 Marco Melandri today repeated success from last year by taking astonishing vicroty in all-Honda battle for top podium place. Great battle in MotoGP race saw Melandri, Pedrosa, Stoner and Hayden changing in the lead, with Melandri edging Stoner in last lap and taking his first victory in this season. Unfortunantelly, Pedrosa fell in last lap while fighting for race victory, but managed to return to race and finish in 14th place. Stoner finished race in great second place, with Hayden completing podium. Race today was one of most exciting this season, showing great potential of young riders.
Valentino Rossi started from 11th place, and after picking few places in first lap, he overbraked himself and gone further back. However, it seems that Rossi and team have found right setup after warm-up, as he was able to match race-pace of the race leaders and make progress through the race place by place, eventually finishing in 4th. Rossi was closely followed by Toni Elias, who finished race in strong 5th place. Loris Capirossi finished race in 6th place, which redelegated him to second position in championship.
Chris Vermeulen, after having great start from the pole position and leading opening laps of the race was unable to retain his position and started to lose places, finally finishing in 7th place. His team-mate, Hopkins, also had great start of the race and led few laps before he started going backwards and quit race due to failure on his Suzuki. This time we were unable to see bike kicking performance from Hopkins, but for sure Suzuki deserves good one after failin down again. Shinya Nakano again rode solid race and finished in 8th place, in front of Yamaha's Colin Edwards. Makoto Tamada completed top ten race finishers in Istanbul, Turkey
Rider claims after the race
Marco Melandri - 1st
I thought that would be a good race and I was right. But from row five I had no idea Id be involved at the front. I got a really good start and the bike was great in these conditions on the day. But Casey is hard to beat and now its going to get harder and harder, he rode amazingly well today.
Casey Stoner - 2nd
I didnt know how big the group was, and when I realized there was only a few of us, I ran the race knowing Id have to close on people at some stage. It was great riding with all those others and seeing how much they all move about. Youve got to be a bit careful with these bikes because they dont stop as fast as a 250 either.
Nicky Hayden
I had a front brake problem on the startline when the tyre warmer melted onto one of the brake discs. The brakes were never right and I was missing apexes everywhere. I couldnt get into a rhythm so Im a bit disappointed overall. But I suppose leading the World Championship by a point is a consolation.
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