After his recent win at the Dutch TT circuit last weekend, Casey Stoner on the Ducati is now back in with a chance at the World Championship.
He seems to have recovered from his recent troubles and is now looking confident on his machine and back to his winning form. Stoner is now only 29 points behind the Championship leader Dani Pedrosa for the Repsol Honda team.
Changes to the Ducati’s engine Management system while testing at Catalunya have made StonerPedrosa unstoppable and he finished the last race 11.310 seconds in front of as if proof were needed.
The Ducati boss Livio Suppo, said that the alterations had made a remarkable difference to Stoner,
“It’s incredible how you just need to improve the bike a bit to make him find last year’s confidence and he’s gone back to being in a different league”.
Valentino Rossi is now only 25 points ahead of Stoner, and Stoner said,
“I’m sorry Valentino crashed because that isn’t necessarily the way I wanted to recover points on him, but at the end of the day we’ve had our fair share of bad luck this year too and racing is an unpredictable game.
Now it seems fortune is favouring us but more than that I’ve really got to take my hat off to Ducati and to my team. They’ve been doing such a good job over the past few races to get us back on pace again and make us consistently competitive, so I want to say ‘thank you’ to all of them.”
Nothing seems to be going right for the Kawasaki Moto GP Team at the moment and last weekend was no exception.
John Hopkins could not race last Saturday after crashing out during qualifying on Friday when he hit the barriers at high speed. He was carried from the circuit on a stretcher unconscious.
Now the Kawasaki team have confirmed that Hopkins will definitely need surgery and is ruled out of the next two races.
Apparently, the team do not intend to replace Hopkins at the German round for logistic reasons but they may place an American-based rider on their machine at Laguna.
It also seems it was true that the bike was there for Marco Melandri to ride but it is claimed he couldn’t get out of his Ducati contract for at least the next two races.
This left all hope on Anthony West for the Saturday Grand Prix who had qualified in sixth position on the grid. He got a good start off of the line but was held up avoiding Alex De Angeles who went down in front of him.
He battled his way up to eleventh place and was closing the gap until with just seven laps to go he crashed out at on the right hand corner Stekkenwal when he lost the front end under braking and no points for the Kawasaki team.
Former World Champion Ducati rider, Sete Gibernau has completed another successful three day test at Mugello.
The Spanish rider is the possible replacement if rumours are true and Marco Melandri leaves the team, although the Ducati team boss, Livio Suppo, claims he is 99% sure that Melandri will stay with the team until at least the US Grand Prix.
Melandri has been linked to a move to the Kawasaki team, possibly for the injured John Hopkins, and the Japanese team have been supposedly considering a third bike for Marco if he does leave Ducati.
Gibernau tested both this year’s GP8, on which he set his fastest lap during the three days, and also next year’s GP9.
Gibernau said Thursday,
“I want to thank not only Ducati but also all the guys that have supported me here. Some of them worked with me in 2006 and it was great to find ourselves together again.
I’ve really enjoyed myself today and have had a completely new experience as a rider. The faster you go, the more obvious it becomes that this bike demands a real physical and mental effort, but when you manage to ride it well, the satisfaction is unique.
“I hope my work has been of use to Filippo, to help understand the differences between the GP8 and GP9. They are two machines with characteristics typical of Ducati, and the GP9, although new, has great potential.”
And just in case you need a reminder of how good Sete Gibernau was, watch this;
Loris Capirossi, the Rizla Suzuki rider, missed last weekends Moto GP after crashing-out in the second free practice session on Thursday.
He had returned to the track after missing the British round of the Moto GP at Donington after suffering a broken right hand at Barcelona.
Capirossi high-sided during the session and the footpeg of his machine punctured his right forearm when the bike landed on top of him.
Team boss Paul Denning said,
“I think it is necessary to make it clear that the crash was nothing to do with his recent hand injury and it was just one of those things that happens in racing. He was lucky that he didn’t break anything or cause more damage to the original injury, because it is a really fast place to crash.
