Stoner wins as Rossi takes crown

Added on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor | One Comment

Casey Stoner indicated yet again that he means business upon his MotoGP return, storming to a wet weather victory; however it was Valentino Rossi who stole the limelight.

In what was an extremely wet start to the day, all attention was focused on how the Malaysian MotoGP event - and championship - would take form. After a dry qualifying session on Saturday, each rider was forced to change set-up to their wet bike for the start of the twenty-one lap race.

As the lights went out, Rossi appeared to struggle as Loris Capirossi, from fifth on the grid, enjoyed a storming start to launch into one of the top positions. Dani Pedrosa, from a third placed grid start, immediately fired his Repsol Honda into the lead, while Rossi was hung out to dry around the first corner, leaving him to drop right down the order.

As Rossi was forced backwards the battle up at the front really began to take shape as Casey Stoner soon muscled his way through from fourth on the grid into the lead. As Stoner, in only his second race back after a lenghty three race break due to illness, began to edge out a distance at the front, championship contenders, Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo found themselves fighting over positions within the latter half of the top ten - a position they hadn’t expected to find their FIAT Yamaha’s in.

As the rain soaked Sepang circuit gave the riders a true challenge, each of them tried in vein to overcome what was thrown at them. Before long, Rossi appeared to come to terms with the conditions and was soon back on the pace of those ahead of him.

Meanwhile, as the race began to settle into a rhythm, Randy De Puniet endured a horrendous accident which forced him out of the race. Despite looking as though he was injured it was reported shortly afterwards that Du Puniet was OK.

As the race entered towards the half distance stage, Rossi and Lorenzo appeared to find their feet, and soon began taking the fight to the rest of the pack, doubling up to attack one rider at a time. Nicky Hayden was soon next on their list, and gave them both a real fight before they eventually managed to muscle their way through.

As Stoner extended his lead further at the front, Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso were fighting for second and third behind. With the FIAT Yamaha pairing now passed Hayden, they were soon on course for Dovizioso, using one another to drag themselves towards him.

As they progressed around the impressive circuit and the lap count ticked downwards, Rossi made a sterling move passed his teammate, promoting him to fourth and into an all important position in terms of the championship. On lap fourteen Dovizioso slipped off of his Repsol Honda and into a race retirement, which immediately elevated Rossi into third, which soon sealed his championship fate.

After twenty-one thrilling laps, which was added to by the rain spectacle, the chequered flag fell on Casey Stoner for the second time in two races, much to the delight of the young Australian. Pedrosa crossed the line with another strong finish in second, while Rossi wheelied across the finish line to take third and his ninth world title - and his seventh MotoGP title.

Lorenzo was awarded fourth, which was small consolaton after an impressive year, with Hayden eventually fighting his way through to a strong fifth. Chris Vermeulen put in a notable performance to take sixth, with Toni Elis seventh. Marco Melandri and Vermeulen’s Rizla Suzuki teammate Capirossi, after remarkable start, finish ninth and tenth, respectively.

James Toseland, currently solely leading the British contingent for the MotoGP series, experienced a difficult outing in his penultimate round, only managing to finish fifteenth.

Commenting on his Malaysian success, Stoner said: “The conditions were the same for everyone today and none of us had tested at this track in the wet for quite a long time. So the early laps were a bit tentative and going into turn one I didn’t get a good start and a few people came past me.

“I slotted into fourth place coming out of turn two though and then when I got into the lead I thought I’ll just test the track condition for a few laps and I never expected to pull out the gap that I did. After that I just decided to keep going hard for at least half race distance and once I got a gap I was happy with I started to back off the pace.”

The newly crowned 2009 MotoGP Champion, Rossi, elatedly said: “Today’s race went a bit like how the season has gone, because we were so fast on the dry tyres, but right before the start of the race it started to rain so we had to go out on the track without any wet setting.

“It’s a great achievement, and for me it’s the ninth championship, the seventh in MotoGP. I have to thank all the guys from Yamaha, who are great, and all the Fiat Yamaha team, from Jeremy (Burgess, chief mechanic) and all the mechanics to all the guys that work for me, and all my friends. All the people that helped me with this great achievement.”

“Throughout the season I had great rivals, at the end especially Jorge my team-mate, who stayed very close to me, and we had some great fights. He’s a great rival so congratulations to him.

“But we are on the top and now we’ll relax and try to take in this achievement. The ninth championship is great - I’m so happy.” He added.

Paying tribute to his teammate and chief rival, Lorenzo commented: “We tried to the end to beat him, but I think he was the number one this year because he’s been faster than us in almost every race. He was more consistent than us and he was more clever, so he is the winner.”

�

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Stoner wins as Rossi takes crown

One Comment

Add a comment

Carole Nash