Gran Premio D’Italia Alice
The Italian Grand Prix saw the second flag-to-flag race in two rounds of the MotoGP World Championship. The breathtaking race saw Casey Stoner ending Valentino Rossi’s seven-year Mugello winning streak, with a polished performance. The race was again down to tactics, this time Casey Stoner judging things to perfection. However, Jorge Lorenzo wan’t too far behind as he finished 2nd and just a second behind Stoner, ahead of his team-mate and home-hero Valentino Rossi. Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso, having lead the race in the early-stages, was unlucky to miss out on the rostrum on the last lap, as Lorenzo blitzed him on the start-finish straight and Rossi eased past him through a corner. He thus finished 4th. Rizla Suzukui’s Loris Capirossi had a similar fate as he led the race at one stage, but fell away in the final laps to finish 5th. The 6th and 7th places were held by the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mates of Collin Edwards and James Toseland respectively. Toseland had a wonderful race as he made the brave decision to come in first and change bikes when running towards the back of the field. Dani Pedrosa crashed-out on lap 14 and he had to be stretchered-away from the trackside.
In the Qualifying, Jorge Lorenzo had won the pole, managing to get his nose ahead of Casey Stoner. Loris Capirossi had put his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R on the provisional pole in the final minutes of qualifying, but first Stoner and then Lorenzo proved to be too good for him. This meant Valentino Rossi had to start his home race from the second row. In the flag-to-flag race, after his change to slick tyres, Rossi seemed to be extra-careful after what happened to him in the last race. By the time he started pushing, Stoner was too far in front. Thus, Stoner regains the series lead. Lorenzo stands 2nd and Rossi 3rd. Dani pedrosa has been left a bit behind owing to his weekend’s crash and non-finish.
In the 125cc, Englishman Bradley Smith took his first pole position of 2009. And he took his second win of the season on Sunday. Nico Terol finished second after a strong battle with Smith. Julián Simón came in 3rd place. Thus, the championship lead has been taken-over by Bradley Smith. Andrea Iannone was unfortunate to drop-out of the race on lap 6 due to a technical fault, while he was running in 2nd place.
Álvaro Bautista won pole position in the 250cc segment as Marco Simoncelli
had to settle for 2nd. Héctor Barberá and Hiroshi Aoyama completed the front row. Before the race, however, the skies had opened-up and the 250cc riders had to battle it out on a wet track. Eventually, Mattia Pasini(Team Toth Aprilia) came out on top, by a slender margin of 0.117s ahead of Marco Simoncelli. And, there was a big racing-incident involving title rivals Bautista and Simoncelli as the two clashed at a high speed, leading to both riders running off the track. At the time, Bautisa held the lead. Pasini grabbed the oportunity and moved into the race-lead to the delight of the Italian fans. After the race, Simoncelli was hit with a five thousand U.S. Dollar fine and a ‘yellow card’ warning by Race Direction for what was described as ‘riding in an irresponsible manner’. However, he protested innocence and described the event as something that can ordinarily happen in racing.
The MotoGP now moves into Spain for the Gran Premi Cinzano De Catalunya, at the Circuit de Catalunya. Spanish rider Dani Pedrosa’s fitness is under doubt. Pedrosa was still recovering from knee and arm injuries sustained in a winter testing crash but those injuries were not exacerbated in Italy. Meanwhile, another Spaniard, Sete Gibernau will return to the action after missing-out the Mugello weekend. If Pedrossa misses a few races at this stage, he’ll be left behind in this four-way championship battle. For the moment, Casey Stoner leads the way. The rest are right on his heels, though!
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