Alice Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland
It’s 101 and counting! That’s the news from Sachsenring, Germany where Valentino Rossi denied teammate Jorge Lorenzo victory yet again. Thereby, he brought-up his 101st grand prix victory. All four contenders for the season’s world championship were fighting for victory today, and finally the Yamaha boys and Dani Pedrossa made the rostrum. Casey Stoner finished 4th and towards the end of the race, he had to ease-off as he was struggling with tyre wear. Lorenzo didn’t give-in easily and Rossi had to bring all his genius and experience into play to keep the charging Spaniard behind, as the chequered flag was unfurled. Going into the last few laps, it was Lorenzo leading the way. Rossi’s definitive pass had come at the end of the home straight with two laps to go, and from there on, he brushed off the young pretender’s overtures for his fourth win of the 2009 season. Perhaps, Lorenzo was waiting for a mistake from Rossi which never came!
Earlier, Rossi had won his first pole position at the Sachsenring, setting the
best time in a drenched qualifying session. Lorenzo and Stoner locked-out the front-row. Stoner’s temamate, Nicky Hayden got his best qualifying result of the season, as he set the 4th fastest time. A number of riders went down in the tough and slippery conditions, especially at and ahead of turn seven. Hayden himself had a big accident, and also took Niccolò Canepa along with him. Dani Pedrosa looked off-colour in the session and could only start from the third row. But, like he has done so many times during his career, Pedrosa made one of the flying starts that have become his trademark. The conditions stayed dry thorughout the race, and the Ducatis and Hondas struggled with their tyres. Pedrosa’s teammate Andrea Dovizioso had a bigger struggle with his tyres, and had to nurse it home. As Rossi said, “The top riders made different tyre choices, all the bikes were behaving differently.” This was what made the race all the more exciting. Rossi himself was off to a bad start, and had to fight not just with Lorenzo, but also with Stoner en route to his 101st win. Alex de Angelis finished 5th and Toni Elías 6th for the San Carlo Honda Gresini team. Randy de Puniet crashed out on the opening lap, after he was onto a good start, falling victim to pushing too hard on tyres that weren’t warm enough. Marco Melandri was 7th and Nicky Hayden 8th.
In the 125cc event, Julián Simón had won pole in the wet qualifying session, just edging out teammate and title rival Bradley Smith. Simón had been the fastest rider in every wet practice session, but proved equally adept in the dry on race day for a second triumph of 2009. His domination was so complete that, by the midway point of the race, he started lapping riders. Teammate Sergio Gadea finished 2nd and Belson Derbi’s Joan Olivé completed an all Spanish podium. Bradley Smith recorded his first non-finish of the season after a couple of early crashes.
In the 250cc race, Marco Simoncelli took his second pole position of the year in the wet qualifying session. Héctor Barberá, Hiroshi Aoyama and Álvaro Bautista were 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively, setting-up an interesting race. The race was not just interesting, but also filled with drama, as it got red-flagged and then cut-short to 19 laps because of a ‘weather change’. During the opening lap, there was a bit of rain fall, and the event was immediately halted. However, there were no more rain interruptions, and majority of the riders deemed the track dry enough to go out on slicks in the restart. Marco Simoncelli kept his 2009 title challenge alive with a win. Álex Debón came home 2nd, after he had taken the holeshot into the race lead, at the restart. Álvaro Bautista finished 3rd, and Hiroshi Aoyama was right behind after a fierce battle for the final podium place. Héctor Barberá finished 5th.
Thus, Rossi’s(176) victory gives him a fourteen point advantage over Lorenzo(162) in the standings, and also draws him level on career podiums with record holder Giacomo Agostini. Stoner is further down on 148 points, and Pedrosa has 108 points. The next race is at Donington Park, Great Britain in a weeks time. Keep following this space for all the news from the Great Britain race.
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