Buzzin MotoGP

Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda

The Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa claimed his first victory of the season in this weekends MotoGP round at Mugello after Valentino Rossi was ruled out of the race following his crash in practice.

The Fiat Yamaha rider missed his first home race since 2000 after fracturing the tibia in his right leg on Saturday and underwent surgery to align and stabilised with a pin.  Rossi will have the wound stitched over the next few days and is expected to leave the hospital within the next ten days.  Rossi appeared in high spirits while being interviewed from his hospital bed and said;

“Now I can say my morale is reasonably high because I’ve discovered I have a great rapport with morphine!”

Pedrosa led from the first corner at the Gran Premio d’Italia and crossed the line 4.014 seconds ahead of his nearest rival Jorge Lorenzo on the Fiat Yamaha, who is still leading the championship after his second place finish.  The Spaniard held up a message for his ailing team-mate before the start of the race which read;

“Everyone can feel pain, but not everyone can be a legend”

The second Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso finished in third place ahead of the Marlboro Ducati rider Casey Stoner.  Stoner had been trading places with Marco Melandri and Randy de Puniet for much of the race before securing his fourth place finish, after passing Melandri on the final lap while de Puniet had to settle for sixth place.

Ben Spies crossed the line in seventh place ahead of the Pramac Racing rider Aleix Espargaro in eighth, Marco Simoncelli in ninth and Loris Capirossi in tenth.

Nicky Hayden failed to finish on the second Marlboro Ducati after the bike folded on him on lap 5 of the race as he rode through the downhill Turn 12 while Mika Kallio also failed to finish for the Pramac Racing team after crashing out.

Here are the results;

1.  Dani Pedrosa  ESP Repsol Honda Team  42m 28.066s
2. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Fiat Yamaha Team 42m 32.080s
3. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team 42m 34.262s
4. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 42m 53.789s
5. Marco Melandri ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 42m 53.801s
6. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 42m 54.031s
7. Ben Spies USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 42m 56.872s
8. Aleix Espargaro ESP Pramac Racing 43m 8.238s
9. Marco Simoncelli ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 43m 9.460s
10. Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 43m 10.173s
11. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Interwetten Honda MotoGP 43m 11.161s
12. Hector Barbera ESP Paginas Amarillas Aspar 43m 11.429s
13. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 43m 42.459s
14. Alvaro Bautista ESP Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 43m 52.455s

DNF:
Mika Kallio FIN Pramac Racing
Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team