|
|
2007-05-06 Casey Stoner dominates in China
 Be first to comment this story
 Casey Stoner took another superb victory today in Shanghai, after successfully defending first place from Valentino Rossi. Stoner was constantly put under pressure from Rossi, but this time it was Rossi who made mistakes under pressure and was unable to beat fantastic young Australian. Rossi eventually settled in second place, in front of fantastic John Hopkins, who finally materialized promising performance of Suzuki.
At the end of lap one, Stoner got into lead, and since that point, he spent most of the race in first position. He was shadowed by Rossi, who was constantly on his tail, but Australian seemed strong in his position and rode perfectly, not making any mistakes. Rossi was redelegated shortly to 3rd position by Marco Melandri in lap 2, but Rossi returned to second 3 laps later and since then Melandri lost few places to eventually finish in 5th.
Hopkes for victory for Rossi ended 7 laps before end of the race, when Rossi braked too late in front straight, dropping to 3rd place, behind Hopkins. However, Rossi Managed to recover and overtake Hopkins for second place, finishing race in that position, 3 seconds behind Stoner.
Hopkins was constantly lapping on high pace, at some point of the race seeming like he was able to fight with Rossi and Stoner, but leading duo upped the pace and Hopkins had to settle for third step on the podium. This was anyway great result for Suzuki and Hopkins, who finally materialized potential of GSV-R MotoGP racer.
Dani Pedrosa ended race in lonely 4th place, breaking from Melandri after few laps of fighting. Pedrosa was not on the pace of leading riders, and ended race 14 seconds from Stoner.
Capirossi won four rider race for 6th place, edging charging Vermeulen who found his way through the field from 15th on the grid. De Puniet rode mature race and finished in 8th place, equaling his best MotoGP result from Istanbul, at some point even seeming like being able for more. Alex Hofmann finished in 9th place, in front of Carlos Checa in 10th.
From crahes today we saw Nakano and Tamada ending race in early stage. Toni Elias was once again too optimistic about his abilities and crashed out of the race, sending Barros and Hayden to gravel. Both Barros and Hayden returned to the race, but their hopes for top results were ruined by this crash.
Complete race results - Shanghai
|
Back to MotoGP news home
|
|
|
