Rossi earns 100th career victory
Report - Rossi takes Dutch MotoGP news.bbc.co.uk
Valentino Rossi romped to his 100th career victory as he won the Dutch MotoGP at Assen to go clear in the MotoGP world championship standings.
The reigning world champion came home ahead of Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, with Australia's Casey Stoner, who led early on, finishing third.
Honda duo Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso crashed out from threatening positions on the same corner.
Their exits helped James Toseland to sixth, his best result of the season.
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"I'm so happy, it was a great race," Rossi told BBC Sport.
"I felt good from the first lap, so I decided to push to the maximum.
"I know Jorge Lorenzo is hard to beat but I have great pace, the tyres worked very well and Yamaha is fantastic on this track."
His victory was a lot more straight forward than his dramatic win over Lorenzo in Barcelona, and he joked "this was more boring from the outside, but another battle with Jorge like that is too much for old people like my grandmother."
Stoner's third place finish was all the more impressive considering he was suffering from stomach cramps for the second consecutive race, and after the race he was clearly in pain.
"It's not my fitness, I know I've trained hard enough, it's something a bit strange", said the Australian.
"Luckily the bike was working well on a bad day."
Once Rossi got past Stoner there was no great battle for the podium places, with the main area of excitement being the battle for sixth place.
Toseland was at the front of the pack for a lot of the time, holding off the attentions of Mika Kallio, but going into the closing stages, it seemed his chance of sixth place was gone.
But Toni Elias and Loris Capirossi went on to the grass at the final corner, opening the door for Toseland to go through, and Kallio skidded off into the gravel and failed to finish.
"I was getting ready to pass Mika at the last corner when Elias came under me at Turn 10. That let Loris through too and I'd gone from sixth to ninth!," said Toseland.
"It was so chaotic I didn't even see Kallio crash and I thought when Elias dived under Loris at the last chicane that they might run off. Fortunately for me they did and I took advantage - leading that group for so long, I think I deserved sixth."
Earlier, in the 125cc race, Spain's Sergio Gadea claimed his first win of the season as he came home ahead of Nico Terol and Julian Simon, with Bradley Smith fourth.
But Smith was promoted to a podium position after Terol was penalised 20 seconds for a clash with Gadea.
That result ensures Smith remains in close contention in the 125cc championship standings.
And Hiroshi Aoyama took the lead in the 250cc standings after winning his race, ahead of Hector Barbera and Marco Simoncelli.
Previous championship leader Alvaro Bautista failed to finish after hitting the back of Aoyama's bike.
Dutch MotoGP race result:
1 V Rossi (Ita) Yamaha 42 minutes 14.611 seconds
"This is a very emotional moment and for sure I will remember this 100th victory for the rest of my life. When I reached 70, 100 seemed a long way away but here I am and it has been great, great fun getting here. It is down to so many people, like Jeremy and my guys who have been with me for ten years and all of the team who always give 100% and always give me the best bike possible. Especially however I have to thank the friends who have been with me my whole life and my father Graziano, who won here in Assen 30 years ago when I was a baby, and my mother Stefania, because they have always supported me. It's great to reach this moment here at Assen because it's the 'Cathedral' of motorcycle racing and the most historic track we go to. Today was a perfect race - I got a great start and my bike was incredible which meant that my pace was very strong. In fact I think it was better for everyone's hearts not to have another last-lap battle like in Barcelona! I had a good advantage from Lorenzo in some parts of the track and it was a great ride for me. Now I have 100 wins and I'm only the second rider to arrive at this number, but Agostini still has 22 more and for me he is still the greatest. 100 is a great result but the atmosphere in our team is wonderful and the motivation is still as high as ever - we want to win a few more races together yet!" yamaha-racing.com
2 J Lorenzo (Spa) Yamaha 42:19.979
"First of all I have to say congratulations to Valentino because this is an incredible thing to achieve and this day belongs to him. Unfortunately I didn't get a good start today and I had to take a few risks to pass people and come back to the front. Once I did I tried to go after Valentino but in some places I just wasn't as fast as him; he was riding 36.5s every time and I didn't really have quite enough confidence to push that hard today because the bike didn't feel perfect. As the race went on I started to feel the front tyre 'close' a bit and I decided that it was safer to come home in second! Another podium is a great result; it's my fiftieth and we continue to be very strong this season so I am happy. I am only five points from the lead and we are in a good position going to Laguna, which I am very excited about." yamaha-racing.com
3 C Stoner (Aus) Ducati 42:37.724
Ducati’s MotoGP Project Director Livio Suppo spoke to motogp.com on Saturday afternoon in the Netherlands, saying, “There is something wrong with Casey’s condition and we are trying to understand what is wrong and trying to help. What we have done so far is not enough and we have to investigate more. Dr Claudio Macchiagodena from Clinica Mobile has done a lot to help after the race and he has some ideas for Laguna so let’s just hope.”
