News

rOSSI BACK ON FORM AS STONER WATCHES BATTLE

16/09/07

By David Miller

Casey Stoner could only watch from third place as Valentino Rossi put on a, erm, Valentino Rossi-esque performance at Estoril this afternoon to win the best race of the year so far.

The Doctor was most definitely back in as he battled with Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa for the lead, switching positions with the Spaniard at every opportunity. Stoner, meanwhile could only observe the fight from third place, a second behind the scrap for first.

Honda has pulled something out of the bag for this race as neither Rossi's new Yamaha motor, which is supposed to have an extra few kph at the top end, nor Stoner's big-power Ducati could live with Pedrosa's straight-line speed.

The Aussie led right from the off while Rossi got an appalling start and found himself back in fifth by the time he got to the first corner. Stoner and Pedrosa looked to be having it all their own way, pulling a decent gap over Nicky Hayden in a couple of laps.

It took Rossi until lap eight to get past Stoner for second place and prevent Pedrosa from clearing off, but he had to do it on the brakes into the first corner. The Italian then went about the task of catching the remaining Honda in front of him.

In the end, it only took one lap but the pair swapped places over the course of the race and looked like they had managed to drop the world championship series leader. However, with six laps to go, Stoner began to come good again while Rossi and Pedrosa held each other up playing cat and mouse.

Stoner managed to get back to within a second of them, but ran out of laps. Pedrosa had retaken the lead with a handful of circuits remaining and tried to break the Fiat Yamaha. However Rossi had some ideas of his own and went back to the front with just over a lap to go, crossing the line a tenth ahead of Pedrosa.

Results

1 25 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 45'49.911
2 20 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 45'50.086
3 16 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 45'51.388
4 13 1 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 46'02.862
5 11 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Honda Gresini HONDA 46'07.254
6 10 21 John HOPKINS USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 46'08.768
7 9 7 Carlos CHECA SPA Honda LCR HONDA 46'21.435
8 8 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Honda Gresini HONDA 46'30.446
9 7 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 46'33.018
10 6 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 46'34.585
11 5 56 Shinya NAKANO JPN Konica Minolta Honda HONDA 46'35.314
12 4 13 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 46'44.473
13 3 71 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 46'49.913
14 2 50 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 46'57.523 1 lap
NOT CLASSIFIED
6 Makoto TAMADA JPN Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 38'04.958 5 laps
4 Alex BARROS BRA Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 36'37.792 6 laps
14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 31'36.089 9 laps
66 Alex HOFMANN GER Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 18'41.437 17 laps
80 Kurtis ROBERTS USA Team Roberts KR212V 3'47.574 26 laps