Stoner unbeatable at Aragon

Added on Sunday, September 18th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Casey Stoner enjoyed his eighth victory of the season around the Aragon circuit this afternoon, to further extend his advantage in the MotoGP Championship standings.

A fast start from Ben Spies saw the Yamaha rider launch into the lead of the race from a front row start. However as the field made their way around the opening lap he was soon muscles out as Stoner edged his way ahead.

Stoner was able to fend off his Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pesdrosa for honours, with the Spaniard following Stoner towards the podium in second place. A second row start left Jorge Lorenzo with some work to do, however not being too far adrift he was able to wrestle a third place finish as the chequered flag fell.

Behind, Marco Simoncelli romped to fourth place on the Aragon circuit, whilst Spies’ advantageous start was exchanged for fifth place. A somewhat solitary finish saw the Yamaha ridwer finish three seconds ahead of sixth place, with Alvaro Bautista stealing sixth courtesy of his Rizla Suzuki machine.

Echoing the solitary finish of Spies, Nicky Hayden steered his Ducati machinery to a lonely seventh place finish, again three seconds ahead of the man behind. Hector Barbera followed suit in eighth, whilst Brit Cal Crutchlow was able to battle his way into a strong top finish by sweeping passed the chequered flag in ninth place.

After an eventful qualifying session left Valentino Rossi in thirteenth place, he opted to start from the pitlane for today’s race. Whilst others fell by the wayside, the Italian was able to work his way up to tenth place, to steal the final top ten spot.

Hiroshi Aoyama, Randy De Puniet and Colin Edwards completed the final finishing positions, with the trio scoring eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth places respectively.

An incident on the opening tour saw Karel Abraham and Andrea Dovizioso forced to the sidelines. Meanwhile, a collision between Loris Capirossi and Toni Elias saw the pair also sidelined on the eighth lap. It was later confirmed that Capirossi has sustained another dislocated right shoulder, with his injury potentially threatening his participation in the next round at Motegi in two weeks time.

Stoner has now earned a forty-four point lead over Lorenzo in the championship standings. The next round ofd the championship, round fifteen, will take place on the 2nd October at the Motegi circuit in Japan.

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