This past Sunday, the victories on the Italian asphalt in the MotoGP, Moto2, and Moto3 classes went to racers on bikes outfitted with Akrapovič exhaust systems.

Motorcycles fans will definitely remember the thirteenth round in the 2012 season for a long time. After partly rainy Friday training sessions, the Saturday qualifiers in the MotoGP class delivered quite a bit of excitement thanks to Dani Pedrosa, who managed to beat Jorge Lorenzo by 0.018 s in the last lap. The start of the Sunday race was first postponed due to problems on Abraham’s Ducati and the race was shortened to 27 laps. Then, after having to restart his bike, Pedrosa had to give up his pole position and start from the back of the grid. For Lorenzo this was one more obstacle down on his way to the victory and the Spaniard made good use of the situation, leading from start to finish. His Yamaha YZR-M1 passed the checkered flag 4.398 s ahead of his future teammate Valentino Rossi.

Jorge Lorenzo: “It’s been a very tough weekend because Dani and I have been very close in the qualifying and the warm up. Unfortunately today he had really bad luck, first with the lights at the beginning of the race and then Hector took him out. This was really unfortunate for him. In Holland we were unlucky and today he was unlucky; anything can happen in these races. We have to be happy with our result and the point advantage we now have, we’re sure a lot calmer now than before the race! The race was difficult for everyone, only having qualifying was not enough when you have to set up the chassis and electronics and everything for the race. It was hotter during the race so there was less grip too. I almost crashed in turn one but managed to save it too!”

Before the race in the premium class, Akrapovič had had two more reasons to celebrate. Sandro Cortese (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was the first to show his amazing talent by winning the Moto3 class, and then exceptional fighting spirit was demonstrated by Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) in the Moto2 class. When we already thought that Marc would be perfectly happy with his advancement from fourth to second place, he also beat Pol Espargaró in the last lap thanks to his masterful maneuvers, earning another 25 well-deserved points.

All the winners of the San Marino Grand Prix ride bikes outfitted with Akrapovič exhaust systems and all of them are currently overall leaders in their classes. In the Moto3 class, Cortese leads by 46 points, in the Moto2 class Márquez leads by 53 points, and in the MotoGP class Lorenzo has a 38-point advantage over the second-ranked rider. Guys, we’re keeping our fingers crossed!

Photo: Yamaha Racing, 2012 Micro Lazzari, Matevž Hribar, Gold and Goose