Pedrosa beats Lorenzo to Sachsenring victory
Dani Pedrosa took victory at the Sachsenring on Sunday, beating championship leader Jorge Lorenzo into second place. Casey Stoner took third after just beating Valentino Rossi to the flag. The main feature of the race however, was the frightening crash involving the LCR Honda of Randy De Puniet, Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista and Pramac Ducati's Alex Espargo. De Puniet crashed and was still laying on the track injured, while the other two smashed into the Frenchman's Honda. The race was stopped and grid positions were decided on where the riders were when the red flag was shown.
Of the three riders involved, De Puniet was the most badly injured, suffering a broken leg. The LCR Honda rider was already injured having been involved in a practice accident the day before, hitting Ben Spies bike as they both skidded off on the oil dropped by Lorenzo's broken Yamaha. As a result of his accident, De Puniet will have to sit out the next round at Laguna Seca.
Once the race was restarted, Pedrosa shot into the lead with countryman Lorenzo behind him. The Yamaha rider would take the lead on lap 2 with the Honda rider making several attempts to regain the lead. When he did however, it was a lead he was not going to relinquish for the rest of the race. Further back, Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi had a battle royal for third place, with the two riders swapping places no fewer than eight times until the Ducati edged out Rossi and his Yamaha on the very last corner.
Andrea Dovisioso came home fifth with the Hair Bear himself, Marco Simoncelli, behind him in sixth.
