Jerez: Stoner Who?
This race was the complete antithesis of Qatar for two main reasons:
- It was a bit of a snooze-fest.
- Casey Stoner had a bad day today and neither he, nor the Ducati, seemed to have it in them. So the little aussi-automaton was forced to breath a lot of exhaust from everyone else.
The first reason is obvious – on a track described as “difficult to overtake on” (sounds a bit amazing for MotoGP) it seemed that in the Spanish sun no-one felt like racing.
Toseland was full of flu/bronchitis and had spent as much time as he could trying to rest and recuperate – to not much avail. His effort in qualifying in that light must surely stand out. His team mate, Edwards had managed to put his Tech3 Yamaha (sans pneumatic valve engine) next to the new wunderkind, Lorenzo, and Honda’s favourite son - Pedrosa. As good a superbike rider as Edwards was – he’s never really produced the goods in the prototype class and thus was expected to slowly slip backwards in the field to produce his usual, solid results.
Hayden seemed to be up at the sharp end again with the new Honda. So it was the usual suspects that made up the grid.
- Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1′38.189
- Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1′38.789
- Colin EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1′38.954
- Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1′39.061
- Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1′39.064
- Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 1′39.122
- Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1′39.286
- James TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1′39.334
- John HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1′39.439
- Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1′39.484
- Shinya NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1′39.559
- Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1′39.704
- Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA 1′39.767
- Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1′40.037
- Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1′40.088
- Toni ELIAS SPA Alice Team DUCATI 1′40.286
- Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team DUCATI 1′40.939
- Marco MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1′41.027
On race day when the lights went out it was Pedrosa who got a blistering start, just like he did in Qatar and sped off into the distance. Unlike Qatar no one seemed either capable or in the mood to chase him down.
There was some movement in the chasers when on the second lap, Stoner had an uncharacteristic moment. He seemed to go in a bit hot and stood the bike up, forcing him to enjoy an excursion to the kitty-litter. He’d almost done the same the lap earlier, the front end shifting but this time he was off. He ploughed a course out but by that time he was stone (excuse the weak pun) last. It could be fun watching him carve the pack up until it was realized the Spanish TV producers were more focused on shots of Pedrosa, and Pedrosa, and oh, more Pedrosa!
Rossi put one on his young team mate a few laps later, and no doubt did it smiling like a demented sock-monkey as he put the young upstart in his place. It all could have gone disastrously wrong though if Lorenzo had been closer at the end because Rossi was either not paying attention or lost count and started to celebrate as he crossed the line at the end of the penultimate lap. That would have been funny to see him pop a wheelie as Lorenzo sailed by – but it didn’t happen and with much looking over his shoulder he was able to be sensible for the last lap.
Hayden played the biggest get-out-of-jail card today, with a few laps to go he cranked the Honda over and made it into a tricycle using the combination of knee-slider and elbow protection as the third wheel. He lost the front end and it lay-down only for him to recover it and manage to continue. New leathers please!
Toseland seemed to be carrying on the schoolyard fighting with another gritty, rest-of-the-pack type fight and was unlucky to not claim fifth. After a race long chase and battle he had slipped passed Dovizioso, Hopkins and Capirossi only to be given a bit of treatment himself (not for bronchitis) by Capirossi who stole fifth back of him at the last corner.
Stoner’s bad day was further compounded by another offing, at the same corner he had fudged earlier and in the same manner, getting caught up in Nakana vs Vermeulen. What was more telling though was the way he sat in his garage at the end of the race – either he was just re-running all the incidents again in a measure of understanding or he was fuming/sulking. Hopefully not the latter – bad days happen in motor sport and you have to accept them like a spoonful of cod-liver oil – grimace, swallow and move on.
So Pedrosa won, and with all the furore over Lorenzo and others the forgotten Spaniard is leading the championship. Worryingly Suzuki seem to still be struggling to find the pace they started to show last year, as is Kawasaki (Hopkins is still sporting an injury). Stoner/Ducati aren’t infallible and Rossi can beat Lorenzo. Hayden is still Hayden and it was ultimately a normal day unlike the sparkling bright light race of Qatar.
The final classifications were:
- Dani Pedrosa
- Valentino Rossi
- Jorge Lorenzo
- Nicky Hayden
- Loris Capirossi
- James Toseland
- John Hopkins
- Andrea Dovizioso
- Shinya Nakano
- Chris Vermeulen
- Casey Stoner
- Marco Melandri
- Anthony West
- Alex de Angelis
- Toni Elias
- Sylvain Guintoli
* picture source: MCN
