MotoGP 800cc Round 1 – Ducati draws first blood

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Casey Stoner

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Stoner’s fastest lap of 1m 56.708s on lap 16 was quick enough, but didn’t show the pace he had left to burn in the closing laps. As Rossi moved into the lead at turn nine on the next lap, sliding neatly underneath the Ducati, Stoner simply blitzed him on the straight to lead again.

Rossi had another look at turn nine again but no matter how agile his machine was on the infield, he had no answer to the 20km/h top speed advantage enjoyed by the Ducati. Stoner won by 2.83 seconds at the flag. And set a fastest lap and race record of 1m 56.528s on that final blistering lap. Pedrosa in third was 8.5 seconds away from Stoner – too far away for consolation.

Pedrosa said, “I’m happy with the result today and to start the season with a third place is pretty useful. We had a fair few problems this weekend, so to finish on the podium is good for us. I made a great start, which I was happy with because my practice starts this weekend weren’t as good as this. In the race I was trying to ride at the maximum and then I made a mistake in the last corner and lost the slipstream to the riders in front. The next race is very important and Jerez is a good track, so I hope we can move on from the good result today and do great job there.”

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer John Hopkins battled to a superb fourth place, missing out on a place on the podium by only half a second.

Anglo-American Hopkins has been suffering all weekend with the after-effects of a heavy crash at Qatar last month, but he overcame the pain to equal his best-ever MotoGP result. He got off to a good start and consolidated his sixth place starting position in the early laps. Hopkins then moved up the field to third place at one point – setting one of the fastest laps of the race in the process – where he then became involved in a race long battle with Dani Pedrosa. Although Hopkins tried to make an overtaking manoeuvre on the last lap, he was unable to get past Pedrosa and had to settle for fourth.

Hopkins said : “I am really happy with the way the race went after coming to this event in quite a bit of pain. I was never sure how I’d ride or even if I’d ride! I got off to a good start but lost a couple of places on the first few laps, I soon got them back and from there on I just tried to keep myself up towards the front.

“It was important not to lose any positions, but unfortunately Rossi and Stoner had a great pace and it was difficult to keep up with them. I stayed with Pedrosa and pushed him all the way till the end. I tried to get past him on the last lap but he’s so little he gets out of the corners so quick that I just couldn’t get past him! I’ve got to say thanks to the Team Physio Dean Miller and my trainer Johnny Louch for getting me fit enough to race here this weekend. It was also great to have my Mum here and my girlfriend Ashleigh, as they both helped me cope with the injury well. I am now ready to go to Jerez and hope to take that step up onto the podium!”

Melandri in fifth said, “I tried to hang on to fourth place because I felt confident but we were losing time in the straight and I had to brake really late to make up time. That put a lot of stress on the front tyre and forced me to slow down. In the second half of the race when the fuel load started to lighten the bike was more balanced and I was able to push again. The race was tough and the pace was really high. We still have a lot of work to do – the bike is new and we need to develop it.”

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