Casey Stoner proves too slick for Valentino Rossi in Qatar MotoGP

April 14, 2009

Australian 2007 World MotoGP champion Casey Stoner has started the new season in style, storming to his third successive Qatar Grand Prix victory.

Torrential rain delayed the desert showdown by 24 hours but it didn't slow Stoner, who eased home on his Ducati ahead of 2008 reigning champion Valentino Rossi on a Yamaha. Rossi's team-mate, Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo, was third.

The 23-year-old victor professed himself to be happier with his overall physical condition than he was last year.

"I'm not quite there yet but I am almost at 100 per cent fitness," Stoner said.

"However, I am not surprised by winning here as I felt great physically and definitely better than last year."

For his part Rossi was satisfied enough with his first race.

"We have made worse starts to a season than this, so I have to be content with the performance,'' said the charismatic Italian.

"The second-half of the race wasn't great but I am still happy.''

Stoner led from the start with Rossi dropping back to third, though the latter's compatriot Marco Melandri paid for trying to overdo it at the corner of the home straight after the first lap and ended up ploughing into the dirt.

He rejoined the race but found himself at the back of the 18 rider field.

Rossi moved into second with 20 laps remaining and with a two second deficit on Stoner.

The Australian managed to keep it around the two-second mark for the next three laps while Italians Andrea Dovizioso and Lorenzo had their own duel for third and were a further second adrift.

Loris Capirossi came to grief in spectacular fashion with 14 laps remaining.He crashed and bounced several metres into the gravel, picking himself up gingerly to walk back to the pits.

Rossi brought the gap between him and Stoner down below the two second mark for the first time after nine laps of the 22 as the duo looked to have put enough distance between themselves and the rest of the field.

Indeed with 12 laps remaining Rossi in second had an eight second advantage over third-placed Lorenzo but Stoner was not allowing the vibrant Italian to close any further on him and with 10 laps to go he had almost a three-second lead over him.

He was up by three second with seven laps remaining and Rossi seemed powerless to do anything to reduce it but the Italian known as 'The Doctor' was safe and sound in his runner-up spot as Lorenzo was well back nearly 15 seconds adrift.

From then on Stoner had no problems in extending his overall lead as with three laps remaining it stood at over five seconds and he cantered home to victory.



Qatar MotoGP Results

1. Casey Stoner (AUS/Ducati) 42min 53.984sec
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) at 7.771sec
3. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP/Yamaha) 16.244
4. Colin Edwards (USA/Yamaha) 24.410
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Honda) 27.263
6. Alex De Angelis (SMR/Honda) 29.883
7. Chris Vermeulen (AUS/Suzuki) 33.627
8. Mika Kallio (FIN/Ducati) 34.755
9. Toni Elias (ESP/Honda) 39.481
10. Randy De Puniet (FRA/Honda) 42.284
11. Dani Pedrosa (ESP/Honda) 48.526
12. Nicky Hayden (USA/Ducati) 48.883
13. Sete Gibernau (ESP/Ducati) 52.215
14. Marco Melandri (ITA/Kawasaki) 56.379
15. Yuki Takahashi (JPN/Honda) 1min 00.286sec
16. James Toseland (GBR/Yamaha) 1:14.978
17. Niccolo Canapa (ITA/Ducati) 1:15.028
Did not finish: Loris Capirossi (ITA/Suzuki)

Season Standings

1. Casey Stoner (AUS/Ducati) 25pts
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) 20
3. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP/Yamaha) 16
4. Colin Edwards (USA/Yamaha) 13
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Honda) 11
6. Alex De Angelis (SMR/Honda) 10
7. Chris Vermeulen (AUS/Suzuki) 9
8. Mika Kallio (FIN/Ducati) 8
9. Toni Elias (ESP/Honda) 7
10. Randy De Puniet (FRA/Honda) 6
11. Dani Pedrosa (ESP/Honda) 5
12. Nicky Hayden (USA/Ducati) 4
13. Sete Gibernau (ESP/Ducati) 3
14. Marco Melandri (ITA/Kawasaki) 2
15. Yuki Takahashi (JPN/Honda) 1

Chris Vermeulen is looking good for the season. He should be able to get closer on his Susuki this year.

coops

Put Rossi on Stoner's bike and he wins every race.

