Dani Pedrosa once again left the rest of the field trailing in his wake as he clinched his fourth victory of the season and racked up three in a row for the first time in his professional career to open up a 27-point advantage over Casey Stoner.

 Dani grabbed the opportunity to demonstrate his talent with both hands, taking the lead on the eleventh lap after a mistake on the line that saw him drop to ninth place. Pedrosa launched his attack on the fifth lap, setting a new circuit record (1’47”373) and making his way to the front before setting an unstoppable pace that carried him to a clear victory.

Hiroshi Aoyama also went from strength to strength in the race, running wide on the third lap after getting his finger caught on the brake lever and dropping back from fifth to fifteenth. From that point on the Japanese rider went on an unstoppable attack, charging all the way to fourth place and consequently moving up to fourth in the championship.

DANI PEDROSA (1^st): “I’ve never won three in a row before so to do so at my home race is fantastic. I’m really happy because we’ve worked very hard all weekend and it was so tough at the start of the race. I was a bit nervous as the start – I didn’t know if first gear was in properly, let the clutch go too quick and almost stalled it. I was really surprised. I got going again but it was a bad start – a schoolboy error. It was difficult to get to the front in the race although I put my rhythm together as soon as I saw that the pace wasn’t too hot. Once I was leading I managed to get a few crucial seconds ahead and held on to the gap until the end. We’ve also had front tyre problems here although that’s been the same in every category. We’ve worked all weekend to improve my position on the bike so that the tyres wouldn’t suffer as much. We’ve had three great races so I hope that continues at Assen”. 

HIROSHI AOYAMA (4^th): “We’ve made an important step forward with respect to Mugello and that gives me a lot of optimism. On the third lap I got my finger stuck on the brake and it made my run off track, which cost me 8 seconds. I came back on prepared to give it everything and move forward through the positions, so I’m really happy with fourth.”

RACE CLASSIFICATION
D. Pedrosa (Esp/Hon) 41’29”428
C.Stoner (Aus/Apri) + 5”637 A. Dovizioso (Ita/Hon) a 10”597
H. Aoyama (Jap/Hon) + 17”638
S. Corsi (Ita/Apri) + 19”499
R. De Puniet (Fra/Apri) + 33”235
Y. Takahashi (Jap/Hon) + 37”408

250cc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Dani Pedrosa 123 points
Casey Stoner 96
Andrea Dovizioso 93
Hiroshi Aoyama 58
Alex De Angelis 56
Jorge Lorenzo 54
Sebastián Porto 49