by Tracy Hagen

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa proved that he is back to full fitness after breaking his collarbone at Le Mans two months ago by winning the German MotoGP today. It was a straight-up victory with no qualifications, and suggests that there will be more to come before the season is over.

Second was reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo, winner of the last round at Mugello. Lorenzo led twelve out of thirty laps today, but could not keep up with Pedrosa over the second half of the race. Indeed, Lorenzo found himself in third place over most of the waning laps of the race until he executed a perfect pass on Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner in the final corner of the final lap. The championship points leader could only shake his head as he watched Lorenzo take second place and reduce Stoner’s championship lead to 15 points.

In the post-race press conference Stoner revealed that he struggled to keep his tires good and had to back off the pace mid-race. The Australian started from pole for the sixth time this year, and gradually worked up his pace over the first five laps of the race. Stoner was in clean air by the end of lap 5, and led the next nine laps. But Stoner was pulling a freight train of factory Hondas plus that Yamaha of Lorenzo’s, and was unable to make a get-away to demoralize his pursuers. To preserve his tires, Stoner let Pedrosa through but had not figured that Pedrosa was as fast as he was today.

The fight over fourth, fifth, and sixth was just as interesting. Honda riders Andrea Dovisioso and Marco Simoncelli swapped fourth and fifth repeatedly, while Yamaha’s Ben Spies trailed behind. At mid-race Spies was usually a corner behind the Hondas. But then the Hondas started drifting back into Spies’s hands. Like Lorenzo, Spies charged past Simoncelli in the final turn, ran the Italian wide, and sprinted to the finish.

The next trio’s race was even better. The racers were Alvaro Bautista on a the factory Suzuki, a Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi on the factory Ducatis. In qualifying Rossi was shockingly off-form and qualified on the last row of the grid as 2011 is going down as his annus horribilis. But in the race Rossi caught up with Colin Edwards (Yamaha), Hayden, and Bautista. Bautista and Hayden went back and forth all race long, while Rossi couldn’t find the magic to make an effective pass. As the riders came up the hill and onto the front straight for the last time, it was Baustista leading the way to the cheers of his team, followed by Hayden, followed by Rossi.

To put some perspective on how bad things are going at Ducati, the fastest Ducati rider in the race was Hector Barbera at 1:22.588, then Hayden at 1:22.787, and then Rossi, on the 2012 prototype, at 1:22.802. At last year’s German MotoGP Casey Stoner went 1:22.135 on the 2010 factory Ducati, and Hayden went 1:22.604. Conclusion: the 2011 factory Ducati is slower than the 2010, and the 2012 bike looks like it will be slower than the 2011 version. Somebody is getting fired.

After Colin Edwards finished tenth by himself, the last group of riders to storm across the line together was eleventh through fourteenth place. Hector Barbera led the charge, and should probably have finished ahead of Bautista had he not ran off course at Turn 1 on the second lap. Karel Abraham, Dandy DePuniet, and Cal Crutchlow followed, the quartet covered by a half-second.

The second half of the season starts in one week at Laguna Seca. Lorenzo is the defending event champion, and Stoner was second on the Ducati last year. Should be interesting.