Casey Stoner claimed another victory at the MotorLand circuit on Sunday, giving the Australian his eighth win of the season and Repsol Honda their 100th win. The important vicoty puts the Australian 44 points clear of defending World Champion Jorge Lorenzo. Dani Pedrosa finished the round in second place behind his team mate, while Lorenzo made his way to the final podium spot.
Marco Simoncelli finished 6 seconds behind Lorenzo to take fourth, a strong finish for the Italian considering he ran off the track on his first attempt at passing the YZR-M1 of Ben Spies on lap 9. The Yamaha rider had a great start off the outside of the first row, leading into turn one in front of fellow front row starters Stoner and Pedrosa, but the two Honda riders got past him by lap two, and the American finally finished the race in fifth place.
Álvaro Bautista finished in sixth off an eleventh place start, passing Hayden on lap 10 and holding the position to the finish line. The American and Héctor Barberá had a scrap for seventh, with the Hayden passing the Mapfre Aspar ride on the penultimate lap.
Cal Crutchlow finished ninth, ahead of Valentino Rossi who started his Ducati Team machine from pit lane, and Hiroshi Aoyama in 11th.
A first lap crash for Karel Abraham caused Randy De Puniet to run off track to avoid the Czech rider, the Frenchman rejoining the race to finish 12th ahead of the final race finisher Colin Edwards .
Andrea Dovizioso also fell on the first lap and was unable to rejoin, while Loris Capirossi collided with Toni Elías on lap 15, both riders going down in the gravel, producing another dislocated right shoulder for Capirossi and making the Italian’s presence at the next round at Motegi questionable.
Pic: bikeracing.it
