by Tracy Hagen

Honda’s Dani Pedrosa finally came good in 2011 by edging out World Champion Jorge Lorenzo to win the third MotoGP race of 2011 in Estoril, Portugal.

The Honda rider had surgery just four weeks earlier to remove a metal plate from his collarbone that was identified as the cause of hand numbness encountered in the first two Grand Prix rounds.

Yamaha’s Lorenzo led the first 24 of 28 laps, albeit barely.  After the pint-size Pedrosa went past Lorenzo immediately lost touch as Pedrosa put in his fastest laps of the race, with the fastest occurring on the penultimate lap.  If there was any doubt about the success of Pedrosa’s surgery, that statistic is your answer.

Honda’s Casey Stoner had a lonely race to third.  For the first half of the race Stoner sat 2.5 seconds behind the Spaniards.  That interval doubled over the second half of the race.

The third Reposol Honda of Andrea Dovisioso finished fourth, barely a blink ahead of Ducati superstar Valentino Rossi.  For almost the entire race Dovisioso shadowed Rossi.  In the final seconds Dovisioso went past Rossi – yes, you read that right, Rossi was passed on the final lap, rather than the other way around, which is the usual norm.

Colin Edwards was the best of the non-factory riders, again, finishing sixth all by himself.

Edwards’ Yamaha teammate, Cal Crutchlow, was so close to finishing seventh he could taste it, but Honda rider Hiroshi Aoyama prevailed in the pair’s race-long battle.

Nicky Hayden was the last factory rider in ninth.  Hayden might have finished a couple places higher had he not been bumped by Ben Spies while the Ducati wass on its side in a right-hand turn on lap 10.  Spies had trouble keeping his Yamaha pointed in the right direction until he dropped out mid-race.

Honda’s Marco Simoncelli, the newest big-mouth in MotoGP, converted his second-place grid position into a flying-W high-side in the second left-hand turn of the first lap while in third place.

The interval chart is below.  A high-resolution pdf version can be viewed by clicking on the chart below.  Also included are the charts from the first two rounds.  Collect them all!