Superb win for Stoner in Qatar Monday night race
Monday, 13 April 2009 fom http://www.motogp.com
The re-scheduled first MotoGP race of 2009 saw Casey Stoner take victory at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar.
As the action in the premier class of the 2009 FIM MotoGP World Championship finally got underway, at the spectacular Losail International Circuit on Monday night, it was Casey Stoner who took the headlines, completing a hat-trick of season-opening wins in Qatar.
Following the exceptional postponement of the opening MotoGP contest of the year due to rain in the Arabian desert, Monday evening witnessed the first race in the new single tyre supplier era, but it was a familiar story with Stoner crossing the line first, ahead of World Champion Valentino Rossi.
A ruthless Stoner took the holeshot from pole and had built up a two second gap at the end of the first lap. The 2007 World Champion’s victory never looked in serious doubt as he controlled the race from the front, having been the fastest rider in every session over the weekend. Stoner’s winning margin was more than seven seconds at the end of a brilliant performance, casting aside any doubts about his fitness after winter surgery on his left wrist.
Completing the podium behind the front two was Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha colleague Jorge Lorenzo repeating his rostrum result from his MotoGP debut in the opening race of 2008, in his first race on Bridgestone tyres.
Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards started his seventh season in MotoGP riding solidly from sixth on the grid to finish fourth on his own Bridgestone debut, making it three Yamahas in the top four.
Also on new tyres and with a new factory bike Repsol Honda’s 2009 signing Andrea Dovizioso was fifth, fading slightly in the second half of the race having run in third place for several laps.
There was a good performance from Alex de Angelis, crossing the line sixth having qualified ninth at the start of his second year with the San Carlo Honda Gresini team. Rizla Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen also made a decent start to the year with his improved GSV-R machine in seventh.
An excellent MotoGP debut from satellite Ducati rider Mika Kallio, meanwhile, saw him end up as the best placed rookie in eighth for the new look Pramac Racing outfit.
On factory machinery and returning to the Honda Gresini team this year, Toni Elías may be disappointed not to have done better than ninth, whilst Frenchman Randy de Puniet brought the satellite LCR Honda RC212V home three seconds behind the Spaniard to complete the top ten.
Dani Pedrosa, riding with knee and wrist injuries, battled through the pain barrier to pick up some important points in eleventh spot. On his Ducati debut, Pedrosa’s former team-mate Nicky Hayden also did well to complete the race in twelfth, given the back and chest injuries he suffered in a huge highside crash in qualifying on Saturday. The brave 2006 World Champion even set his best time on the last lap.
Sete Gibernau finished 13th on his MotoGP comeback with the satellite Ducati Grupo Francisco Hernando team, unable to push into the top ten due to his ongoing shoulder injury.
Marco Melandri made his first appearance for the Hayate Racing Team and ran off track early on but battled back well to finish in the points in 14th.
Commencing his 20th Grand Prix season Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi crashed out on lap eight and was unable to rejoin the race.
After a weekend off the MotoGP riders next reconvene at the Polini Grand Prix of Japan for round two, which takes place at the Motegi circuit from 24th-26th April.
1. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 42min 53.984 sec
2. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 43min 1.755 sec
3. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha Team 43min 10.228 sec
4. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 43min 18.394 sec
5. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team 43min 21.247 sec
6. Alex de Angelis RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini 43min 23.867 sec
7. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 43min 27.611 sec
8. Mika Kallio FIN Pramac Racing 43min 28.739 sec
9. Toni Elias SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini 43min 33.465 sec
10. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 43min 36.268 sec
11. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team 43min 42.510 sec
12. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team 43min 42.867 sec
13. Sete Gibernau SPA Grupo Francisco Hernando 43min 46.199 sec
14. Marco Melandri ITA Hayate Racing Team 43min 50.363 sec
15. Yuki Takahashi JPN Scot Racing Team MotoGP 43min 54.270 sec
16. James Toseland GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 44min 8.962 sec
17. Niccolo Canepa ITA Pramac Racing 44min 9.012 sec
DNF:
Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
What the riders said
Eurosport - Mon, 13 Apr 23:54:00 2009
All the reaction from Qatar where Casey Stoner won the opening race of the MotoGP season
Casey Stoner (winner): "I'm not quite there yet but I am almost at 100 per cent fitness. However, I am not surprised by winning here as I felt great physically and definitely better than last year. However, at the end of the race I was suffering a little, bit especially my right leg because of the constant braking. Everything went really well for me except in the last six laps when the front wheel started to suffer wear and tear."
Congratulations to Casey, this year has started like last year for him, lets hope the rest of the year will be different….
Valentino Rossi (2nd): "We have made worse starts to a season than this, so I have to be content with the performance. I was fast enough and able to stay within two seconds of him (Stoner) but the front wheel was really badly worn and I nearly fell two or three times. Therefore I decided to slow down. The second-half of the race wasn't great but I am still happy."
All weekend I had a feeling he had something up his sleeve, to bad he got stuck behind Caprossi in the first round, maybe we could have gotten Laguna Seca 2? I guess we will never know. Now that he had a year on the Bridgestone’s and he doesn’t need time to get used to them, I hope we will have many more close races between the two. (and I think he does to).
