Buzzin MotoGP

The Italian Moto GP

Joy Ryder - Monday 02.06.08, 18:57pm

Photo: © by Solizhen

Valentino Rossi won his seventh consecutive Italian Moto GP yesterday in front of his home crowd on his home track even after getting off to a bad start.

Rossi got off the line in fourth place but passed Loris Capirossi on the first lap with Casey Stoner being taken by Dani Pedrosa on lap two and then by Rossi, dropping the Spaniard back to third.

The Fiat Yamaha rider then took the lead from Stoner and showing a strange image of his surprised face painted on the top of his helmet as he got his head down and concentrated on the job in hand.

Stoner held on to his second podium place and those much needed points, followed by Dani Pedrosa in third position.

Jorge Lorenzo who had his worse qualifying session so far in seventh place, lost the front end of his machine on lap seven of the race leading to his retirement.

Alex de Angelis took an amazing fourth place from tenth followed by Colin Edwards in fifth just ahead of his team-mate James Toseland.

Capirossi finally finished in seventh place followed by Andrea Dovizioso in eighth, Shinya Nikano in ninth and Chris Vermeulen in tenth.

Here are the results;

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Points
1	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Fiat Yamaha Team	122
3	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Fiat Yamaha Team	94
5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Tech 3 Yamaha	58
7	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	JiR Team Scot MotoGP	44
9	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Repsol Honda Team	40
11	Chris VERMEULEN	AUS	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	31
13	Alex DE ANGELIS	RSM	San Carlo Honda Gresini	24
15	Toni ELIAS	SPA	Alice Team	24
17	Sylvain GUINTOLI	FRA	Alice Team	12
19	Tadayuki OKADA	JPN	Repsol Honda Team	2

250cc

Marco Simoncelli won the 250cc GP for the first time yesterday at his home track, after Hector Barbera crashed heavily on the final lap of the race.

Barbera had been in pole position for the start of the race but ran wide after the first corner handing the lead to Alvaro Bautista. Simoncelli tailed Bautista for the first six laps until Bautista suffered a lowside putting Simoncelli in front.

On lap eleven Barbera got in the slipstream of Simoncelli sailing past and retaking the lead, however, with only five laps to go the lead was constantly changing.

The race ended in a rather dramatic finish as the riders made contact. Simoncelli seemed to move to the left as Barbera pulled alongside to pass him. Barbera appeared to hit the rear wheel of Simoncelli and his front end folded with the impact sending him somersaulting along the main straight followed by his machine.

Simoncelli was fortunately unhurt in the accident and Barbera went on to take his first controversial victory.

Alex Debon took the third place from Luthi on lap fifteen with Mika Kallio in fourth place.

Here are the results;

1. Barbera (Aprilia)

2. Simoncelli (Gilera) +0.499secs

3. Luthi (Aprilia) +0.712secs

4. Kallio (KTM) +7.403secs

5. Pasini (Aprilia) +12.542secs

6. Locatelli (Gilera) +12.790secs

7. Abraham (Aprilia) +16.114secs

8. Aoyama (KTM) +17.316secs

9. Espargaro (Aprilia) +19.642secs

10. Wilairot (Honda) +19.704secs

13. Laverty (Aprilia) +47.422secs

125cc

Simone Corsi won the 125cc GP yesterday, his third so far this season at his home track on the Jack & Jones Aprilia followed by Gabor Talmacsi and Pol Espargaro with only 0.036 seconds between the top three riders.

At one stage during the race there were no less than twelve riders frantically battling it out for that lead spot. Bradley Smith took the lead with a couple of laps to go and with a fractured foot but he could not hold the other riders off.

Here are the results;

1. Corsi (Aprilia)

2. Talmacsi (Aprilia) +0.019secs

3. Espargaro (Derbi) +0.036secs

4. di Meglio (Derbi) ) +0.135secs

5. Smith (Aprilia) +0.178secs

6. Gadea (Aprilia) +0.490secs

7. Terol (Aprilia) +0.832secs

8. Cortese (Aprilia) +3.865secs

9. Olive (Derbi) +3.928secs

10. Bradl (Aprilia) +5.439secs

14. Redding (Aprilia) +23.201secs