Source: Supplied.

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa came from sixth on the grid to take his 27th MotoGP win and 50th overall on a drying track at the Twin Ring Motegi.

Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi (+8.573s) crossed the line in second to record his 14th podium of the season as he extended his lead over his teammate Jorge Lorenzo to 18 points in the world championship standings.

Lorenzo (+12.127s) completed the podium after struggling with front-tyre wear late on in the race to record his 94th premier class rostrum.

There were only really three riders in with a chance to win the race in tricky conditions at Motegi that saw 50,000 fans packed into the grandstands despite the rain.

The race started on time despite a two-hour delay to the morning’s warm up Session, but the track remained damp meaning all riders went for wets.

Rossi got the holeshot into turn one only for Lorenzo to take him through turns three and four for the lead. At this point things looked ominous for Rossi as Lorenzo broke away at the front and opened up a two-second lead by the end of lap three.

Rossi appeared to have no answer to his teammates pace and had to fight off the advances of the Ducati Team GP15 of Andrea Dovizioso during the early stages of the race.

In a sign of things to come though, Dovizioso started to experience front tyre issues as a dry line appeared on track and began to drop back rapidly by lap 10.

At this point Pedrosa had made his way up into fourth and was by far the fastest man on the track. On lap 11 the Spaniard passed Dovizioso as the Italian ran wide and started to chase down Rossi in second, who had a 2.7s advantage.

Lapping 1.5s faster that the two Yamaha’s in front of him, Pedrosa caught Rossi with nine laps to go and suddenly Lorenzo was struggling as his front tyre started to rip itself to pieces.

Rossi went with Pedrosa and they both began to hunt down Lorenzo, who had a 2.7s advantage with the two-time MotoGP World Champion appearing to be going backwards at this point.

Pedrosa blasted past him on the straight as they completed lap 17 to take the lead and never looked back as he went on to take a commanding victory and continue his record of winning at least one race in every season he has competed in MotoGP.

It then became a game of risk versus reward between the two Yamaha teammates as Rossi closed in on his title rival, but both were tiptoeing around on their shredded front tyres.

Rossi appeared to have looked after his slightly better though and Lorenzo ran wide at turn three with five laps to go to gift the ‘Doctor’ second.

Pedrosa rode superbly in the final laps to take the race win by over 8.5s from Rossi, with Lorenzo completing the podium a further three seconds back.

Although it was clearly Pedrosa’s day after a sensational ride in the wet, Rossi was delighted with extending his lead in the standings as he hopes to secure his 10th world championship title in 2015.

Pedrosa’s teammate Marc Marquez (+27.841s) crossed the line in a lonely 4th nursing the broken bone in his left hand ahead of the Dovizioso, who despite his tyre issues, held on for fifth.

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow came out on top by just 0.404s in an excellent battle for sixth against his compatriot Bradley Smith on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 to finish as the leading Satellite rider.

Crutchlow passed Smith on the last lap to secure sixth, his best result since he also finished sixth at Assen. Smith crossed the line in seventh to make it 21 point scoring finishes in a row, but dropped down to sixth in the standings.

Wildcard Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Yamaha Factory Team) rode brilliantly to finish in eighth ahead of Hector Barbera on the Avintia Racing Ducati.

Barbera took the Open class win and also recorded his first top 10 finish of the season to re-take the lead in the Open standings by two points from Loris Baz (Forward Racing), who was forced to retire from the race.

Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) completed the top ten ahead of Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) in 11th, with the second wildcard Takumi Takahashi (Team HRC with Nissin) 12th.

Nicky Hayden was the leading Open Class Honda in 13th, with his Irish teammate Eugene Laverty crossing the line in 17th. Jack Miller (LCR Honda) crashed twice during the race, after at one point leading the Open class battle, and was forced to retire.

There were also DNF’s for Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing), Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team).

Rossi (283pts) now has an 18-point lead over Lorenzo (265pts) with just three races remaining, while Marquez remains in third with 197 points.

Moto2 World Champion Johann Zarco put on a masterful display to take his seventh win of the season at the Twin Ring Motegi in the wet.

Ajo Motorsport’s Zarco was crowned the Moto2 champion on Friday after the only man who could stop him lifting the title at Motegi, Tito Rabat, had to withdraw from the Motul Grand Prix of Japan due to injury.

The Frenchman responded by riding brilliantly on a wet, but drying track, to take the race win from AGR Team’s Jonas Folger by 4.505s and Dynavolt Intact GP’s Sandro Cortese completed the podium.

