Mar 10 : Ani Digs Deep to Score Podium Finish, Dovi Fourth

Reigning World Champion Casey Stoner (Ducati) ran away with this race when he took the lead at mid-race distance of this 22-lap encounter. Rookie and poleman Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) was second and the injured Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) a gritty third.
 

Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda RC212V) made a stunning start to his premier class career too with a fourth place he stole from senior rider Valentino Rossi (Yamaha). This year’s new intake of 250 riders has made its mark early.

Dani got the holeshot from row three making a fantastic getaway from eighth on the grid. He simply steamed past Stoner who looked most likely to enter turn one heading the pack. Yamaha men James Toseland and Colin Edwards were the other fast men off the grid.

Rookie Lorenzo wasted no time in catching up with the leaders and by lap three Rossi too had got on terms, passing Lorenzo to take third place as Toseland and Edwards fell off the pace slightly. Dani was flying, setting a fastest lap of 1m 56.270s as he carved out a 1.4 second lead over his rivals. But it didn’t last.

Stoner then began to close in ominously as Rossi stole the lead from Dani and Lorenzo then passed his sworn Spanish rival for second. Stoner held fourth on lap six with Dovi moving rapidly up the field too to fifth.

At the midway point a seven rider group held sway at the sharp end, this still included Toseland and Edwards with a six second gap back to Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) in eighth, with Hopkins and then Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) who was never really on the pace here tonight.

His team-mate was. Dani suffered a knock to his injured hand in a qualifying crash and a podium was a very acceptable result for a man who missed most of winter testing with that injury to his throttle hand.

Stoner then upped the pace reeling off a series of fastest laps as he moved away from the opposition just as he had here in 2007. Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V), Hayden and Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) now lay tenth, 11th and 12th with Shinya Nakano (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) just behind.

Stoner stretched his advantage over Lorenzo to 5.3 seconds at the flag with Dani a similar distance behind his ‘fellow’ Spaniard Lorenzo. If the podium places were settled before the last lap, the action for fourth was anything but relaxed.

Dovi was working on Rossi on the penultimate lap, sizing up the multiple Champion before making his pass, only to have fourth snatched away from him again as the old master slapped the impudent student down.

But Dovi was in no mood to pay too much respect to his elders and on the last lap he tried the same pass, Rossi responded again but ran wide into the next turn and the rookie seized his opportunity like the racer he is and slipped inside to hold the lead to the flag by just seven thousandths of a second as they tried to out-drag each other on the straight.

The night-time race was a success itself, but equally encouraging has been the strong showing from the class rookies. The World Championship order is as per race order after only one race.

Podium-placed Pedrosa said: “Tonight’s result is unbelievable, we didn’t expect this, so I’m very happy. Seven days ago I was almost last in the tests here but my team have worked really hard, bringing both 2007 and 2008 bikes here and making many changes – they’ve been fantastic. For the first time I understand the meaning and the legend of HRC and I’m so proud to be part of this. They gave me a competitive bike and the Michelin tyres worked really well and I did my best on track but without them I couldn’t have been able to make it. I couldn’t stay with Lorenzo and Stoner, so we still have to improve but since last week’s tests we’ve made an incredible step forward. Now we have a few weeks to recover full strength in the hand before Jerez.”

Fourth-placed Dovi said: “I’m very emotional for this first race. I never thought I would be so quick to finish so near the front and also become the first Italian rider home, which is great! I never really thought of the podium, as I seemed to start off not so good on the grid. Immediately after the start I pushed hard and tried to concentrate on the job in front, I was aiming at the train of riders just in front of me. We struggled a little in qualifying, but came out in a very good way when it was time for the race. We have shown that we are ready to do well in MotoGP with Honda and I look forward to the next race.”

Nicky Hayden finished tenth and said: “It wasn’t pretty for sure. We wanted more than just top ten but we struggled here from the time we rolled out at the tests. We haven’t really made much progress and it hasn’t been for a lack of effort, these guys have worked really hard. We got beat bad today so we’ve obviously got a lot of work to do. I got a decent start but I couldn’t push the way I wanted to, couldn’t be aggressive and couldn’t make anything happen, so I kinda went backwards then I went forward again. I was spinning a lot, which definitely didn’t do the rear tyre any favours, I really think we just missed the set-up and worked the tyre way too hard so I was spinning way too much.”

Randy De Puniet managed ninth place and said: “At the first corner of the race I had a big front-end slide and again at the second corner so I was not so confident and I took it a little easy for the first couple of laps and a lot of riders passed me. When I got into my rhythm I could run mid 1m 56 second laps. Towards the end of the race my rear tyre was sliding quite a lot. But the biggest problem for me was the first two laps, if I had not had the front end slides a top six finish was possible. Now we go to Jerez and I hope to get into the top six.”

Nakano finished 13th and said: “We knew after free practice and qualifying that this was going to be a tough race for us. I lost a few positions at the start but started to make up ground after a few laps. By the end I was battling with the group in front and I reached 13th place. This isn’t the result we were hoping for so we have to improve next time. I’m confident for Jerez – we’ve tested there and we have a lot of good data to work from.”

His team-mate Alex de Angelis crashed out of contention on lap 17, without injury. He said: “I’m really disappointed with today’s race because it seems my bike was slower than the others on the straight, and I kept getting passed by riders coming out of my slipstream and overtaking me on top speed. Throughout the whole race I didn’t manage to get back on the pace I’d set all weekend here and in the tests a week ago and that’s disappointing because I’m sure I could have fought with the group in front. It’s a shame we didn’t come away with a result but we at least know we have potential.”