Jorge Lorenzo (3rd): "We weren't competitive enough to win. It was really frustrating to be so far in arrears of the two leaders in particular on this circuit in which I have had quite a lot of success."
I wonder if becoming a cartoon hero will inflate his already over sized ego?
Colin Edwards (4th): "That was a good start to the season after I made a rubbish start to the race. I thought I'd got a good start but the next thing I know everybody is flying by me. I was way down and it cost me the chance to fight for the podium really. I'm not saying I could have run with Jorge (Lorenzo) because he was riding really well, but it would have been nice to give myself a shot."
keep on being mad at James its obviously doing you only good.
Andrea Dovizioso (5th): "It was a very hard fight today, and I'm satisfied that we learned a lot here in practice and during the race. Now we'll analyse the data and work hard for the next one in Japan."
well done- keep up the good work.
Alex De Angelis (6th): "I'm so happy with this result because I think we deserve it after working so hard this weekend. I didn't get a great start but I knew my pace was okay so I just tried to stay calm, pass as many people as possible and make up positions. We knew the podium was out of reach for us here but I always felt we were capable of a top result and sixth place falls into that category."
Well done, very good race to the French rider, is this a sign of things to come?
Mika Kallio (8th): "Before coming here I thought that if I would have finished in the top ten I would have been satisfied: the eight position is therefore a really good result. I didn't manage to start in the best way, but I have maintained a good rhythm. I tried to catch the group in front of me, but after a few laps I thought to keep my rhythm and this strategy paid off."
Impressive
Toni Elias (9th): "Taking into account where we started from and the problems we had this weekend, this is a decent result for us and I'm satisfied. In terms of points it probably would have been better for us if the race was cancelled here because we knew it would be tough for us but the truth is that if you had offered me ninth place on Friday, I probably would have taken it!"
hope this year will be better for him.
Dani Pedrosa (11th): "Overall I'm happy because of my progress over the weekend. I improved in every session and I'm glad to have come here and scored five points - though I'm also slightly disappointed because it could even have been ten or eleven. I got a good start and the race was going very well at the beginning. After seven or eight laps, though, I had started to get some vibration with the front wheel which became more severe as the race progressed."
Personal feelings about Dani aside- it was an amazing save, and as hard as it is for me to say it- he did ride very good- much better then I expected of him- so well done, but he should be less a cry baby- I believe we sew worse passes in SBK
NIcky Hayden (12th): "It's been a tough weekend and we've had a lot of issues. In the beginning of the race I was quite slow, I didn't get a great start but actually as the fuel load changed and I got a better feeling I got faster and faster and the last five or six laps were my fastest of the whole weekend. It would have been nice to nick Dani at the end there but I think the team have showed that even though a lot of stuff has gone against us this weekend we're not going to give up."
nicky nicky nicky..... what is happening to you? hope that things will only improve from now on ('cause how much lower could they possibly get?)
James Toseland (16th): "It has been a difficult weekend to say the least and I know we have got a long way to catch up. This race was almost like a test for me, and like in testing, I didn't have a lot of luck out there. I felt like I could fight for the top ten but Toni Elias came up the inside of me at the final corner as I was closing on Randy de Puniet and Mika Kallio. He touched me and I went off into the gravel and that left me out of the points unfortunately."
well... nothing to say (nothing appropriate any way, so i will not say anything)
Niccolo Canepa (17th): "I hoped to do better to be honest, but it has been a difficult weekend since the first session and we couldn't expect a miracle for the race. In the last laps I made it to stay with Toseland and I learnt many things. We will try to improve our performances in Japan even if it will be the first time for me in Japan, but I will surely be more aggressive because it is what I need."
Stoner crafted race victory around fuel consumption
Monday, 13 April 2009
Australian modified style in early stages of Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar.
from: http://www.motogp.com
Casey Stoner almost made the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar look easy, but the Australian revealed after his third consecutive victory at the Losail International Circuit that a lot of concentration and adaptation was needed over the course of the 22-lap race.
A fuel consumption issue had Stoner modifying his style as he streaked out in front, and he explained afterwards that his turning up the heat later on was not a direct response to some fast times from rival Valentino Rossi.
“We had a very small problem with fuel consumption, and the team had told me that if it was possible I should run in a way that would help it out. I tried faster corner speeds and riding with higher gears, but from about lap ten it wasn’t enough,” said the Ducati Marlboro man. “I had to change my style again, but there were no problems after that.
Stoner regarded his 2008 win as a false dawn in his season, as the victory disguised some problems with the Desmosedici GP8 that took time in being resolved. This year, however, he sees himself as being in a much stronger position.
“Everything went perfect in preseason, and I’d like to start this year better than the last one, where we really struggled from this race up until basically the middle of the season. It would be nice to think that we can put up a little more of a fight right up until the end of the year,” said the 23 year-old.
Rossi looks on the bright side.
