With Marco Simoncelli out of the picture after only a few meters – the Gresini rider crashed out in Lap 1, ending his great weekend in Portugal in the gravel – the winning equation had only Pedrosa and pole sitter Lorenzo in it.
Through the entire duration of the race, the battle for 1st place was held between those two, with Lorenzo always in front and his countryman always wanting to find the edge over the winner of the last 3 Portuguese GPs. Heading into the final stages of the race however, Pedrosa managed to pass Lorenzo in Turn 1 with 4 laps to go, after which he never looked back.
The Spaniard went on to score some consecutive fastest laps and crossed the finish line more than 3 seconds ahead of the reigning world champion, causing the latter his first defeat in the MotoGP on the Estoril track.
The podium was completed by another Honda rider, Casey Stoner, who rode a lonely race to 3rd place, ahead of his teammate Andre Dovisioso.
The Italian stayed behind Ducati’s Valentino Rossi through the entire duration of the race, and managed to pass him in the final stages of the running, ending the Portuguese event only 0.025 seconds ahead of the Ducati rider.
Gresini’s Hiroshi Aoyama finished the race in 7th place, sandwiched by Tech 3 Yamaha’s duo Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow, while the Top 10 was completed by Ducati’s Nicky Hayden and Pramac’s Randy de Puniet.
In the overall classification, Lorenzo still leads from Pedrosa, but the point margin between those two has now been reduced to only 4 points. Casey Stoner is 3rd, 20 points behind his teammate and 10 points ahead of Ducati’s Valentino Rossi.
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