By Dan Moakes
June 22 2013

The motorcycle Grand Prix of Catalunya would be the sixth round in the 2013 FIM MotoGP World Championship, as well as being the second event of the year held in Spain. The home fans would have plenty of riders to support, including the three men heading up the premier class.

The mostly fast Barcelona circuit had seen previous GP wins go the way of star riders Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo (three each) and class rookie Marc Márquez (one); with wins also having been taken by two more Spaniards currently in MotoGP, Álvaro Bautistá (twice) and Héctor Barberá (once). Amongst other club members (de Puniet, Iannone, Dovizioso and Bradl), Valentino Rossi was the most prominent former winner, with the Italian having been nine times on the top step of the podium.

For the 2013 event, qualifying saw championship leader Pedrosa set the pace on the Repsol-backed works Honda, to the extent that he took pole position by an impressive 0.6s margin. Márquez was back in sixth on the sister machine, with Bautistá a best-yet for the season of fourth with his customer Honda, run by Fausto Gresini’s team. Yamaha runners completed the front row of the grid, but factory rider Lorenzo (third) was beaten by customer rider Cal Crutchlow on the Tech 3 machine.

Rossi was seventh on the second factory Yamaha, with the leading Japanese bikes split by the fastest of the works Ducatis. On this occasion, Nicky Hayden was the first man in red, starting from fifth place. Team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was ninth, beaten by the customer Pramac Ducati of class rookie Andrea Iannone (eighth). Test rider Michele Pirro was in action again as substitute for Pramac’s Ben Spies, and he would start from P14. The final pure prototype runners were Stefan Bradl for LCR Honda (tenth) and Bradley Smith for Tech 3 Yamaha (in P11).

As ever, the fastest CRT lap had been set by Aleix Espargaró, in P12 on the Aspar ART, and he was just one place in front of team-mate Randy de Puniet. For the Avintia Blusens team, Barberá was in P15 on the FTR-Kawasaki. The other rider, Hiroshi Aoyama, had injured a finger during practice, which meant a late substitute was brought in. On hand had been Javier del Amor, a regular in the Spanish domestic championships, and one-time Superstock 1000 contender; he had also appeared at World Superbike level as a wildcard in 2006. The 36-year-old would race with number 77.

In P16 had been Colin Edwards (Forward Racing, FTR-Kawasaki), then it was Karel Abraham (Cardion AB, ART), Danilo Petrucci (Ioda Suter-BMW), Claudio Corti (also Forward Racing), Michael Laverty (Bird Motorsport, PBM-ART), Yonny Hernández (Bird Motorsport, ART), Bryan Staring (Gresini, FTR-Honda), Lukáš Pešek (also IodaRacing), and finally del Amor in 24th position.

Conditions for the race were hot and dry, and so most of the riders opted for the same combination of hard compound rear and soft compound front Bridgestone tyres. At the start, it was perhaps something of a surprise that Lorenzo got the better of Pedrosa as they moved away and shot down towards the first right-hander, Elf. Márquez got up to third, from Crutchlow, Rossi, Bautistá and Iannone. Bradl was quick to pass Hayden for eighth, with Dovizioso next, then Smith, Laverty and Espargaró.

There are several long right-handers at this circuit, with the back straight leading into a left-hander called Revolt la Caixa. This turn saw some first lap action, with Bautistá getting into trouble as he looked to go through inside Rossi. Luckily, the Italian was not involved this time, given their first lap crash at Mugello, but the Honda man was out of the race with a lowside accident that sent the rear of the machine sliding away. Laverty also went into the gravel here and crashed, while Pirro went off and rejoined the field in last position.

The first five started to move clear, with Bradl moving up to sixth and action behind him involving three Ducatis. Iannone found himself behind the two works riders, with Hayden fighting back into seventh after briefly losing out to Dovizioso. This allowed Iannone to also make back one of his lost places, although this would soon be reversed. A four man group would develop, with Nicky tagging on behind Stefan, and then the two Andreas. Iannone, however, would soon exit ninth place in a similar incident at la Caixa to the earlier one with Bautistá.

Up front, the rapid pair of Pedrosa and Márquez kept the pressure on leader Lorenzo, with Crutchlow and Rossi still in touch. Unfortunately for Cal, the climbing left-right at Revolt Würth would see another lowside crash, with the Tech 3 man unable to continue. Meanwhile, Hayden had passed Bradl for what became fifth position in a move at Elf corner; but the Ducati man would be another to lose out when the front folded under braking for la Caixa, with another lowside crash that he was obviously cross with himself about. An earlier crash had already claimed de Puniet, and Pešek would be next, at the Revolt Seat left-hander, although in this case he would continue.

All this activity left the same three leaders: Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Márquez; and with Rossi beginning to lose touch. Bradl and Dovizioso were next, then it was Smith, Espargaró, Edwards, Barberá (having made up several spots), Abraham, Petrucci and Hernández. Abraham would soon retire to the pitlane, and meanwhile Pirro had worked his way through several of the CRT men, now heading Corti, Staring, del Amor and the trailing Pešek.

It was going to be a three man race between the Spaniards again, and the gaps between the leaders seemed to be fluctuating up and down at different sections of the lap. Sometimes Pedrosa looked close enough to challenge Lorenzo, others it seemed he had more reason to be concerned about Márquez’s presence behind. Rossi was more than four seconds adrift them as they got to within seven laps of the finish, and now Lorenzo started to stretch his advantage to around 1.0s and beyond. This was out to about 1.8s with four to go, with Márquez pushing to find a way past Pedrosa.

Legendary 500cc racers from the 1980s-90s, Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey, would lose out to Lorenzo as he took his 26th premier class victory (to pass Schwantz) and 65th podium (to pass Rainey). In each category he moved up to seventh in the all-time list. Meanwhile, on the penultimate lap it got all too close between the Honda pair at the entry to the Revolt Repsol right-hander, where Márquez was pitched into a dramatic wobble on the brakes to avoid contact with his team leader. From there, Pedrosa was able to hold out for second position.

Rossi came home in fourth place, a long way clear of Bradl’s non-works Honda. Dovizioso had not shown the same pace as Hayden, and the Italian had been unable to keep up with Bradl; and so Smith, still bothered by his finger injury, had closed in on the red bike. At the finish, the 22-year-old moved ahead on the way down to la Caixa, claiming a best-yet sixth position. Espargaró was the CRT winner in eighth, with Edwards a respectable ninth, and Pirro up to tenth after getting ahead of Hernández then Petrucci. The final finishers were Petrucci (eleventh), then Corti, Hernández, Staring, del Amor (taking a point in his first GP), and Pešek. Corti and Staring took their first MotoGP points. There had been eight retirements, including Barberá, who had also ended up in the gravel.

The pole sitter’s advantage had not translated into race pace. But Dani Pedrosa had limited the damage, as they say, by holding off Marc Márquez and therefore only losing five points to winner Jorge Lorenzo. In a race of attrition, Cal Crutchlow missed out on maybe another thirteen points, but was still heading the ‘best of the rest’ category. He joined Márquez and Valentino Rossi in having a single non-finish, but for the third time he had started ahead of both men on the grid. And yet I think most people would expect a Spanish winner next time out.

Standings after six races: Pedrosa 123; Lorenzo 116; Márquez 93; Crutchlow 71; Rossi 60; Dovizioso 59; Hayden 45; Bradl 41; Bautistá 38; Espargaró 36 ·· CRT leader: Espargaró.
Honda 131; Yamaha 127; Ducati 60; ART 36; FTR-Kawasaki 20; Ioda Suter-BMW 13; PBM-ART 3; FTR-Honda 2.