__________________
The more you bet the more you win

April 26, 2009

Spain's Jorge Lorenzo led home a Yamaha one-two finish at the Japanese Grand Prix, finishing ahead of reigning world champion Valentino Rossi.

The win was the 2008 rookie of the year’s second MotoGP win and his first ever win in any class at the Motegi Circuit.

Rossi, also runner-up in the season opener in Qatar two weeks ago, took an early advantage after starting on pole. But Lorenzo was able to pass the Italian and finish 1.304 seconds ahead. Honda's Dani Pedrosa finished in third, a further 3.763 seconds back.

"It was a difficult race because I didn't make a good start," said Lorenzo, whose first MotoGP victory came in Portugal a year ago.

"I passed Rossi and he followed me very hard. I had to ride as fast as I could to grab the victory."

Qatar race winner and 2007 world champion Casey Stoner re-grouped from a bad start, where he lost four places in the opening lap, to storm home to finish fourth.

Australia's other rider in the top class, Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen finished in 10th position.

Rossi said his second place was very important for the overall MotoGP championship.

"I think this championship will become very interesting because four riders are ready to battle for the win at the end."

"It was a great race, long and difficult," Rossi said. "In the last part of the race, I was able to take my pace and take my line. I made a good lap time and came back. But Lorenzo was too far."

The win put Lorenzo, in only his second year of MotoGP, at the top of the 2009 MotoGP rankings with 41 points, one point ahead of Rossi and three ahead of Stoner.

Rossi started on pole after rain washed out qualifying and he clocked the fastest time in free practice on Friday. The Italian led the pack around the first corner, with Stoner (who was second on the grid), dropping to sixth.

Lorenzo overtook Rossi on the ninth lap, widening his lead to more than a second after 15 laps and two seconds after 17. Stoner meanwhile was trapped behind Pedrosa and Italian Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso.

Pedrosa overtook Rossi on the 18th lap but the Italian quickly regained the second spot on the next lap. Stoner passed Dovizioso to claim the fourth spot in the next-to-last of the 24 laps.

Stoner said he heard a lot of chatter from the front brakes on the warm-up lap and "I wasn't confident over the first five or six laps."

"I spent too much time battling to get past," said the 23-year-old. "When I got close to the front, it was too late, unfortunately."


Motegi MotoGP Results

1. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP-Yamaha) 43:47.238
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA-Yamaha) +1.304sec
3. Dani Pedrosa (ESP-Honda) +3.763
4. Casey Stoner (AUS-Ducati) +5.691
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA-Honda) +9.207
6. Marco Melandri (ITA-Kawasaki) +30.555
7. Loris Capirossi (ITA-Suzuki) +32.756
8. Mika Kallio (FIN-Ducati) +39.416
9. James Toseland (GBR-Yamaha) +43.106
10. Chris Vermeulen (AUS-Suzuki) +43.245


2009 MotoGP Standings

1. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP) 41
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) 40
3. Casey Stoner (AUS) 38
4. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) 22
5. Dani Pedrosa (ESP) 21
6. Colin Edwards (USA) 17
7. Mika Kallio (FIN) 16
8. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) 15
9. Alex de Angelis (SMR) 13
10. Marco Melandri (ITA) 12

May 03, 2009

Reigning world champion Valentino Rossi has clinched his first MotoGP race of the year and the championship lead, with victory in in front of 120,000 fans in Jerez.

Local Dani Pedrosa took the lead for the first half of the race, but Rossi was able reel him in to take a comfortable win.

Australia’s Casey Stoner finished in third place, for his best ever result at the Jerez track in southern Spain.

The win was Fiat Yamaha rider Rossi's 98th of his career and he now leads the championship from Ducati's Stoner by 11 points.

However the Italian admitted it should be a fight to the death for this season's crown.

