Pedrosa rules in Spain

At his nominal home track, under the gaze of King Juan Carlos of Spain, Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa recorded his first win of the 2008 season. He beat Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo (both on Fiat-backed Yamahas) into second and third places. For Rossi, it was a significant milestone - his 100th podium finish in the premier class.

Equally encouraging for the team was the showing from former world champ Nicky Hayden who finished fourth. But for a massive front-end slide when he was all over Lorenzo for third, the former World Champion might well have made it two Repsol Hondas on the rostrum.

It was a lousy weekend for the Aussies, with Stoner struggling to find thye right set-up for his Ducati and having to settle for 11th just ahead of team-mate Melandri, and Ant West forced back to 13th. Well behind fellow Kawasaki rider Hopkins in 7th.

Dani led into turn one from the lights and romped off into the distance after shaking off the early attentions of Lorenzo and Pedrosa's Repsol team-mate Hayden. He set a fastest lap of the race on lap two, a race record lap on lap three of 1m 40.116s, and it was abundantly clear from that early on he was the dominant force.

Much is made of the 4.423km of Jerez as the first real barometer of the prevailing powers in MotoGP and so Dani's destruction of a tough field here will suggest that with more to come from Honda's 2008 RC212V Pedrosa and Hayden will be ready to work on getting even more from the bike in Estoril in two weeks time.

Reigning World Champion Casey Stoner (Ducati) had a day to forget. The Aussie ran off track twice (in the same place) and finished an eventual 11th to salvage something from what proved a very troublesome weekend.

What they said:
Dani Pedrosa, first:
"This is my first MotoGP win at Jerez and I'm very happy about today's performance because it comes after a difficult winter during which we couldn't test so much after I crashed and broke my right hand in January. To score good results in two complicated races and lead the championship is very important. I got a good start, not spectacular like in Qatar, but effective, so I was able to take the lead. I did my best, I focused on not making mistakes and I was able to manage the race all the way to the finish and get a win in front of the Spanish fans. The crowd gave me incredible support, I hope they enjoyed the race, and it was an honour to get my trophy from the King. Today we are happy but we know that we have to keep working because Yamaha and Ducati are very competitive. We stay here for two days testing that will be crucial in helping us continue development of the RC212V in preparation for the next races."

Valentino Rossi, second:
"I'm really happy with this podium because, even though it hasn't been so many races since the last one, it's been quite a lot of months! I am also very happy to have reached 100 podiums in MotoGP; now I am wondering if I can get to 200! It's a pity we couldn't win today and maybe I was a little bit too cautious at the start because I wanted to take care of my tyres, but in the end they worked very well from start to finish and so this is great for the future. It's always better to win but after the poor result in Qatar this is a very important second place to us, also because it's my first podium with Bridgestone. Thanks to my team, to Yamaha and to Bridgestone because we've made a lot of progress this weekend, continuing right up to making some small but important adjustments after warm-up this morning. My bike and tyres are working very well, we're third in the championship with a very long way to go and I'm feeling quite confident."

Jorge Lorenzo, third:
"Of course I'm a little bit disappointed today because we thought that we might be able to make more of a challenge, but I can't complain because it's only my second race and I've had two podiums and two pole positions, so it's still a great result! To race today in front of so many Spanish fans and also The King was something incredible and I have really enjoyed myself a lot here. Dani was a fair winner today, his pace was very strong and I couldn't stay with him, but I am learning all the time and I will be stronger again at the next race. It's a very long championship and this is an important result for us. Thanks to my team and to Yamaha and Michelin, everyone worked very hard and I think we've done a very good job so far. To be second in the championship at this point is still far more than I expected and now I am just looking forward to the next race."

Nicky Hayden, fourth:
"It was fun to be competitive, to come into that stadium section the first lap with 130,000 people coming alive, bombs going off, it was cool, it was nice to be there in the mix. Obviously we'd like to have been having some bubbly afterwards, but the bike worked the best it's worked all weekend and I was pushing hard. After I dropped back a bit I made a run on them, I was trying to give those guys a fight. Then I stayed on the brake a bit too long into turn one and pretty much crashed. It was elbow down and I thought it was done, but the front tyre was good, so I picked it up on the knee and saved it. You can ride these bikes so hard now and the front tyres are so good, that's the first time I've done that. All in all it's been a good day for Repsol Honda, so thanks to my team and for the support from all the guys. We came in here a lot more competitive, hopefully we can keep rolling from here and keep moving up."

Casey Stoner, 11th:
"Today wasn't my day - I suppose it wasn't my weekend! We never found the set-up here that would let us make the most of our potential. Normally braking is one of the strong points of our bike but here I just didn't have the feeling with the front. I wasn't quite on the limit when I ran off track the first time but I couldn't get the bike stopped so it took me by surprise because we weren't doing anything differently. After that I had to really push to get back into the race and I was pretty happy once I caught the group. Just when I was passing Nakano he let go of the brakes and touched my wheel, so I had nowhere to go but the gravel. I think I could have finished fifth, which I would have been happy with, but instead it was a bit of a disaster. The tyres weren't perfect but they weren't bad either so I can't blame it on that. I'm not happy but it's not the end of the world - there are plenty of other tracks and other races, starting with Portugal, where we went well last year and finished on the podium, even if we had some little problems, and where this year we will try to fight for victory."

Anthony West, 13th:
"I gave it my all today and to be honest it was hard work. The result is a big improvement since the last round, although we're still struggling with a lack of rear traction. I got a good start to the race and I was trying to be as smooth as possible but, once the tyre went off, this became quite difficult. During my battle with Melandri, I felt much faster than him and I easily re-passed him on a few occasions. He managed to pass me in the last few laps and, despite pushing really hard, I just didn't have enough grip to get by him again. The front end of the bike felt good, entry and mid corner I was a lot faster than everyone else, but we're losing a lot of time in the exit of some corners so that is the area we need to focus on. Hopefully, with the test time we have, we can make another step forward before reaching Estoril."

Results:

Next race: Portugal, 13 April