Complicated sunday for the Repsol riders in France.
Porto crashes out while fighting for the second place; Barros, Fonsi and Pablo Nieto seventh in their respective classes.
Bad day for the interests of the Repsol riders in the Motorcycling World Championship. Luck wasn’t with any of them on the French track, despite most of them starting with possibilities to get on the podium.
In MotoGP, Alex Barros made a terrible start from the fourth row of the grid, and was sixteenth after the first lap. From that moment on, the Brazilian regained several positions finally finishing seventh but far away from the leading pack. His team-mate Hayden made a much better start -sixth after the first lap – but he went off track during the race and the lack of a constant pace made him loose ground and positions until crossing the finish line in eleventh place. Rubén Xaus and his Ducati weren’t lucky either this Sunday: after a good start and the tenth position after the first lap – he started from the fifth row – the Repsol rider had a light crash in the second lap and although he was able to rejoin the race, he did it in last position. Lap by lap he managed to make progress thanks to a very fast pace, finally taking the chequered flag in twenty-fourth place. Sete Gibernau was the winner of the race in Le Mans.
In the 250GP Sebastián Porto, one of the main candidates for victory, went out of the pools in lap 17. After a good start, Poggiali’s crash in front of the Argentinean in the second lap, made him loose contact with both race leaders, Pedrosa and De Puniet. Pedrosa set a very fast pace and escaped lap by lap from the local rider De Puniet, who was caught by Porto little by little. However, in lap 17, while the Argentinean was third, a bit over a second behind the Frenchman, Porto crashed and was forced to retire. His team-mate Fonsi Nieto crashed heavily this morning during the warm-up, flying off the bike while accelerating. Fonsi suffered a fissure of the first phalange of the right big toe, forcing him to take the start with an infiltration. Despite everything, the Repsol rider made a good start, and was fourth after the first lap. However, physical problems due to the crash in the morning and problems with the settings made him loose several positions, finishing seventh. However, the valuable points scored today allow him to keep the third place in the overall standings. The victory of the race went to Spanish rider Dani Pedrosa.
In the first race of the day, Pablo Nieto’s bad start from the third row of the grid, with the tenth fastest time, ruined his hopes to be fighting for a place on the podium. The Repsol rider lost several positions during the start and was nineteenth after the first lap. Lap by lap Nieto regained positions, but a big gap had been already opened in the front, with a leading group made up by Dovizioso, Locatelli, Lorenzo, Barberá and Giansanti, followed by a second group almost five seconds behind. Nieto was only able to try to lead the second group, finishing seventh after a much contended race with Kallio, Stoner, Borsoi, Bautista and Jenkner. His team-mate Sergio Gadea, in a progressive race, was twenty-seventh after the first lap and finished the race twenty-second. The Italian Andrea Dovizioso was the winner at the French track.
