The final race in the 2012 Moto GP series probably provided more excitement, drama, and position changes than the rest of the season combined.
The confusion in the wet but drying conditions for Moto GP and just plain wet for Moto 2 is shown by the fact that the two winners, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa in the premiere class and Caixa Repsol Suter’s Marc Márquez, Pedrosa’s 2013 team-mate-to-be, both started last and won.
The excitement in the main event started even before the lights went out. The track was wet and cold, with a narrow drying line. At the end of the warm-up lap, wet-mounted Pedrosa, Ducati’s Nicky Hayden, Tech 3 Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow, and San Carlo Gresini Honda’s Alvaro Bautista all changed their minds on using wets and dived into the pits for their “dry” bikes, meaning they’d have to start from pit lane.
Pedrosa described the dilemma: “After Márquez’s race, I thought I should do something similar! But seriously … I saw Jorge [Lorenzo] on slicks on the grid and I was pretty sure with my decision, but … the track was drying up very quickly … in the last corner of the sighting lap, the instinct told me to get in immediately. I started from the pit lane and I managed to be fast from the beginning …”
The conditions were such that the wet-shod bikes rocketed out front from the flag, so much so that for the first time ever a Moto GP race was actually led by a CRT bike, the Power Electronics Aprilia of Aleix Espargaró. However, by the third or fourth lap it was becoming obvious that slicks were the way to go despite the very narrow drying line. Pedrosa was carving his way through the pack from his pit lane start, Lorenzo dispatched “Alex Asparagus”, and riders started pitting to swap bikes, including Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner (in the Aussie’s last-ever race), Pramac Racing Team’s Héctor Barberá, and Tech 3 Yamaha’s Andrea Dovizioso.
Conditions were bad enough that many riders crashed out. Early retirements were Ducati’s Nicky Hayden, Avintia Blusens’ Iván Silva, and Speed Master’s Roberto Rolfo, all falling when getting just a little off-line into the wet.
Pedrosa had a couple of near-misses in his chase to the front, including at least two vicious wobbles and one instance of running off-track but saving it. Lorenzo was looking good after Pedrosa’s off, but then the new World Champion went down himself in a seriously ugly high-side after the bike swapped ends a couple of times.
He was attempting to pass James Ellison’s CRT bike at the time, and while it looked as though he’d changed his mind at the last second, he described the crash as, “I was behind Ellison and he stayed on the racing line, I couldn’t wait for another corner to overtake him as I was losing time [to Pedrosa]. I overtook and made a mistake, outside the dry line and I had a big highside.”
He was lucky to avoid getting hurt, and will be participating in the season-end tests Tuesday and Wednesday.
More crashes followed, as at 2/3 distance Barberá also took a tumble, Espargaró’s teammate Randy de Puniet ran into the gravel, and a lap later he was followed by Avintia Blusens’ Claudio Corti,.
Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) had already crashed, and after all this had settled down Pedrosa was left with a huge 37 second lead, chased by Tech 3 Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow looking for his best-ever Moto GP finish, followed by Yamaha test rider and four-time All-Japan Superbike champ Katsuyuki Nakasuga, subbing for the injured Ben Spies. Alvaro Bautista wasn’t far behind, with Casey Stoner suddenly surging onto Bautista’s tail, getting by him with three laps left.
The drama continued as Crutchlow hit a damp patch and crashed, leaving Nakasuga in a safe second in this wild-card appearance, a fantastic result in his second Moto GP appearance.
That was the end of the drama, with Pedrosa taking his seventh win of the season, Nakasuga taking the first Japanese podium in any class this year, and Stoner signing off his GP career with the final step on the rostrum. The first non-podium finisher was Bautista, followed by his team-mate Michele Pirro (first CRT bike), Dovizioso, Cardion AB Racing’s Karel Abraham, Came IodaRacing Project’s Danilo Petrucci, Paul Bird Motorsport’s James Ellison and Ducati’s Valentino Rossi.
Rossi’s Ducati career ended as it has been, with a nothing result and the bitter disappointment of finishing behind two CRT bikes and a customer Ducati. He sadly said, “It’s really a shame that the last race with Ducati finished this way … I would have liked to finish these two years with Ducati better. They were two difficult seasons, but I nonetheless leave behind many people that I enjoyed working with, and with whom it was nice to go racing.”
In the Moto 2 contest, Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol’s Marc Márquez rode an even more phenomenal race than Pedrosa, as he charged his way to victory from 33rd and last on the grid (because of a penalty for rough riding in qualifying) ahead of Julián Simón and Nico Terol. It was the Spanish teen’s last-ever Moto 2 race, as he’ll be joining Pedrosa on the factory Repsol Honda squad for the 2013. He’ll be getting his first taste of the big bikes this week in the season-ending tests Tuesday and Wednesday.
World Championship Moto GP Final Standings after 18 races:
1. Jorge Lorenzo, Spain, Yamaha Factory Racing, 350 points
2. Dani Pedrosa, Spain, Repsol Honda, 332
3. Casey Stoner, Australia, Repsol Honda, 254
4. Andrea Dovizioso, Italy, Tech 3 Monster Yamaha, 218
5. Alvaro Bautista, San Carlo Gresini Honda, 178
6. Valentino Rossi, Italy, Marlboro Ducati, 163
7. Cal Crutchlow, U.K., Tech 3 Monster Yamaha, 151
8. Stefan Bradl, Germany, LCR Honda, 135
9. Nicky Hayden, U.S.A., Marlboro Ducati, 122
10. Ben Spies, U.S.A., Yamaha Factory Racing, 88
Fun race, eh, Larry? Jorge’s off was something else, eh?