Unfortunately the bike got on top of him and ripped a sizeable piece of flesh from his right forearm. Dr Costa and his team performed an operation to close and stabilise the wound and Loris will now start his recuperation to get himself fit again - for sure it will be Sachsenring in two weeks time.”
Capirossi has now gone three rounds without scoring a point but he is determined he will be fit for the next round in Germany. He is currently running in eleventh place in the Championship on 51 points, while his team-mate Chris Vermeulen is in ninth position with 57 points.
Casey Stoner won The Dutch TT yesterday after qualifying in pole position on the Ducati Marlboro at the Assen circuit.
Dani Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda got ahead of the pack as they got underway followed by Stoner as Rossi dropped back to sixth place after a bad start on the Fiat Yamaha.
Rossi went down on the first lap taking Randy de Puniet on the LCR Honda with him. Rossi managed to rejoin the race and finished in eleventh place. Rossi admitted his error and said,
“It’s a shame. I also want to apologise to de Puniet because it was my mistake. When I turned left the tyre was still to cold and I lost it and I caught him with me. I made a mistake. Unfortunately we have this chronic problem at the start when I never manage to have a good getaway, after which I made a mistake.”
Rossi was leading the Championship but his finish at the Dutch TT puts him behind Pedrosa who finished in second place.
Alex De Angeles was also out of the race on the first lap for the San Carlo Honda team breaking his finger in the crash as Stoner took his position at the front, ahead of Pedrosa.
Anthony West crashed out on the Kawasaki Racing machine on lap eight as Stoner began to pull away increasing the gap.
Colin Edwards who had been held up with the Rossi and de Puniet incident, was in fourth place by lap fifteen and then closed the gap to just four seconds, until Edwards appeared to run out of fuel and Edwards slipped past to take the final step on the podium.
Here are the results;
1. Casey Stoner (Marlboro Ducati) 42′12.337
2. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) +11.310
3. Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) +17.125
4. Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda) +20.477
5. Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot) +27.346
6. Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) +28.608
7. Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) +32.330
8. Shinya Nakano (San Carlo Gresini Honda) +34.892
9. James Toseland (Tech 3 Yamaha) +38.566
10. Sylvain Guintoli (Alice Ducati) +38.817
11. Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) +46.025
12. Toni Elias (Alice Ducati) +48.213
13. Marco Melandri (Marlboro Ducati) +59.594
250CC
Alvaro Bautista took the victory for the 250cc Grand Prix after qualifying in pole position ahead of ThomasLuthi.
The rain began again just before the warm-up lap but the race got underway with Russel Gomez the first casualty of the wet track went down.
Marco Simoncelli took the lead at the start of the race but was soon passed by Alex Debon who in turn got passed by Luthi.
By lap five Bautista set the fastest lap as he took second place and by lap twelve he took the lead from Luthi.
Here are the results;
1 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Mapfre Aspar Team APRILIA 40′54.117
2 Thomas LUTHI SWI Emmi - Caffe Latte APRILIA 40′58.714
3 Marco SIMONCELLI ITA Metis Gilera GILERA 41′00.120
4 Alex DEBON SPA Lotus Aprilia APRILIA 41′03.151
5 Hector BARBERA SPA Team Toth Aprilia APRILIA 41′03.196
6 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Red Bull KTM 250 KTM 41′05.632
7 Mika KALLIO FIN Red Bull KTM 250 KTM 41′06.991
8 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN JiR Team Scot 250 HONDA 41′07.739
9 Roberto LOCATELLI ITA Metis Gilera GILERA 41′15.285
10 Julian SIMON SPA Repsol KTM 250cc KTM 41′22.906
11 Hector FAUBEL SPA Mapfre Aspar Team APRILIA 41′31.724
12 Ratthapark WILAIROT THA Thai Honda PTT SAG HONDA 41′31.858
13 Fabrizio LAI ITA Campetella Racing GILERA 41′32.846
14 Alex BALDOLINI ITA Matteoni Racing APRILIA 41′33.282
15 Lukas PESEK CZE Auto Kelly - CP APRILIA 41′37.154
16 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Blusens Aprilia APRILIA 41′48.288
17 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Lotus Aprilia APRILIA 41′48.451
18 Frederik WATZ SWE Jaap Kingma Racing APRILIA 42′18.547
19 Doni Tata PRADITA INA Yamaha Pertamina Indonesia YAMAHA 41′22.050
20 Imre TOTH HUN Team Toth Aprilia APRILIA 41′50.516
125CC
Gabor Talmacsi took his first win of the season yesterday for the 125cc two-part Grand Prix.
