The Movistar Honda 250cc team christened the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix by clicnching a double podium finish in Istanbul.

Dani Pedrosa crossed the line just 93 thousandths behind Casey Stoner while Hiroshi Aoyama celebrated his fourth podium of the season after coming home third following a solid performance.

The World Champion, who started in sixth, could not find a way past De Angelis, Aoyama and Dovizioso until lap six, but then gave chase to Stoner who had led from the start. With the Australian almost a second ahead of him, Dani looked to find his rhythm and launched his first attack on lap 11 with the race’s fastest lap of 1’57.762. The leading duo then set a ferocious pace in the second half of the race leaving the chasing group of De Angelis, Aoyama and Dovizioso over 11 seconds behind them.

Pedrosa set a new mark of 1’57.595 on lap 13, but with his tyres failing the Spaniard did not want to risk a fall and wisely controlled his aggression and in the end was edged out in a thrilling finish. Aoyama triumphed in his battle for third with De Angelis and is now just 12 points off third place in the world championship standings.

DANI PEDROSA (2nd): “It was a difficult race, especially at the start, when there was a bit of confusion as the riders went into the first corner. On the warm-up lap I noticed the bike wasn’t as quick as I would have liked. I remebered what my mechanics had told me, but it’s difficult to make adjustments on the grid. I was crowded at the start and as everyone headed into the first turn I had to break hard and four riders got in front of me. Stoner took advantage of that to get a lead of more than one second and so I had to react and do everything to catch him quickly. But I noticed that, especially at some corners, it was really hard to close him down. The tyres were skidding a bit as mine were hard. Towards the end we both had problems with the front tyre as they had worn more on the left side than we thought they would. When I caught him I was behind him for a while but he was still faster. I would have liked to win and think with a bit more power we could have done so. Now we are going to head home and relax for a while so we get to Valencia in the best shape possible.”

HIROSHI AOYAMA (3rd): “It was a tough race, as I expected, but I am proud to be on the podium. I really wanted to do so after getting up there in the last few races and the team really worked hard to enable me to do so. These races are very important for me and today we did a good job. On the last lap I blocked off all De Angelis’ moves; in the end we touched and I was worried I might have fallen. Now we are heading back home and I’m looking forward to experiencing the atmosphere and ending the season well at Valencia.”

TURKISH GP
1. Casey Stoner (Aus/Aprilia) 39’28”243
2. Dani Pedrosa (Esp/Honda) + 0”093
3. Hiroshi Aoyama (Jap/Honda) + 11”647
4. Jorge Lorenzo (Esp/Honda) + 21”861
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Ita/Honda) + 21”940

 250cc CHAMPIONSHIP
1. Dani Pedrosa, 284 points
2. Casey Stoner, 238 points
3. Andrea Dovizioso, 182 points
4. Hiroshi Aoyama, 170 points
5. Sebastián Porto, 152 points