Repsol Honda Team Press Release
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Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/l_hoSvjtqRu/Stoner+Pedrosa+return+podium
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