Stoner was quoted by Ducati as stating, “I’ve been feeling fine all week but started to feel run down again on Friday and I’ve just got worse as the weekend has gone on. I’ve taken every kind of supplement and vitamin tablet you can think of but nothing seems to have worked, so it is obviously something we need to have looked at closer because I can’t keep going like this and it is costing us points.”
“Thankfully I had a fantastic bike underneath me again today and I owe the team for that. A big thank also to Dr Macchiagodena and our physiotherapist Freddie (Dente), who took good care of me both in Catalunya and here. Unfortunately we don’t have much time to get fit for Laguna but we’ll see what we can do.” motogp.com
4 C Edwards (USA) Yamaha 42:43.725
"When [Andrea] Dovizioso came by I was biting my teeth to stay with him and keep the pressure on. But then I saw him crash in front of me and just before that I'd had a moment with the right side of the front," he added. "I'd done 32-laps on that tyre yesterday but coming in and out of the pits all of the time it's hard to get an accurate assessment of what's going to happen.
"I just held station after that because I could see I wasn't catching [Casey] Stoner and I was holding [Chris] Vermeulen off comfortably."
Edwards added that because of the quality of the riders in the factory squads it's become difficult to pick up podiums in 2009, though he believed his performance in Assen was worthy of one.
"My target was just to ride without making any mistakes and keep the momentum going," he said. "I rode my hardest but this year in MotoGP it is so hard just to get a podium. The field is so strong now and it's the hardest year I've ever had in MotoGP. I've ridden nowhere near as hard as that in the past and been on the podium." autosport.com/
5 C Vermeulen (Aus) Suzuki 42:48.216
"I'm obviously happy because this is my best result of the year and we have shown that we have made a step with the bike after the Barcelona test - especially on the chassis side of things,” said Chris.
“At this track - and the next couple that we are going to - it is not so important on the motor front, so the slight speed disadvantage that we have is not so bad and we can still be competitive.
“I got a good start to the race and got in with the front guys early on. I tried as hard as I could to stay with them, but didn't quite have the lap-times to hang in there. I kept pushing all race and when Colin came past I tried to hang on to him, but he seemed to have a bit more rear grip than me.
“Most of the race after that was pretty boring as I was on my own,” he admitted. “I'm happy with fifth and it gives us some valuable points in the championship and a good result to take forward into Laguna Seca."
"It is nice for the team to have been in the top-five at the last three GPs,” said Suzuki team manager Paul Denning. “It is also great for Chris to find a good improvement here at Assen that will give him a step forward in confidence as we head to three of his favourite tracks. He rode a strong race today and it's a good platform to build on.” crash.net
6 J Toseland (Gbr) Yamaha 42:53.958
"I was a bit nervous on the start because I'd no experience with a new clutch set-up we were running," he said. "I did a pretty good start but still lost three or four places. I knew I'd got a pretty good race set-up so just tried to stay calm and in the first couple of laps I took advantage of that to get into the top ten.
"It was an incredible battle for most of the race and I knew I wasn't much stronger than the rest and I knew if I got to the front that it wasn't going to be a case of me pulling away.
