MotoGP highlights - Japan from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Jorge Lorenzo powered to victory in the Japanese MotoGP at Motegi ahead of team-mate Valentino Rossi to take the lead in the world championships.
Pole-sitter Rossi led for the first third of the race before the Spaniard passed him, and Rossi then had to hold off Dani Pedrosa for second spot.
Casey Stoner, who won the opening race of the season in Qatar, finished fourth ahead of Andrea Dovizioso.
British rider James Toseland finished in ninth place.
Pedrosa's finish was all the more impressive considering the pre-season injury problems which affected his preparation and bike development so much that he was forced to ride last year's model.
"I had a very good start and in first laps I thought maybe I could stay there two or three laps, then it became four or five," said a clearly shocked Pedrosa.
"As it went on I couldn't believe I was still there with the Yamahas."
Rossi was disappointed not to have won, but took consolation from scoring valuable championship points.
"I did a great start but after some laps I realised I didn't have enough pace to to away long," said Rossi.
Unexpected win in Japan delights Lorenzo
"After I got my rhythm, my pace was ok but too late to come back on Lorenzo - it's not a victory but it's 20 points for the championship."
Lorenzo admitted he did not expect to lead the championship so early in the season, and said he was looking forward to putting on a show in front of his home fans at the next round of the championship, in Jerez in Spain.
"Jerez is always a party, people are always pushing the Spanish riders so I think maybe well take some risks to try and win," he said.
"If we can't, we'll finish as best we can."
In the 125cc race, Italy's Andrea Iannone won his second consecutive race, ahead of Julian Simon and Pol Espargaro, to retain his lead in the championship.
Spain's Alvaro Bautista won the 250cc ahead of home favourite Hiroshi Aoyama, with Mattia Pasini in third.
Reigning champion Marco Simoncelli, who missed the opening race of the season because of a wrist injury, started from pole and led for the first nine laps until he clipped the kerb and struggled back to the pits, re-emerging to finish in 17th place.
MotoGP race result:
1 J Lorenzo (Spa) Fiat Yamaha 43 mins 47.238 secs
2 V Rossi (Ita) Fiat Yamaha 43:48.542
3 D Pedrosa (Spa) Repsol Honda 43:51.001
4 C Stoner (Aus) Ducati 43:52.929
5 A Dovizioso (It) Honda 43:56.445
6 M Melandri (Ita) Kawasaki 44:17.793
7 L Capirossi (Ita) Suzuki 44:19.994
8 M Kallio (Fin) Ducati 44:26.654
9 J Toseland (GB) Yamaha 44:30.344
10 C Vermeulen (Aus) Suzuki 44:30.483,
11 R de Puniet (Fra) Honda 44:32.072
12 C Edwards (USA) Yamaha 44:33.778
13 A de Angelis (Smr) Honda 44:40.763
14 N Canepa (Ita) Ducati 45:09.042
15 T Elias (Spa) Honda +1 lap
World Championship standings:
1 J Lorenzo (Spa) Fiat Yamaha 41 points
2 V Rossi (Ita) Fiat Yamaha 40
3 C Stoner (Aus) Ducati 38
4 A Dovizioso (Ita) Repsol Honda 22
5 D Pedrosa (Spa) Repsol Honda 21
6 C Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 17
7 M Kallio (Fin) Pramac Racing 16
8 C Vermeulen (Aus) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 15
9 A de Angelis (SM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 13
10 M Melandri (Ita) Hayate Racing Team 12
Manufacturers standings:
1 Yamaha 45pts
2 Ducati 38
3 Honda 27
4 Suzuki 18
5 Kawasaki 12
Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 1st Time: 43′47.238
“First of all I just want to thank my team, my Mum, Dad and whole family, my friends and all the team workers. Also Yamaha, as it is their home race, it was a difficult race because I didn’t really get a very good start, I think I even finished the first lap in third or fourth. After that I began to catch up the pace. I passed Valentino and opened up a little gap, about a second and a half, and he was following me very hard. I had to ride the best I can to get the victory.”
 | Rossi - Lorenzo |
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“It was a great race, long, very difficult and also physical. I got a really good start from the front row, but there was a part of the race that I wasn’t quite able to ride like I wanted, there was some kind of problem and I wasn’t fast enough to pull away. I lost time from Jorge and then was involved in a battle with Dani and then in the last part of the race I was able to step up my pace and pick my lines, setting some good lap times. I tried to come back but unfortunately Lorenzo was too far away. It’s a good race, second place is not a victory but it’s still twenty points for the championship. I think the championship will become very interesting now because we have four riders ready to battle for wins at the end.”
Dani Padrosa - Position: 3rd
from: motogp.com
“It’s a great result. I don’t think that anybody expected it. I think I could have even taken second, but when I passed Rossi he seemed to wake up and see that he had to go faster!” said Pedrosa after the Japanese showdown.
“Third isn’t the best place -we obviously still need to work hard. Hopefully with the situation we are in now this result will create a good feeling, and I think that the motivation within Honda to make progress will increase.”
Additional progress also appears to have been made with the Repsol Honda man’s knee, as he steadily regains fitness as the weeks go by. He hailed the work done by not just himself, but also the doctors in charge of getting him in fighting shape.
“After six months of problems with my knee –surgery, being scared to push things, no testing- I took a podium and I’m very happy with this. I only have to thank the doctors for getting me fit to be here.”
Casey stoner- Position: 4th
from: http://www.autosport.com
"We have had the same issues as everybody else, I suppose, in that we haven't had time to set the bike up but all in all I think we were capable of at least matching the lap times of the front guys - we just lost too much time at the start," said Stoner.
