Stoner on form with second win
Added on Sunday, October 3rd, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Stoner on form with second win
Casey Stoner secured his second victory in a row at Motegi this afternoon, after a thrilling MotoGP race at the Japanese circuit.
After securing his very first MotoGP pole position in qualifying yesterday, Andrea Dovizioso started with a good getaway, to leave him defending his position. However, by the time the field reached the first corner, it was Stoner who headed the field.
Behind the leader, Dovizioso held onto second place, whilst the battle for third really began to hot up. After a good start, Rossi slipped back to third, with FIAT Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo right on his tail in fourth. From here, all attentions were focused on the intense in-team Yamaha battle, as both riders strived to out do the other.
On just the second lap, Nicky Hayden and Ben Spies suffered simultaneous misfortune when both ran wide, losing a number of places. However, despite dropping to the back of the pack, Hayden managed to claw his way back to twelfth, whilst Spies found his way into the top ten.
As the top two stretched out a substantial lead, Stoner was able to almost cruise to yet another victory, as the end of his season began to come to life. Just a few seconds adrift, Dovizioso completed his positive weekend to finish a strong second place as the chequered flag fell, as the crowd waited to see who would complete the podium.
After swapping places, and very nearly colliding on the final few laps, the Yamaha duo crossed the line with Rossi narrowly infront of championship leader Lorenzo. With the injured Dani Pedrosa having to miss today’s race, the title is that bit closer to Lorenzo’s grasp, despite him missing out on a podium finish today.
Fifth place went the way of Colin Edwards, with his best result of the year, as Marco Simoncelli crossed the line sisxth, just ahead of Alvaro Bautista in seventh. Spies clawed his way back to eighth, with Randy De Puniet and Hiroshi Aoyama finishing off the top ten.
Commenting on his milestone twenty-second victory in MotoGP, Stoner told motogp.com: “This win feels great. I could have never imagined when I began my first season in Grand Prix at 16 years of age that I would reach this level and all I can say is that it is an honour to be alongside such great names. I have taken all my MotoGP wins with Ducati and it is down to their fantastic support, hard work and above all their belief in me that this has been possible.”
The next race is at the Malaysian Sepang circuit, on the 10th October.
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