Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa scored a masterful victory at the Valencia grand finale last Sunday, winning an incident-packed race that started on partially damp and very unforgiving track.

The Spanish hero was joined on the podium by Yamaha replacement rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga who finished in second place with Honda teammate Casey Stoner, who rode his last race before retirement, claiming the third podium position.

Alvaro Bautista, onboard the San Carlo Honda Gresini RC213V, finished fourth, some way in front of Michele Pirro’s San Carlo Honda Gresini FTR-Honda, who rode a storming race on his CBR1000RR-powered CRT bike. That made it five Honda-powered machines in the top six.

Morning rain had left the slow-drying track still wet in places, despite the earlier Moto2 and Moto3 races, so there were plenty of deliberation about tire choice before the start. Some riders chose slicks while others remained on rain tires.

Pedrosa was one of several riders who started the warm-up lap on rain tires, then decided to change, rushing into the pits and swapping to their slick-equipped spare bikes.

In accordance with the rules, Pedrosa had to start the race from pit lane, after the main pack, his RC213V fishtailing as he launched, its slick tires struggling for grip on still-soaking pit road.

Pedrosa took care in the first few laps, working hard to get heat into his tires and stay on the narrow dry line. At the end of lap one he was 20th, but by lap three he was up to 11th and the fastest man on the track, making good progress over rivals who had started on rain tires.

However, Pedrosa was not the only man on slicks. Recently crowned World Champion, Jorge Lorenzo, and a few others had started the race on slicks from the grid and it was not long before Lorenzo was in the lead.

Pedrosa moved into second just before one-quarter distance and then began to whittle away his compatriot’s advantage.

The vast majority of the eight crashes during the race round this anti-clockwise circuit where in right-handers, the riders struggling to get enough heat into the right side of their tires.

Stoner was one of the majority who started the race on rain tyres, the 2011 World Champion soon deciding he needed slicks and pitting at the end of lap four to change to his ‘dry’ bike. Next time around he was 16th and 31 seconds outside of a podium finish. His advance from that position was impressively determined as he passed other riders and made up a few more places as others fell by the wayside. He moved into third with two laps to go, giving him the opportunity to mark the end of his glittering career with a podium finish.