"I knew once I was at the front of the bunch that it would be a case of protecting it. That's exactly what I did but it was nearly all spoiled on the last lap. I was getting ready to pass Mika at the last corner when Elias came under me at Turn 10. That let Loris through too and I'd gone from sixth to ninth!
"It was so chaotic I didn't even see Kallio crash and I thought when Elias dived under Loris at the last chicane that they might run off. Fortunately for me they did and I took advantage of it, and leading that group for so long I think I deserved sixth." autosport.com/
7 R De Puniet (Fra) Honda 42:54.154
It has been a thrilling and stressful race for me. The grid position did not help us and I took a bad start but after the first corner I overtook some riders and was up to ninth by the end of the first lap. After that I caught a group of riders faster than me with better engines and could not pass them. Suddenly Toseland passed me after the back straight but he was on the limit and hit my machine. Once again I had to push to catch the group but then Elias came up and hit me on turn no. 3. However I stayed focused and when Capirossi and Elias made a small mistake in the last corner I was ready to take the chance to pass them. After a difficult qualifying we deserve this 7th place. My squad made a very good job on the electronic system between the warm up and the race." motogp.com
8 T Elias (Spa) Honda 42:54.385
"I'm happy because it looks like little by little we're making progress. The problem here was that I qualified badly yesterday, I got a bad start today and a lost so much time at the start of the race fight with Sete, Talmacsi, Takahashi and Canepa. It was only three laps but it felt like a lifetime! Once I got free of them I was able to keep passing riders until there was three seconds of clear track in front of me to the second group, which I was able to close down. There were some really hard riders in that group and it was a lot of fun. I want to publicly apologise to Capirossi though because I was very late into the last chicane and ran us both off track. I feel bad for him but I just had to give it everything I had today. Race Direction have decided to penalise me for it, which I have to accept, but the most important thing about today was the performance and not the result." motogp.com
9 N Hayden (USA) Ducati 42:54.434
"When you start from 13th you are always going to have a lot of work to do but that was the best bike I've had underneath me all season so I want to say a huge 'thank you' to the team for that, they have worked so hard. I got a great start and was able to lead the second group for a while until a couple of guys came past and I lost my rhythm a bit. I made a little mistake under braking on the back straight, ran wide and lost a lot of time but I fought back and got in with the group again. I was having great fun but unfortunately the left handlebar came kind of loose about halfway through the race and cost me a lot of time - that's when a lot of the guys got past me. I know I'm coming out with a lot of excuses this year but a loose handlebar at that speed is pretty scary! The guys are looking at how it happened. Anyway, man it was a hard battle. I know we were only fighting for fifth or sixth but it felt like there was a title on the line out there! Big respect to everybody in the group though. Elias made a big mistake but everybody left it all out on the track today and we all shook hands afterwards. It was good to be a part of the battle." motogp.com
10 L Capirossi (Ita) Suzuki 42:55.284
“This first practice has been quite good for us today because I didn’t have a lot of information from last year as I only did one session, so it felt quite new for me here on a Suzuki. The bike was working well and we only changed a few things during the practice. I did the whole session with one front tyre and at the end when I tried to push a bit harder it started to move a bit more, but it still felt good so I’m happy with that. Overall it has been a good first day and now I want to get straight back on the bike and make things even better!”motogpworld.net
11 A de Angelis (RSM) Honda 43:00.621
"From the first lap to about three quarter distance it was a good race for me, fighting in a group for seventh place. We've been working hard to find rear traction recently and made some progress at the Barcelona test that has helped us here and I think we have gathered more interesting data to help us move forward. Unfortunately it was the front tyre that we struggled with today. From about halfway through it was pretty worn and the front was folding on me more and more. I almost crashed on a few occasions so decided it was best to back off and settle for the position I was in. It is not exactly where we want to be but I think we are getting closer and I'm excited about taking this progress to America."
