MotoGP
British Grand Prix: Casey Stoner strolls to win
23 giugno 2008
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 No one had any answers to Stoner’s speed all weekend and his margin of victory, 5.8 seconds at the flag, was ample evidence of how he dominated proceedings. No matter what the conditions, rain, damp or gusting wind, he had the measure of this track to a far greater extent than any rival. He powered into the lead from pole into turn one and was never troubled for 30-laps of this 4.023km circuit. Rossi tucked in behind him for the first few laps but when Stoner found his race rhythm, no one could live with it. Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda RC212V) tried though, overtaking Rossi for second place on the first lap, but never making any impression on Stoner. The rookie rider Dovi was full of intent and only Pedrosa matched him for determination in the initial stages of the race, the Spanish ace flying up the order from ninth on the grid to fifth on that opening lap while Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) was circulating in fourth in his first race with the pneumatic-valve engine. Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) fell at the Melbourne Loop hairpin on lap two while domestic hope James Toseland (Yamaha) had already come to grief at turn one on the opening lap. De Angelis would remount to take 15th place, Toseland persevered for the scant reward of 17th. Stoner meanwhile was carving out early fastest laps and a 1m 29.405s time on lap three was evidence enough of his superiority. By lap four he had nearly a one second advantage over Rossi in second place with Dovi holding third from Pedrosa. Dani then showed what he could do in the chase by firing his RC212V to a fastest lap of 1m 28.823s as he worked on Dovi for third place. By lap eight he’d disposed of the increasingly rapid Italian and now had Rossi to deal with. Stoner was now ahead of the struggles behind by more than two seconds. The action was now the fight for second between Rossi and Dani. On lap 14 Dani made the first of a series of attempts to edge past Rossi. But try as he might, Dani couldn’t make any pass stick for more than half a lap. Four times in three laps they swapped places. Stoner was now three seconds ahead. Rossi and Pedrosa were now seven seconds ahead of Dovi in fourth who in turn was under increasing pressure from Colin Edwards (Yamaha) while Hayden was circulating in sixth place. Edwards was getting stronger as the race ran on and so was Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha). The Spanish rider snatched sixth place from Nicky four laps from the end and as riders all the way down the field settled for what they’d got after 30 tough laps – there were no more scraps for valuable points. And the overall points picture has now changed. Rossi still leads, but now with 162 points to Dani’s 151. Stoner has 117 and Lorenzo is still in the picture with 104. These four, but more likely the lead pair, will now dispute the next ten rounds of this World Championship. Third-placed Dani said: “This has been a difficult weekend with the weather changing all the time and only one day of dry practice. So, considering that and the effects of my crash during the tests at Barcelona I think that finishing on the podium is a good result for us. I pushed hard today and I really wanted to get second. Unfortunately, starting from the third row at a tight track with a short run to the first corner was never going to be easy. I got a good start, but I got a bit boxed in through the first corner and I lost some time while I was behind Dovizioso. Once I got up with Valentino we had a good battle, made a few passes but I made a couple of mistakes so I lost the possibility to finish second.” |
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