Pedrosa victorious as teammate crashes out

SACHSENRING, Germany - Agence France-Presse

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Sachsenring specialist Dani Pedrosa won his third successive German MotoGP yesterday to open his account for the year.

While the Spaniard took the honors, his Honda teammate Casey Stoner, destined to take second, crashed out with two bends of the final lap remaining to dent his hopes of defending his world title before he heads into retirement.

The main beneficiary of Stoner’s spill was Yamaha’s former champion Jorge Lorenzo who was gifted the runner up spot to move clear at the top of the riders standings on 160 points. Pedrosa climbed into second on 146 with Stoner, pointless here, on 140.

Stoner was all set to take second and add another valuable 20 points to his push for the championship until his front wheel went from under him on the last lap, the Australian sliding off, thankfully ending up unharmed in the gravel.

Pedrosa cut a happy figure afterwards, saying: “At the start I wasn’t comfortable because of changes to my bike. “As I became used to all the changes I passed Casey, and was feeling good.”