Repsol Honda RC213V rider Dani Pedrosa kept his head in an extraordinary Australian grand prix today to claim a valuable second place in a race that was shortened twice and run in a flurry of rule changes, black flags, penalties, and pit-lane mayhem in the first-ever grand prix with a compulsory mid-race change of motorcycle.

Unfortunately for second Repsol Honda RC213V rider Marc Marquez, he was one of three riders to suffer the black flag penalty, after missing the brief window for his compulsory pit stop.

Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Gresini Honda RC213V) was fifth, and with Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) ruled out by injury and Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) also black-flagged, he was the only other Honda finisher in the premier class.

The “flag-to-flag” race rule was designed to allow bike changes if weather conditions should change mid-race. After high-level meetings by the controlling Grand Prix Commission followed by drastic revisions to the rule book, it was invoked as a compulsory measure at this race in response to a crisis in tyre safety.

The 48-km track had been fully resurfaced, while conditions were unexpectedly warm. A combination of faster lap times and corner speeds, higher grip levels and higher temperatures than anticipated proved disastrous for the control tyres in both the MotoGP and Moto2 classes. Suppliers Bridgestone (MotoGP) and Dunlop (Moto2) both informed Race Direction that due to severe overheating issues they could not guarantee the safety of their tyres over full race distance. Surprisingly neither tyre provider had tested at the circuit in preparation for racing on the relaid surface.

While the Moto2 race was all but halved, from 25 laps to 13, MotoGP elected to apply flag-to-flag rules to MotoGP, along with other strictures including compulsory use of the hardest tyre option. Race distance cut from 27 laps to 22. Bridgestone had put their safety margin at 14 laps. Then after further issues in race-morning warm-up they cut it back still further to ten laps. Race distance was reduced once more, to 19 laps.

Pedrosa’s tactics were perfect. Running a very close third to Lorenzo and Marquez from the start, he decided to pit one lap earlier than the others, to take advantage of a clear pit lane. Unfortunately he too suffered a penalty, being later obliged to drop one position on track after he was judged to have run over the pit-lane limit. He served this without losing much time, dropping behind Marquez.

After the change, his clear hopes of a second successive race win faded when his second bike lacked the extreme handling finesse of his first, and he was unable to push as hard as before.

He gained another 20 points as he demonstrates his return to top form and full strength, and regained a mathematical chance of winning the title.

Marquez was well-placed in the race, but for leaving his pit stop one lap too late, and looked certain of his 15th rostrum finish of the year as he ran with the leading pair … until the penalty was applied. It was the result of a team misunderstanding of the hastily rewritten rules, altered on race eve then again on race morning, over the method of counting the laps.

Disqualification meant a zero points score at a race where the 20-year-old Spaniard had a mathematical chance of securing the World Championship at his first attempt, and cut his lead over race winner Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) from 43 to 18 points. With two rounds remaining, he will have to be sure of strong results in Motegi and Valencia if he is to succeed in what, before this misfortune, seemed almost a certainty – becoming the youngest premier-class World Champion in history.

Bautista had another strong race, jousting throughout with the Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow. The three riders were changing places right up until the last lap, and the Spanish former 125cc World Champion’s fifth place missed a top-three rostrum by less than two tenths of a second, as they flashed across the line all but line abreast.

Bautista is the only rider to use Showa suspension and Nissin brakes, in his role as race-developer for the Japanese companies, closely associated with Honda. This position continues a strong run in the latter part of the season: this was his fourth time in fifth place in the last six races.

The next race is the Japanese GP at the Honda-owned Twin Ring Motegi circuit, in one week, with the season finale a fortnight later at Valencia in Spain.


Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 2nd

“Today’s race was very stressful -above all before the start, as the rules were being changed every five minutes. Everything was turned on its head and it was very difficult to adapt first time, without making any mistakes. Marc made mistakes and I did too. Everything was going so fast and it was confusing for both the riders and the mechanics. We had to be clear about which lap to enter the pits, as it wasn’t obvious which was lap nine and which was lap ten. The two bikes needed to be prepared and the tyres as well, the pit lane was much longer than normal... it was all so strange today. The exit line from the pits wasn’t clear, and neither could you see the entry line very well, so it was all a bit improvised. In my case I was able to rectify my mistake on the track and, although the second bike wasn’t the same for me as the first, I managed to take second in the race and be very competitive.”