The Moto2 race was reduced to 15 laps after a two-hour delay to the morning’s Warm Up sessions due to track conditions.

There were crashes for Luis Salom, Thitipong Warokorn, Thomas Luthi, Xavier Simeon, Xavi Vierge, Axel Pons and Australia’s Josh Hook, who was substituting for the injured Dominique Aegerter.

Ongetta-Rivacold’s Niccolo Antonelli put on a brilliant display of riding to take just his second career Moto3 victory by over a second from Red Bull KTM’s Miguel Oliveira, with Jorge Navarro completing the podium on the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda.

Championship leader Danny Kent saw his chances of lifting the title at Motegi fade after a bad start, but recovered to finish in sixth ahead of his main title rival Enea Bastianini on the Gresini Racing Team Moto3 Honda.

There were crashes in the tricky conditions for Remy Gardner, Livio Loi, Hiroki Ono, Alexis Masbou, Alessandro Tonucci and wildcard Ryo Mizuno.

Fabio Quartararo (Estrella Galicia 0,0) was forced to pull out of the weekend after Friday’s practice due to the pain he was suffering from the broken ankle he sustained at Mugello.

2015 MotoGP World Championship
Round 15 – Motegi, Japan

MotoGP race results:
1. Dani PEDROSA
2. Valentino ROSSI +8.573s
3. Jorge LORENZO +12.127s
4. Marc MARQUEZ +27.841s
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO +35.085s
6. Cal CRUTCHLOW +37.263s
7. Bradley SMITH +37.667s
8. Katsuyuki NAKASUGA +44.654s
9. Hector BARBERA +48.572s
10. Scott REDDING +50.121s
11. Aleix ESPARGARO +1m00.535s
12. Takumi TAKAHASHI +1m01.211s
13. Nicky HAYDEN +1m11.261s
14. Yonny HERNANDEZ +1m13.896s
15. Mike DI MEGLIO +1m15.421s
16. Alvaro BAUTISTA +1m20.507s
17. Eugene LAVERTY +1m31.224s
18. Stefan BRADL +1m46.833s
19. Kousuke AKIYOSHI +2m00.072s
20. Toni ELIAS +1 lap

MotoGP championship standings:
1. Valentino ROSSI 263
2. Jorge LORENZO 249
3. Marc MARQUEZ 184
4. Andrea IANNONE 172
5. Bradley SMITH 143
6. Andrea DOVIZIOSO 139
7. Dani PEDROSA 129
8. Danilo PETRUCCI 93
9. Cal CRUTCHLOW 88
10. Pol ESPARGARO 88
11. Aleix ESPARGARO 76
12. Maverick VIÑALES 74
13. Scott REDDING 67
14. Yonny HERNANDEZ L 47
15. Loris BAZ 28
16. Alvaro BAUTISTA 26
17. Hector BARBERA 23
18. Jack MILLER (AUS) 16
19. Nicky HAYDEN 13
20. Stefan BRADL 11

Moto2 race results:
1. Johann ZARCO
2. Jonas FOLGER +4.505
3. Sandro CORTESE +15.433
4. Azlan SHAH +17.348
5. Hafizh SYAHRIN +22.858
6. Ricard CARDUS +24.970
7. Simone CORSI +25.759
8. Sam LOWES +27.024
9. Marcel SCHROTTER +27.485
10. Randy KRUMMENACHER +28.062

Moto2 championship standings:
1. Johann ZARCO 309
2. Tito RABAT 206
3. Alex RINS 189
4. Sam LOWES 152
5. Jonas FOLGER 145
6. Thomas LUTHI 142
7. Xavier SIMEON 96
8. Franco MORBIDELLI 84
9. Sandro CORTESE 78
10. Takaaki NAKAGAMI 69

Moto3 race results:
1. Niccolò ANTONELLI
2. Miguel OLIVEIRA +1.053
3. Jorge NAVARRO +8.529
4. Isaac VIÑALES +11.074
5. Zulfahmi KHAIRUDDIN +13.043
6. Danny KENT +15.224
7. Enea BASTIANINI +15.873
8. Karel HANIKA +17.563
9. John MCPHEE +18.153
10. Efren VAZQUEZ +18.556

Moto3 championship standings:
1. Danny KENT 244
2. Enea BASTIANINI 188
3. Miguel OLIVEIRA 179
4. Niccolò ANTONELLI 161
5. Romano FENATI 155
6. Efren VAZQUEZ 135
7. Brad BINDER 110
8. Jorge NAVARRO 108
9. Isaac VIÑALES 95
10. Fabio QUARTARARO 92

Click here for detailed results