by Tracy Hagen

Dani Pedrosa scored his first win of the year and the fourth for Honda in today’s German Grand Prix at Sachsenring. The win was the Spaniard’s first since the 2011 Motegi GP, his fourth at Sachsenring, and gave his 2012 championship campaign a glimmer of hope.

Click on graph for hi-res version.

As was the case in last week’s race at Assen, this race will be remembered more for reasons other than who won today. Assen will be remembered for the first lap, first turn crash of Alvaro Bautista and Jorge Lorenzo while Sachesenring will be remembered for the last lap, last turn crash by Casey Stoner.

Teammates Pedrosa and Stoner ruled the race and were never more than 0.654 seconds apart as they galloped away from Yamaha’s Lorenzo. Pedrosa led the first lap and was passed by polesitter Stoner in the middle of the double-apex Turn 9 on the second lap. Pedrosa passed Stoner at Turn 1 on lap 19 and the race was now at a full boil.

Most passing at Sachsenring happens at either Turn 1 or Turn 12, the only two corners preceded with a meaningful straight bit of track. Pedrosa was on his guard at both turns on each and every lap. On the penultimate lap 29 Pedrosa set the fastest lap of the race to make the problem even more difficult for Stoner. On the final lap Pedrosa went faster still. Going into the final corner Stoner leaned farther than ever and right on the left fairing panel of his Honda. Afterwards the Australian branded the circuit as a “small, dinky track” and complained about the German marshalls’ lack of interest to lift up the bike and give him a push.

Lorenzo, who limped around Sachsenring due to the injured ankle from the Assen incident, finished second nearly 15 seconds behind Pedrosa. Lorenzo leads the championship with 160 points. Pedrosa stands second at 146 followed by Stoner at 140.

The contest for the final podium position was another single-make race, this one featuring the Yamahas of Andrea Dovizioso, Ben Spies, and Cal Crutchlow. Spies led the two Monster Yamahas over the early laps, but the Texan was eaten by the Monsters well before mid-race. With five laps to go Crutchlow lost patience, went too deep into Turn 1, rode through the gravel, and lost seven or eight seconds. Dovizioso beat Spies by 0.07 seconds. Curiously, Spies talked of a lack of acceleration and grip compared to the satellite Yamahas.

The rest of the MotoGP prototype field raced bar-to-bar from start to end. Stefan Bradl (Honda) finished fifth, Valentino Rossi (Ducati) sixth, Crutchlow seventh, Bautista (Honda) eighth, Hector Barbera (Ducati) ninth, and Nicky Hayden (Ducati) tenth. That group of sixth was covered by 1.333 seconds at the line.

The CRT superbikes were not much of a show. For the record, Randy De Puniet won on the Aprilia, almost a half-minute behind Hayden.

Next race: Mugello, July 15.