Stoner cruises to Aragon win
Added on Sunday, September 19th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Stoner cruises to Aragon win
Casey Stoner scored a much needed victory at Aragon this afternoon, whilst the championship contenders narrowly missed out.
After getting a good start from pole position, Stoner fought off advances from a charging Dani Pedrosa in the closing stages, to give the Australian his first win of the year and twenty-first victory of his MotoGP career.
As the race got underway, Stoner came under pressure from Jorge Lorenzo, with the Spaniard keen to expand his championship lead. However, after a slow getaway at the start, a charging Pedrosa soon put paid to Lorenzo’s pace, sneaking passed for second on the fourth lap.
With the top two off in the distance, Lorenzo found himself fighting off Nicky Hayden, with the American keen to emulate his Ducati teammate’s progress.
After suffering with shoulder problems throughout the weekend, reigning champion Valentino Rossi slipped to the rear end of the top ten temporarily, before climbing his way back through the field.
The scrap for position wasn’t just at the head of the field, with Ben Spies and Andrea Dovizioso enjoying a fierce battle for fifth and sixth. As the twenty-three lap distance counted downwards, the latter tried his utmost to steal fifth away from Spies, with the last two laps seeing the pair swapping places continuously.
With chequered flag out to welcome Stoner, the inaugural MotoGP and the impressive Aragon circuit went the way of the Ducati rider, with Pedrosa a close second. Hayden completed a strong finish for the Ducati outfit and also completed the podium, after leaping passed Lorenzo for third on the final tour.
Lorenzo was left to accept a fourth place finish, collecting as many points as possible towards his title campaign, while Spies eventually secured fifth. Dovizioso disappeared on the final lap, handing sixth place to Rossi, whilst Marco Simoncelli stormed to seventh place after shadowing Rossi for the duration.
The remainder of the top ten went the way of Alvaro Bautista, Marco Melandri and Aleix Espargaro.
With only two retirements, in the form of Randy De Puniet and Dovizioso, who fell by the wayside on the final lap with a crash, the first MotoGP event at Aragon was a success.
The championship standings have now closed up ever so slightly, with Lorenzo’s advantage being cut to just 56 points, with Pedrosa making his mark in second with a total of 228 points. Stoner has elevated himself to third with his victory, giving him 155 points, while Rossi sits in fourth place, ahead of Dovizioso in fifth.
The next round of the series takes place at the Motegi in Japan, over the weekend of 2nd-3rd October. After being postponed earlier in the year, this round has been changed to the beginning of October, giving everyone an extra taste of MotoGP in the closing stages.
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