News

Yamaha gamble hands stoner the title

02/09/07

By David Miller

Fiat Yamaha's gamble to run a relatively untested pneumatic valve motor at Misano this afternoon went badly wrong when Valentino Rossi was forced to pull out with engine failure after just four laps, scoring no points in the process.

To add insult to injury, Ducati's Casey Stoner secured yet another win, taking his points advantage to 85 over Rossi, which means that unless God steps in at any or all of the next five races, Stoner will be the 2008 world champion.

It's debatable whether the Yamaha team has given up on the title but it looks to most observers that it has, indeed, waved the white flag and is now concentrating on next season, and using the remaining races as test sessions.

Meanwhile Stoner is Mick Doohan-esque in his attitude towards winning races and basically grinding the rest of the field into very small pieces and then feeding them to the cat.

The Aussie led away from the lights with John Hopkins, Rossi and Chris Vermeulen in close attendance. A much-touted first-lap crash appeared as if ordered when Randy De Puniet lost control of his Kawasaki, taking both Repsol Hondas into the kitty litter with him.

Reigning world champion Nicky Hayden wrestled his bike back on to the track without further incident but team-mate Dani Pedrosa was no so lucky and fell off, almost swearing at the Frenchman as he went down.

Stoner put on his usual smooth riding display, slowly but surely gapping the Suzukis of Hopkins and Vermeulen who seemed to have no answer to the pace of Stoner. It's almost like the 21-year-old is just playing with the opposition as he seems to be able to wind his lap times up and down at will - and still be faster than anyone else.

He had built a two-second lead on his countryman by lap 17 who, in turn, was seven seconds ahead of Hopkins. Gresini Honda's Marco Melandri, who surely must win The Wayne Gardner Riding While Nearly Dead Award, was a further 10 seconds down the road.

Vermeulen eventually crossed the line five seconds behind Stoner with Hopkins a further 11 seconds in arrears. Melandri held off Loris Capirossi for fourth while Carlos Checa secured sixth.

Both Ducatis ran out of fuel on the slowing down lap, so someone in Italy has been reading the Colin Chapman book of how to design racing engines... And the factory is staying at Misano to "test parts for next year"  from tomorrow.

Results

1 25 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 44'34.720
2 20 71 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 44'39.571
3 16 21 John HOPKINS USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 44'50.722
4 13 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Honda Gresini HONDA 44'57.457
5 11 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 44'59.507
6 10 7 Carlos CHECA SPA Honda LCR HONDA 45'09.706
7 9 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Honda Gresini HONDA 45'15.616
8 8 13 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 45'16.494
9 7 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 45'21.866
10 6 56 Shinya NAKANO JPN Konica Minolta Honda HONDA 45'23.528
11 5 66 Alex HOFMANN GER Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 45'24.019
12 4 50 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 45'43.896
13 3 1 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 45'55.144
14 2 6 Makoto TAMADA JPN Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 46'08.943
15 1 80 Kurtis ROBERTS USA Team Roberts KR212V 1 lap
NOT CLASSIFIED
4 Alex BARROS BRA Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 13 laps
46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 23 laps