Alvaro Bautista, GO&FUN Honda Gresini, 5th

“We have managed to salvage a race that we knew was going to be difficult for us because of the enforced tyre choice. We knew it didn’t work with our bike but we fought hard and thanks to the exceptional work of the team we have come away with a result we didn’t expect. I gave my best, did everything I could on the bike and I have to be happy because I was fighting for a podium finish until the very end. Unfortunately on the last lap I just felt that I couldn’t push the tyre any harder and it’s a shame because I know that on the soft option we would have been able to get on the podium and achieve the objective we have set ourselves for before the end of the season.”

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda, DNF

“Today was our first experience of a Flag-to-Flag race, and suffice to say it wasn't a good one. My team and I had set out a strategy and we thought that we could come in after lap 10, but in reality this counts as an extra lap. We hadn't had that in mind and this was a huge mistake. We had everything well planned and I followed the instructions on my pit board. You learn from these things though, so now we have to move on and focus on the race in Japan"

Bryan Staring, GO&FUN Honda Gresini, DNF

“Today couldn’t have gone worse. I was hoping for a good race in front of my home crowd and instead it has ended prematurely with a black flag.”

Event results - Round 16 - Race 1

1 Jorge Lorenzo 29m07.155s ESP YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
2 Dani Pedrosa 6.936 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Valentino Rossi 12.344 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
4 Cal Crutchlow 12.460 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
5 Alvaro Bautista 12.513 ESP HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
6 Bradley Smith 28.263 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
7 Nicky Hayden 32.953 USA DUCATI Ducati Team
8 Andrea Iannone 35.062 ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
9 Andrea Dovizioso 35.104 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
10 Randy De Puniet 37.426 FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar
11 Aleix Espargaro 46.099 ESP ART Power Electronics Aspar
12 Colin Edwards 48.149 USA FTR NGM Forward Racing
13 Yonny Hernandez 49.911 COL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
14 Hector Barbera 49.998 ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
15 Danilo Petrucci 58.718 ITA IODA Came IodaRacing Project
16 Luca Scassa 58.791 ITA ART Cardion AB Motoracing
17 Claudio Corti 1'08.105 ITA FTR NGM Forward Racing
18 Michael Laverty 1'27.230 WAL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
19 Lukas Pesek 1'31.093 CZE IODA Came IodaRacing Project
20 Hiroshi Aoyama 1 lap JPN FTR Avintia Blusens
21 Damian Cudlin 2 laps AUS ART Paul Bird Motorsport
22 Bryan Staring DNF AUS HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
23 Marc Marquez DNF - DSQ ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team

Championship standings

1 Marc Marquez 298 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Jorge Lorenzo 280 pts ESP YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
3 Dani Pedrosa 264 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Valentino Rossi 214 pts ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
5 Cal Crutchlow 179 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
6 Alvaro Bautista 147 pts ESP HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
7 Stefan Bradl 135 pts GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
8 Andrea Dovizioso 127 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
9 Nicky Hayden 111 pts USA DUCATI Ducati Team
10 Bradley Smith 99 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
11 Aleix Espargaro 88 pts ESP ART Power Electronics Aspar
12 Andrea Iannone 55 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
13 Michele Pirro 50 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
14 Colin Edwards 36 pts USA FTR NGM Forward Racing
15 Randy De Puniet 33 pts FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar
16 Hector Barbera 31 pts ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
17 Danilo Petrucci 24 pts ITA IODA Came IodaRacing Project
18 Yonny Hernandez 20 pts COL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
19 Hiroshi Aoyama 13 pts JPN FTR Avintia Blusens
20 Claudio Corti 11 pts ITA FTR NGM Forward Racing
21 Ben Spies 9 pts USA DUCATI Pramac Racing
22 Karel Abraham 5 pts CZE ART Cardion AB Motoracing
23 Alex de Angelis 5 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
24 Michael Laverty 3 pts WAL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
25 Bryan Staring 2 pts AUS HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
26 Javier del Amor 1 pts ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
27 Martin Bauer 0 pts AUT S&B SUTER Remus Racing Team
28 Lukas Pesek 0 pts CZE IODA Came IodaRacing Project
29 Luca Scassa 0 pts ITA ART Cardion AB Motoracing
30 Ivan Silva 0 pts ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
31 Damian Cudlin 0 pts AUS ART Paul Bird Motorsport
32 Blake Young 0 pts USA APRILIA Attack Performance

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