"There's been three winners in three races, so it looks like the championship will be very tight this year. I will have to stay very concentrated at each and every race," said Rossi, who was surprised with his victory.

"It's been a strange weekend. On Friday (free practice) I was very fast then Saturday I had a lot of problems with the bike. We then made a few technical changes before the race and things seemed to work better as of this morning."

Starting fourth on the grid behind teammate Jorge Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner, Rossi overtook the Australian on the sixth of the race's 27 laps before then trying to chip away at Pedrosa's advantage.

The Spaniard had led for the first 17 laps of the 4.423km circuit but on the 18th he could only watch as Rossi slipped past him and into the race lead.

Lorenzo, championship leader after the Motegi race, crashed with four laps remaining as he lost the front end of his bike. He was forced to go back into the pits after pushing too hard to snatch third position from Stoner.

Australia's Chris Vermeulen finished a disappointing 10th on board his Suzuki.

Spaniards Lorenzo and Pedrosa sit third and fourth respectively in the championship after three of 17 races.

The MotoGP now moves to France for the fourth race of the season in two weeks time.


Jerez MotoGP Results
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA-Yamaha) 45min 18.557sec
2. Dani Pedrosa (ESP-Honda) +2.700sec
3. Casey Stoner (AUS-Ducati) +10.507
4. Randy de Puniet (FRA-Honda) +31.893
5. Marco Melandri (ITA-Kawasaki) +33.128
6. Loris Capirossi (ITA-Suzuki) +34.128
7. Colin Edwards (USA-Yamaha) +34.421
8. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA-Honda) +34.625
9. Toni Elias (ESP-Honda) +42.689
10. Chris Vermeulen (AUS-Suzuki) +45.183

MotoGP Standings
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) 65
2. Casey Stoner (AUS) 54
3. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP) 41
4. Dani Pedrosa (ESP) 41
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) 30
6. Colin Edwards (USA) 26
7. Randy de Puniet (FRA) 24
8. Marco Melandri (ITA) 23
9. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) 21
10. Loris Capirossi (ITA) 19

May 17, 2009

Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo won the French MotoGP at Le Mans just a year after he finished second despite riding with two broken ankles.

The 22-year-old - a two-time 250cc world champion - enjoyed a trouble-free ride on his Yamaha to coast home ahead of Italian Marco Melandri on a Kawasaki while pole sitter Dani Pedrosa of Spain was third on a Honda.

Casey Stoner finished fifth after suffering a slight problem on his Ducati mid-race.

Fellow Australian Chris Vermuelen was sixth for Suzuki.

Lorenzo's joy was the reverse of Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi who had a nightmare as he sought his 99th career victory but in the end trailed in without scoring a point.

Lorenzo took the lead off his compatriot Pedrosa after the first lap, passing both him and Australia's former world champion Casey Stoner in an audacious manoeuvre.

Stoner was suffering the most of the contenders as he then was passed by Rossi with 26 of the 28 laps remaining and the Italian great then overtook Pedrosa.

Lorenzo - who has a difficult relationship with Rossi - held a lead of just over two seconds on the Italian.

However, disaster struck for Rossi with 23 laps remaining. Having just come into the pits to change bikes and go on to dry tyres he came to grief on a corner, and with his bike damaged, he guided it back to the pits to get on a new one.

His day went from bad to worse as he was then penalised for speeding in the pit lane.

French MotoGP finish
1. Jorge Lorenzo, (ESP), Yamaha, 47 minutes, 52.678 seconds.

2. Marco Melandri, (ITA), Kawasaki, 48:10.388.

3. Dani Pedrosa, (ESP), Honda, 48:12.571.

4. Andrea Dovizioso, (ITA), Honda, 48:13.133.

5. Casey Stoner, (AUS), Ducati, 48:23.217.

6. Chris Vermeulen, (AUS), Suzuki, 48:30.140.

7. Colin Edwards, (USA), Yamaha, 48:32.869.

8. Loris Capirossi, (ITA), Suzuki, 48:38.099.

9. James Toseland, (GBR), Yamaha, 48:42.985.

10. Toni Elias, (ESP), Honda, 48:45.896. Overall

Standings (After 4 of 17 races)

