Pedrosa keeps up title pressure amid Malaysia downpour

Spaniards Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa maintained their rivalry in the MotoGP championship, Marc Márquez stumbled in his attempt clinch the Moto2 title, while the first ever winner of the new Moto3 category was decided at a rain-soaked Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday.

So torrential was the downpour that the MotoGP race had to be abandoned with seven laps remaining, handing Pedrosa his third consecutive victory on the Honda and allowing him to keep the pressure on Lorenzo, who finished second, in the overall standings. With only two races left (in Australia and Valencia) Pedrosa is now 23 points — within one race win — behind the Yamaha rider, who leads the championship with 330 points.

Reigning world champion Casey Stoner, third at Sepang on Sunday and third overall, remains way back on 213 points.

“It is the first time I have won in the wet and it is a very special victory, for which I am very, very happy,” said Pedrosa after the race.

Lorenzo’s “relief”

Lorenzo, who suffered a dangerous wobble on his Yamaha moments before the race was stopped, said he was happy with the marshalls’ decision. “Seeing the red flag was a relief; if you go round at 20 kilometers per hour, it’s easy to stay on the bike, but it’s much more difficult to find the limit in these conditions,” he told newswire Efe.

“For us it was important to finish the race with the greatest number of points possible under the circumstances and not risk getting zero, which would have been a big problem. That’s why we can be satisfied with how the race finished.”

The wet conditions delayed the start of the Moto2 race and also prevented Spain’s Márquez from sealing his first Moto2 championship. The 19-year-old only needed to finish ahead of rival and fellow countryman Pol Espargaró to win the title and was doing just that when he spun out in eighth position with seven laps to go.

On 283 points in the overall standings, the CatalunyaCaixa Repsol rider holds a 48-point lead over Espargaró, who scored five points with his 11th-place finish in a race won by San Marino’s Alex de Angelis.

Germany’s Sandro Cortese triumphed in the Moto3 race to clinch the first world championship in the category. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider won ahead of local hero Zulfahmi Khairuddin of AirAsia-SIC-Ajo, who earned his first-ever podium finish in second place.