Bradley Smith took the lead as the race got underway from second place on the grid with Joan Olive following in second, but Scott Redding made a terrible start and moved back from sixth to thriteenth.
Sergio Gadea went out on the first lap as his machine develped technical problems followed by RandyKrummenacher on the following lap.
Smith managed to make a gap of over three seconds as the rain began in Assen with fourteen laps still remaining. Smith slid of the track on the next lap just as the red flag is put out to stop the race, allowing Smith the retake pole position on the grid for the restart.
The race continued after the rain and a five lap race with Smith on pole, followed by Terol and Olive.Smith got a good start but was soon passed by Olive, seeing Smith slide back to seventh place.
A battle in the last lap saw Esteve Rabat move from fourth place to take the lead until he gets passed by Talmacsi too secure the victory.
Here are the results;
1 Gabor TALMACSI HUN Bancaja Aspar Team APRILIA 9′04.520
2 Joan OLIVE SPA Belson Derbi DERBI 9′04.648
3 Simone CORSI ITA Jack & Jones WRB APRILIA 9′04.775
4 Sandro CORTESE GER Emmi - Caffe Latte APRILIA 9′04.860
5 Bradley SMITH GBR Polaris World APRILIA 9′04.945
6 Esteve RABAT SPA Repsol KTM 125cc KTM 9′05.088
7 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Ajo Motorsport DERBI 9′05.366
8 Andrea IANNONE ITA I.C. Team APRILIA 9′05.448
9 Nicolas TEROL SPA Jack & Jones WRB APRILIA 9′05.958
10 Raffaele DE ROSA ITA Onde 2000 KTM KTM 9′07.074
11 Stefano BIANCO ITA S3+ WTR San Marino Team APRILIA 9′07.349
12 Stefan BRADL GER Grizzly Gas Kiefer Racing APRILIA 9′07.541
13 Tomoyoshi KOYAMA JPN ISPA KTM Aran KTM 9′07.721
14 Michael RANSEDER AUT I.C. Team APRILIA 9′08.120
15 Hugo VAN DEN BERG NED Degraaf Grand Prix APRILIA 9′09.067
16 Dominique AEGERTER SWI Ajo Motorsport DERBI 9′09.112
17 Stevie BONSEY USA Degraaf Grand Prix APRILIA 9′09.339
18 Jules CLUZEL FRA Loncin Racing LONCIN 9′15.068
19 Randy KRUMMENACHE SWI Red Bull KTM 125 KTM 9′15.163
20 Pablo NIETO SPA Onde 2000 KTM KTM 9′15.369
21 Pere TUTUSAUS SPA Bancaja Aspar Team APRILIA 9′15.614
22 Robin LASSER GER Grizzly Gas Kiefer Racing APRILIA 9′16.374
23Alexis MASBOU FRA Loncin Racing LONCIN 9′18.236
24 Louis ROSSI FRA FFM Honda GP 125 HONDA 9′18.348
25 Robert MURESAN ROU Grizzly Gas Kiefer Racing APRILIA 9′20.675
26 Michael VAN DER MARK NED Dutch Racing Team HONDA 9′22.721
27 Robert GULL SWE Ajo Motorsports Jnr. Project DERBI 9′30.212
28 Jasper IWEMA NED Abbink Bos Racing SEEL 9′33.728
29 Ernst DUBBINK NED RV Racing Team HONDA 9′34.469
30 Jerry VAN DE BUNT NED Degraaf Grand Prix APRILIA 9′40.939
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