12 M Melandri (Ita) Kawasaki 43:12.388
13 S Gibernau (Spn) Ducati 43:19.977
14 N Canepa (Ita) Ducati 43:24.508
15 Y Takahashi (Jpn) Honda 43:24.541
World Championship
2 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team 126
3 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 122
4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team 69
5 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team 67
6 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 67
7 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 56
8 Marco MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team 55
9 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 53
10 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 51
11 James TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 39
12 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini 31
13 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team 27
14 Toni ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini 27
15 Mika KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing 26
16 Niccolo CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing 12
17 Sete GIBERNAU SPA Grupo Francisco Hernando 12
18 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN Scot Racing Team MotoGP 9
Rossi reflects on reaching century of Grand Prix wins
Saturday, 27 June 2009, motogp.com
Italian thanks teams and family after riding ‘perfect race’ in Assen.
Valentino Rossi appears to reach a Grand Prix milestone with every victory added to his legacy, and the Italian reached a century of World Championship wins with his latest triumph on Saturday in Assen. The Fiat Yamaha rider had less of a battle on his hands than two weeks prior in Barcelona, and was in better condition to give an animated celebration –this time an unraveling of a celebratory banner and a photo with an ‘old school’ camera.
“It’s a fantastic achievement. 100 victories is a great number. Thanks to all the guys who have helped me to reach this number –my teams over the past ten years, Jeremy Burgess and especially all my close friends and family for giving me motivation. We hope to win some other races though!” said Rossi after stepping onto the podium with a custom made ‘100’ flag.
On the race itself, which he led for almost the entirety after starting from pole, the reigning World Champion commented that: “I had a good feeling and knew that I was very fast on two or three points in the track, so I tried to get out to the front as soon as possible and impose my rhythm. It was a perfect race because any mistakes would have a high cost. I knew that Lorenzo was very strong, so I tried to take an advantage.
“It’s been two races that the bike has had a good setting. This year the bike is fantastic, and we hope to continue in this way.”
Rossi will have little time to savour the win, as the MotoGP World Championship takes a swift transatlantic flight to Laguna Seca, California for next weekend’s Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. The 30-year old was a winner there in 2008, but knows that things won’t be easy stateside.
“Last year was great, but it will be hard with just 3-4 days of rest. We are in a good moment, and I hope to have a good race like last year.”
Honda riders frustrated by crashes
| By Simon Strang from autosport.com | Saturday, June 27th 2009, 17:52 GMT |
Factory Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso left Assen frustrated after both crashed out of the Dutch TT while in strong positions.
Pedrosa started the race on the front row and briefly led before dropping behind Casey Stoner and eventual winner Valentino Rossi. He was racing for a podium when he crashed out of the race on lap four.
"The good news is that I didn't hurt myself in the fall and, considering my recent run of luck with injuries, this is a big relief," said Pedrosa, who is still covering from leg and knee injuries. "But of course I'm disappointed with the result today because, even though it's unlikely I could have won the race, I was feeling strong on the bike again and believe I could have made the podium.
"My feeling on the machine this weekend has been much better and I have been able to ride close to my maximum potential, so I was quite confident coming into this race.
"I made a fast start and found a good rhythm, so the crash was very unexpected - for the whole weekend I had no warning this might happen."
Pedrosa remains positive despite the crash and believes the HRC team, which has now gone 12 months without a victory, is on the cusp of a breakthrough in form.
"We have to forget this race and remain positive and focused because we have been the best in the past and I believe we can be the best again," he said.
"The whole team deserves better than this and I know we will work even harder to take the fight to our rivals, even though they are very strong.
"Laguna is the next race and we will go there with the same positive mood that we brought to Assen this weekend."
Dovizioso was chasing Stoner for third position when he fell at the same place as his team-mate within a couple of laps.
"I had a good start but I was trapped by a bunch of riders and it took me a few laps to get by them," he said. "Once I was past I was feeling quite comfortable, although I wasn't sure I could catch Stoner.
"Then, while I was in the middle of the corner at the maximum lean I lost the front. I wasn't on the brakes when it happened – we have to lean a long way over in the middle of the turn and that's when it caught me out."
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