Dani Pedrosa surprises with Montegi victory

Honda rider Dani Pedrosa surprised with a strong performance to charge from behind to displace Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and leader Jorge Lorenzo to take victory in Japan under drying conditions. Honda cherished the victory in the home circuit and also denying Yamaha a victory at home in their 60th year.

At the start it was Valentino Rossi who sling shoted into the lead beating his team mate Lorenzo off the line but the super strong Lorenzo dared wet conditions to take the lead from Rossi on the second corner.

From then on Lorenzo did his usual stuff, to reel in fast laps and getaway in the front with Rossi looking clearly out of answer to team mate Lorenzo's pace. 

Ducati's Dovizioso shadowed Rossi for most part of race, while Pedrosa was running 4th and ahead of injured team mate Marc Marquez.

By lap 9 the track started to dry and Dovizioso dropped pace and fell into the clutches of Pedrosa while the leading Yamaha duo Lorenzo and Rossi too started to struggle with the changing track conditions and chipping wet tyre.

Pedrosa who preserved his tyres better had a better pace and started to catch up the leaders. 

With 9 laps to go Pedrosa overtook Rossi and couple of laps later caught up with the leader Lorenzo. The Yamaha rider who had exhausted his tyre with an early charge simply had no answer to the charging Honda rider and surprisingly Rossi also cut the gap to Lorenzo by following Pedrosa.

On lap 19, Lorenzo running second went wide missing his braking point with the lack of front tyre grip and Rossi grabbed a sweet second position to extend his lead over his team mate.

Lorenzo dropped further down but safe ahead of Marquez in fourth.

Pedrosa took his 50th grand prix victory 8 seconds clear of Rossi in 2nd and 12 seconds clear of Lorenzo. Marquez salvaged 4th further 27 seconds behind the winner.

MotoGP 2015 Japanese Grand Prix - Race Results