Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa made it a perfect weekend here at the Jerez circuit in Southern Spain when after setting a brilliant pole position on Saturday, rode a superb race on Sunday to secure his first win of the season, and the 3000th win for the MotoGP championship since its inception in 1949. He also set the race's fastest lap on the way to taking his 30th win in MotoGP, the 53rd in his career.

In winning the 3,000th Grand Prix race ever held, Dani also earned the Repsol Honda Team's 100th victory in the MotoGP class and became the only rider to have won at least one race for 16 consecutive years.

“I'm super-happy with this win in Jerez, a track that I love very much, and in front of my family, my friends, and all these amazing fans,” Dani said afterwards. “I'm enjoying this emotion so much, more than I would've done a few years ago, in a more ‘conscious' way. I've had a great feeling all weekend, and the team have worked so well; we're getting better race by race and I'm very happy for them as well. We knew we were in a position to have the race we actually did. I felt the tension a little bit before the start, but I remained concentrated and got away well at the start and just went for it.”

“Today the track conditions were a bit worse than yesterday and the front was sliding quite a lot. I chose the hard front because of today's high temperature, even if the medium was my favourite. The pace probably would've been faster with the medium, but anyway I was happy with my choice. When Marc started to push, we started a little battle like yesterday in qualifying."

"I knew he was very fast but I was determined to keep a gap on him. It was easy to make a mistake, to lose the front, so it was a matter of staying on the limit without going over it. It went well, it was a marvellous weekend, and we now must continue at this level. It's also a special honour to be the winner of the 3,000th Grand Prix race and be alongside riders like Mick (Doohan, who won race number 2,000) and Angel (Nieto, who won race number 1,000).”

Pedrosa was followed home by teammate Marc Marquez, who didn't really mount much of a challenge to his fellow Spaniard and in the final few laps seemed to just settle for second place.

Meanwhile, Jorge Lorenzo was a brilliant third for Ducati, his first podium finish of the season and his first ever for the Ducati team. He rode superbly from his 8th place on the starting grid, passed both Yamaha riders and had a fascinating battle with the Tech 3 rookie, Johann Zarco. But, the experienced Lorenzo kept a cool head and third position until the end.

“Today we did a great job: for us to score a podium here at Jerez was very important,” said Luigi Dall'Igna, Ducati Corse General Manager. “We know we still have a lot of hard work to do, and already from tomorrow here at Jerez we'll be testing the developments we have prepared, because the gap to the winner is still quite big and of course we want to make up this gap. Jorge did a great race, fully deserving his first podium for Ducati and Andrea was also good, moving up to fifth place: this result is very important for the morale of all of us.”

Zarco ended up finishing a close fourth after a brilliant run early in the race that actually saw him pass Marc Marquez for second place at one stage. However his tyres couldn't last the distance so he was forced to settle for P4 instead.

Andrea Dovizioso made it two in the top five for Ducati while the quickest Yamaha rider of Maverick Vinales finished sixth. Teammate Valentino Rossi struggled in the altter stages of the race and eventually dropped back to tenth place.

There was a scuffle between Jack Miller and Alvaro Bautista early in the race after the two went off into the gravel and Miller actually physically pushed Bautista over in his anger at being eliminated from the race. He went and apologized for his actions after making it back to pitlane.

GP of España – Race classification:
1. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team - 45'26.827
2. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team - +6.136
3. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team - +14.767
4. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - +17.601
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team - +22.913
6. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - +24.556
7. Danilo PETRUCCI, OCTO Pramac Racing - +24.959
8. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - +27.721
9. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - +31.233
10. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - +38.682
11. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing - +40.979
12 Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing - +43.199
13. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing - +43.211
14 Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - +47.964
15. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - +51.279
16. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - +1'08.885
17. Takuya TSUDA, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - +1'27.450
Not Classified
Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - +18 Laps
Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - +18 Laps
Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda - +22 Laps
Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - +22 Laps
Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - +22 Laps
Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - +22 Laps

Riders World Championship Classification
1. Valentino ROSSI, Yamaha - 62
2. Maverick VIÑALES, Yamaha - 60
3. Marc MARQUEZ, Honda - 58
4 Dani PEDROSA, Honda - 52
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati - 41
6. Johann ZARCO, Yamaha - 35
7. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Honda - 29
8. Jonas FOLGER, Yamaha - 29
9. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati - 28
10. Danilo PETRUCCI, Ducati - 26
11 Scott REDDING, Ducati - 26
12. Jack MILLER, Honda - 21
13. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia - 17
14. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Ducati - 14
15. Loris BAZ, Ducati - 12
16. Hector BARBERA, Ducati - 12
17. Andrea IANNONE, Suzuki - 9
18. Karel ABRAHAM, Ducati - 9
19. Tito RABAT, Honda - 8
20. Alex RINS, Suzuki - 7
21. Bradley SMITH, KTM - 3
22. Pol ESPARGARO, KTM - 2
23. Sam LOWES, Aprilia
24. Takuya TSUDA, Suzuki