Dani Pedrosa heads off on his holidays with another proud achievement under his belt after picking up his 20th Grand Prix victory today – the same number as another great Spanish champion, Àlex Crivillé. Pedrosa also has a 50-point lead and, effectively, a two race advantage in his quest to defend the 250cc title.

 The double World Champion once again showed his superior quality in a race made even harder on the fourth lap when Jorge Lorenzo ran into him and bent the exhaust pipe of his Honda. Dani could feel the bike losing power but kept his calm until things returned to normal and allowed him to launch a second attack on the lead positions. From fifth place on the sixth lap he was leading the race by lap twelve and opening up a gap over De Angelis that proved impossible to reduce. Three consecutive fast laps from the Spaniard effectively ended the contest.

With Pedrosa in cruise control to victory, Hiroshi Aoyama provided the excitement at the end of the race, battling with Andrea Dovizioso and Sebastián Porto to seal his second podium of the season and bury his disappointment from the British GP one week ago, when he crashed out of the lead.

DANI PEDROSA (1st): “Another perfect weekend after everything that has happened; I want to say thanks to the team and all the people around me. At the start I just held my place in the group and stayed relaxed but suddenly I felt somebody pushing me from behind, the bike lifted up and it was a miracle that I saved the crash. I looked back and saw that the exhaust was damaged and I was a bit worried because I remember Stoner having a similar situation last year. In the left handers the exhaust was dragging on the floor and the bike was losing power but when I saw that I could go again I concentrated hard on setting my rhythm and I arrived strongly at the end. We’re going on holiday in relaxed mood and looking forward to a rest before returning for the second half of the season on top form.”

HIROSHI AOYAMA (3rd): “I’m really happy with the podium and my race today. After the disaster in England it was a nice way to make up for it. It was a tough race but I had a lot of fun, honestly. At the start I was very concentrated and I tried to follow Dani but it was impossible.  I just focused on my own pace and I was strong over the last few laps. On the final lap I gave it everything to hold off the attack from Dovizioso and Porto. We’d being going well since Friday and I didn’t want to miss out again.”

GERMAN GP
1. D. Pedrosa (Esp/Hon) 41'35"089
2. A. De Angelis (RSM/Apr) +7"940
3. H. Aoyama (Jap/Hon) +11"171
4. A. Dovizioso (Ita/Hon) +11"346
5. S. Porto (Arg/Apri) +11'444

GENERAL STANDINGS
1. Dani Pedrosa 181 points
2. Casey Stoner 131 points
3. Andrea Dovizioso 124 points
4. Sebastián Porto 96 points
.....
7. Hiroshi Aoyama 87 points