"On the warm-up lap I felt I a lot of chatter from the front brakes, they weren't smooth and I wasn't confident over the first five or six laps. I really didn't know what to do, I wasn't able to brake where I wanted to and I wasn't confident.
"Maybe I could have gone faster but I don't know how safe that would have been. Anyway, I lost a lot of positions at the beginning of the race and I spent too much time battling to get past."
Once up to fifth, Stoner was able to match the times of the Yamahas and Hondas ahead, but could not close until the final laps, when he took fourth from Andrea Dovizioso.
"When I got closer to the front it was a bit too late, unfortunately," said Stoner.
"I tried to stay as consistent as I could and when I got closer to Andrea I rode a bit harder because I saw it was possible to pass him."
He is now three points behind new championship leader Jorge Lorenzo - and pointed out that he had lost more ground last year when he had a disastrous second round at Jerez.
"We didn't lose that many points and this is a much better start to the season than last year, so we can definitely feel positive going into the next one," said the Australian.
Ducati team boss Livio Suppo agreed that Stoner had done well to minimise the damage from this race.
"It has been a strange weekend and the weather definitely hasn't helped but it has been the same for everybody," he said.
"Casey produced a great performance, showing once again his ability to ride around problems and bringing home some important points."
Marco Melandri - Position: 6thfrom:motogp.com
“This can be the starting point for something good. I started well, and when (Andrea) Dovizioso made a mistake I got past him. I knew that my pace wasn’t like that of the top three, but we were keeping it consistent and we definitely had a good race.”
Melandri also couldn’t resist the chance to mention one of the highpoints of his race, a cheeky manoeuvre on the teammate who he came nowhere near to matching in his annus horribilis as a Ducati rider.
“It was fun to fight with the top guys, and the overtaking move on Stoner was greatly satisfying for me,” beamed the Italian.
Among those impressed by Melandri’s race was his Crew Chief, Andrea Dosoli.
“Marco had a very good start, and he had good confidence with the bike. Consistent lap times were strong for him, and even if we were thinking of using the softer tyres, the decision to run the harder compound worked out ok,” said the Hayate Racing team member. “We had very little track time, but the advantage for us is having Marco, who is a very good rider and someone who can help us in finding the correct setting.”
Capirossi rues lack of track time #7th| By Matt Beer | Sunday, April 26th 2009, 09:12 GMT |
Loris Capirossi says the lack of practice time at Motegi ruined Suzuki's chances of carrying its testing form into the race.
Although Suzuki was very quick over the winter, it has yet to turn that speed into race results. Chris Vermeulen and Capirossi qualified fourth and sixth for the Japanese Grand Prix, but could only finish 10th and seventh respectively.
Capirossi said the extra track time available in testing had been key to getting the Suzuki on the pace, and that the team was struggling without it.
"I am disappointed with seventh, because this is not our proper position as we have better potential than that," he said.
"This winter we went very well because we had enough time at tests to work on the bike, but here this weekend we did one dry practice and everything else in the wet.
"We never found the best setting and we started the race with one we hadn't tried here. The bike was not too bad, but I never really found a good rhythm and feel from the tyres. I want to say that I am really sorry to all my team and everybody that has been working so hard this weekend. We need to go better than that and this weekend we just didn't perform well enough."
Vermeulen was also hampered by a gearshift problem, which saw him tumble down the field after briefly holding second at the start.
"I'm really disappointed today, because I got a good start, the bike felt good and I thought a decent result would be possible," he said. "I pushed as hard as I could and tried to hang on to the back of Valentino (Rossi).
"From about the second or third lap I started to have a problem shifting gear heading into the turns and it made it difficult to stay consistent. I felt like I'd got it under control, but then the problem got worse from about lap six as I lost all shifting up and down without having to shut the throttle or use the clutch - so it was quite difficult.
"Other than that the bike worked really well and I felt like I could have challenged somewhere close to the front, but that's all ifs, buts and maybes and we now have to make sure what caused the problem today never happens again."
The Australian remains optimistic that Suzuki can recapture the form that saw it challenging Ducati and Yamaha in testing.
"If we can keep the speed we've had recently we will go to Jerez in a positive frame of mind and if we can iron-out all the little things, then I am sure we can start to challenge for podiums," said Vermeulen.
Hayden 'didn't even hear' Takahashi
| By Matt Beer at http://www.autosport.com/ | Sunday, April 26th 2009, 14:35 GMT |
Nicky Hayden said he had no warning that Yuki Takahashi was even approaching when the Japanese rookie ran into him on the first lap at Motegi.
Both riders were taken out of the race in the collision, which saw Takahashi's Scot Honda hit the back of Hayden's factory Ducati.
"That was exactly what we didn't need," said Hayden. "I got a decent start and I think I was up a couple of positions but just going down into the hairpin, which is a slow hard-braking corner, I was on my line and Takahashi just took me down.
"There was no warning - I didn't even hear anything! I don't want to say much about that, I don't want to look like a cry-baby but, you know, it was the first lap..."
Takahashi apologised for the incident, but could not offer an explanation.
"I was in a group of drivers, more or less all of us at the same speed, then the collision under braking," he said. "I'm really sorry. Out at the very beginning of the race - what a pity. Not only for the race itself, but especially because I need laps to learn and improve."
The crash came just a fortnight after Hayden's ferocious high-side in Qatar qualifying, but the American escaped injury - and remained optimistic about his progress with the hard-to-master Ducati GP9.
"Luckily I feel okay," he said. "I actually landed in the same place on my back as the crash in Qatar and my leathers and helmet have got exactly the same marks.
"It's a shame because this weekend I honestly felt we were making some progress. I felt we had better communication going on and we worked more comfortably from the first day.
"I know we were never looking at a great result but I felt I could have been competitive today. Anyway, we have to move forward and to look to the next race."
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