Stoner dominates as Rossi tumbles

Added on Monday, June 30th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Stoner records second successive victory.

We've known we've had the pace to do it.

Casey Stoner recorded a comprehensive win on Saturday as Valentino Rossi faltered to turn the MotoGP championship in its head in Assen.

Stoner, starting from his third consecutive pole in Saturday’s Dutch TT, recorded a comprehensive victory to back up from his win at Donington to move to third in the MotoGP championship.

His title defence was helped as Valentino Rossi fell on the opening lap and was forced to be content with a 11^th place and five championship points from 13 finishers.

Rossi took out Randy de Puniet on the opening lap but managed to recover to pass Ducati stragglers Marco Melandri and Toni Elias on his way to the finish line.

Dani Pedrosa moved to the top of the championship after a second-place finish despite being some 11 second behind the dominate Stoner.

In a race packed with incident, Colin Edwards managed to steal third place from Nicky Hayden on the final bend to make up for the disappointment of 2 years ago.

Edwards crashed out of the Dutch TT in 2006 on the final chicane to hand victory to the chasing Hayden but the roles were reversed in 2008 as Hayden, riding Honda’s pneumatic valve engine, ran out of fuel on the final bend to give an unlikely podium to his fellow American who had fought back from 12^th after held up by Rossi’s first lap accident.

JiR Team Scot Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso continued his impressive form on with a fifth-place finish after resisting a late surge by the works Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo, who finished just over a second behind the Italian.

Afterwards, Stoner declared his delight that his Ducati is now living up to his early promise.

“We’ve known we’ve had the pace to do it, but coming to race day it makes you more nervous when the only thing that can go wrong is you,” said the defending champion.

“I really didn’t want to make any mistakes today. I didn’t want to have the weather in the mix, maybe throwing a few spits and spots (of rain) here and there, but it managed to stay clear for the race so I’m pretty happy about that.

“I’ve got to really take my hat off to my team: they’ve been doing such a good job these last few races to get us back on the pace and competitive again.”

A-Style TT Assen. Result:

1. Casey Stoner, Ducati; 42:12.337
2. Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda; + 11.310
3. Colin Edwards, Tech 3 Yamaha; + 17.125
4. Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda; + 20.477
5. Andrea Dovizioso, JiR Scott Honda; + 27.346
6. Jorge Lorenzo, Fiat Yamaha; + 28.608
7. Chris Vermeulen, Rizla Suzuki; + 32.330
8. Shinya Nakano, Gresini Honda; + 34.892
9. James Toseland, Tech 3 Yamaha; + 38.566
10. Sylvain Guintoli, Alice Ducati; + 38.817
11. Valentino Rossi, Fiat Yamaha; + 46.025
12. Toni Elias, Alice Ducati; + 48.213
13. Marco Melandri, Ducati; + 59.594