by Tracy Hagen

Dani Pedrosa rode his Honda to a rain-shortened victory in Malaysia, his first ever in wet conditions and his sixth of the year as he desperately tries to overtake Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo in the points table for the 2012 MotoGP world championship. But as was the case in the previous two races, Lorenzo finished second and only had to surrender five points from his 28 point advantage. With two races left Pedrosa sits 23 points behind Lorenzo.

Lorenzo was fortunate to finish the race in second. Seconds before the race was red flagged for heavy rain Lorenzo had to put his left foot down and push his Yamaha back up. That rescue effort allowed Pedrosa’s teammate, Casey Stoner, to close right up and lick his chops. Had the race gone another lap Lorenzo would have surely dropped to third, or possibly off the track as he had worn out his soft rear rain tire.

“I highly considered not doing the race,” admitted Stoner in the press conference. “With my foot injury – I’m not 100% and if I tweak my foot at all that’s the end of my season.”

Fourth and fifth went to the Ducatis of Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi, respectively. It was Hayden’s best finish of the year yet he lamented that he did not take full advantage of the rain.

“If it was dry I’d be happy with fourth. I hoped for rain, I got it, but I didn’t do anything special with it.”

Valentino Rossi rode a determined race and looked fluid in the wet conditions. The Italian cannoned off the fourth row to fifth place at the start, but was stuck in a pack with Andrea Dovizioso (Yamaha), Stefan Bradl (Honda), and Alvaro Bautista (Honda). On lap 8 Rossi momentarily lost visibility due to a fogged helmet visor. The rain was coming down harder at this point, yet Rossi managed to overtake Bautista on the lap leading up to the red flag. Bradl, on the other, crashed out, unhurt.

Though the race started in light rain, the first eight laps were smooth sailing. But then riders started sinking in quick succession. The first to drop was Ben Spies. Spies high-sided off the Yamaha and came to a rest, in pain, in the gravel trap. The team’s press release made no mention of serious physical injury.

Two laps later Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) crashed trying to slow his bike at the end of the long back straight. When Crutchlow started walking out of the gravel Randy De Puniet also fell down, causing Crutchlow to scamper out of the way.

In the end the rain added a lot of drama in the race, but little to the championship story.

Next race: Phillip Island, October 28.