1. Jorge Lorenzo, (ESP), Yamaha, 66 points.

2. Valentino Rossi, (ITA), Yamaha 65.

2. Casey Stoner, (AUS), Ducati, 65.

4. Dani Pedrosa, (ESP), Honda, 57.

5. Marco Melandri, (ITA), Kawasaki, 43.

5. Andrea Dovizioso, (ITA), Honda, 43.

7. Colin Edwards, (USA), Yamaha, 35.

8. Chris Vermeulen, (AUS), Suzuki, 31.

9. Loris Capirossi, (ITA), Suzuki, 27.

10. Randy De Puniet, (FRA), Honda, 26.

May 31, 2009

Casey Stoner held off the fast-finishing Jorge Lorenzo to win the Italian Grand Prix and bring to an end Valentino Rossi's seven-year reign at Mugello.

The Australian also took over the lead in the world championship standings with his second win of the season having also triumphed in Qatar in the opening race of the season.

He now leads Lorenzo, who started on pole on Sunday, by four points in the championship standings with Rossi third, a further five points back.

In a dramatic race that began in wet conditions, Stoner seized the advantage when switching bikes after 10 laps for a change of tyres.

He was the fastest man on the track by some margin in those first few laps after the switch and although Yamaha pair Lorenzo and Rossi were quickest at the end, they had both lost too much time and too many places to hit back.

Stoner completed the 23 laps in 45min 41.894sec to win by just over a second to Spaniard Lorenzo.

In an exciting race the pole-sitter got off to a terrible start in the wet and immediately dropped to eighth.

Quickest off the mark were Australian Chris Vermeulen, who started 11th, and Andrea Dovizioso, who began seventh but Stoner passed them both on the long straight at the beginning of the second lap.

Vermeulen quickly started heading backwards, eventually finishing 10th, as Rossi started to move up from fifth.

However Italian Marco Melandri on a Kawasaki, who started 15th on the grid, was clearly fastest in the wet.

Rossi took the lead from Dovizioso, who had got back past Stoner, on the seventh lap and two laps later he lost that to Melandri.

However, on the 10th lap all the front runners came into the pits for a change of bikes and when they came out, Stoner was quickest to find his pace.

Melandri immediately started heading backwards, eventually finishing 11th and 35sec back, while Loris Capirossi propelled himself into race contention with Stoner and Dovizioso.

Lorenzo and Rossi initially struggled with their bikes down in fifth and sixth and the time they lost over those first three laps coming out of the pits, essentially cost either of them a chance of victory.

While Stoner had soon taken the race lead, both Yamaha riders had to then pass Melandri, Capirossi and Dovizioso and by the time they had done so, Stoner was over a second ahead and with only a couple of laps remaining.

Meanwhile former Superbikes champion James Toseland from Britain got his best finish of the season in seventh, benefitting from being the first man into the pits to change his bike.

It meant that his tyres were warm and he was flying as the fastest man on track for a few laps when everyone else was simply trying to get temperature into their new tyres.

Italian Grand Prix results MotoGP
1. Casey Stoner (AUS-Ducati) 45:41.894
2. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP-Yamaha) +1.001
3. Valentino Rossi (ITA-Yamaha) +2.076
4. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA-Honda) +2.129
5. Loris Capirossi (ITA-Suzuki) +3.274
6. Colin Edwards (USA-Yamaha) +24.451
7. James Toseland (GBR-Yamaha) +25.621
8. Randy de Puniet (FRA-Honda) +26.046
9. Niccolo Canepa (ITA-Ducati) +31.815
10. Chris Vermeulen (AUS-Suzuki) +34.814

Overall Standings
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) 90
2. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP) 86
3. Valentino Rossi (ITA) 81
4. Dani Pedrosa (ESP) 57
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) 56
6. Marco Melandri (ITA) 48
7. Colin Edwards (USA) 45
8. Loris Capirossi (ITA) 38
9. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) 37
10. Randy de Puniet (FRA) 34