Mon 13 Apr, 10:10 PM from:http://eurosport.yahoo.com
Rossi found the track conditions less to his liking after Sunday’s rainstorm, then dropped two positions to fourth on lap one, while Stoner charged into an early eland.
The Fiat Yamaha star recovered to second by lap three of 22, but was already three seconds behind Stoner’s Ducati and - despite initially gaining on the Australian - couldn’t maintain the pace and finished a massive 7.7sec behind the 2007 champion.
“Today the conditions of the track were quite different to before and this evening in warm-up we encountered a couple of small problems related to tyres, so our strategy had to change slightly tonight,” said Rossi. “It’s a pity because I think last night we could have put up more of a fight, but anyway this is a good result to start the season, much better than last year.
“I knew I needed a good start in order to go with Stoner but unfortunately I didn’t get one and I lost some time fighting with Lorenzo and Capirossi and by then Stoner had already gone!
“The middle part of the race was great fun and I made six or seven good laps to come much closer, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to continue in that rhythm, it was too risky for the tyres and I decided it was more important to take the 20 points.”
Nevertheless, Rossi’s second position is significantly better than his fifth place at Qatar last year, and he was closer to Stoner during practice and qualifying than most expected after being over one-second slower than the Australian in last month’s test.
Stoner is also something of a Qatar specialist - winning the last three races at Losail, in both day and night - but last season he went on to struggle at the following rounds.
“Casey was very strong today but he is always fast here and I believe that our potential is very good; I think that we can be back fighting again in Motegi,” confirmed Rossi. “I am so glad we could race today after yesterday and I am satisfied to be leaving here having made a good start to the season - it is long!”
“We didn’t win but we can consider this a good start to the season, certainly much better than in 2008. Now we need to work to fix one or two small problems that we have,” added team manager Davide Brivio. “The middle part of the race was good, we were gaining on Stoner but in the latter stages he was in a better condition to push and Valentino was right to settle for second. It’s a long championship and the points are important. We are confident that we will be able to battle with Stoner in Motegi.”
With Shinya Nakano having left MotoGP, Rossi is now the only rider to have competed in every race since the introduction of the four-stroke MotoGP class at the start of 2002.
Pedrosa slams ‘disrespectful’ De Angelis after Qatar collision
Monday, 13 April 2009 - from : motogp.com
Contact between Honda pair draws harsh words from Spanish star.
Dani Pedrosa had one of the more eventful races of his premier class career in Qatar, and certainly earned his eventual five point haul from the opening round of the MotoGP World Championship season. Riding injured, the Spaniard very nearly saw his race ended in a collision with Alex de Angelis, and had some harsh words for the San Marino rider after coming home eleventh.
“He came straight into me, I was in front and he came into me to close me down. (He showed…) no respect, but life will return the favour to him,” seethed the Repsol Honda rider, who had been battling with De Angelis and Chris Vermeulen at the time of the incident. Vermeulen had passed him, but De Angelis’ attempted opportunism led to his touching the Repsol Honda rider and facing a meeting with the stewards following the race.
For Pedrosa –far from fully fit after leg and arm surgery- the collision severely affected his ability to take further positions and could have added another niggle to his list of injuries.
“After eight or nine laps at the front I started to have some vibration, and I don’t know why that was. Finally I started to lose a lot of grip, and when De Angelis touched me I began to have pain in my shoulder. It’s probably nothing, but I will get it checked out anyway.”
De Angelis: “We deserve this result for our hard work”
Monday, 13 April 2009
San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Alex de Angelis did not see his collision with Dani Pedrosa as a big deal and felt his sixth place in Qatar was well-earned.
Last year at the Losail International Circuit Alex de Angelis crashed out on his MotoGP debut, but the San Marino rider did far better this time around as he battled throughout the race to earn a solid sixth place to start the season.
The Honda Gresini rider commenced his second premier class season ninth on the grid in Monday’s re-scheduled MotoGP race and produced a typically combative display to pick off a series of opponents, at one stage apparently inadvertently making contact with Dani Pedrosa on his charge through the pack.
Pedrosa was enraged by the incident and although De Angelis was asked to give an explanation to officials after the race he was not sanctioned.
Looking back over proceedings De Angelis commented, “I’m so happy with this result because I think we deserve it after working so hard this weekend. I didn’t get a great start but I knew my pace was okay so I just tried to stay calm, pass as many people as possible and make up positions. We knew the podium was out of reach for us here but I always felt we were capable of a top result and sixth place falls into that category.”
He added, “I was called up to Race Direction to put forward my version of the collision with Dani but there was no complaint against me so it wasn’t a big deal. This is just the start and even though we know this circuit suits my style of riding and my package, our aim is to be consistent and keep scoring results like this one.”
The sixth place result was one of De Angelis’ best in his short 800cc class career to date, having only finished higher than that twice last year with his two fourth places at Mugello and Sachsenring.
His team boss Fausto Gresini stated, “Alex did a great job. He made life difficult for himself at the start but he rode brilliantly and fully deserved the result. It was a shame about the collision with Pedrosa – I’m not sure exactly how it happened but I think it was clear that Alex didn’t do it intentionally.”
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