Motorcycling master lessons at the Italian Grand Prix.
The spectacular layout of Mugello is once again the venue of frantic races. In MotoGP, Hayden gets back on the podium and Pedrosa, fourth, performs an excellent race.
As every year in Mugello, the MotoGP class has experienced on of the most intense and fought-for races of the latest times, with six riders fighting for the victory in a close battle and with a very equal finish.The race started with Gibernau and Rossi in the lead opening a small gap, followed by Stoner, Melandri, Nakano, Pedrosa, Hayden and further in the back Capirossi trying to get close to the leaders. Dani Pedrosa was sixth after the first lap and team mate Nicky Hayden seventh. Nakano soon fell back and the group got tighter after catching up with the two escaped rider.
Riding all together, just as if would have been a 125cc race, Rossi, Gibernau, Melandri, Pedrosa, Hayden, Stoner and Capirossi, the Australian was the next to disappear after a spectacular crash, reducing the group to five riders. Mistakes appeared and with them the selection of those who would be fighting for the podium; Gibernau and Melandri lost the tail of the group and in the end there were Rossi, Capirossi and Repsol rider Hayden who played their cards in the last laps.
Dani Pedrosa, with a more conservative approach in this race, observed from his fourth position, one second behind, the development of the fight for the victory. Finally the victory went ‘in extremis’ to local hero Valentino Rossi, second was Capirossi and third Nicky Hayden, all of them separated by a mere seven tenths. Two seconds behind the winner, after a good performance, Dani Pedrosa arrived showing himself very satisfied with his race.
After this race, Nicky Hayden is level in the lead of the overall standings with Capirossi, Dani Pedrosa keeps fourth and the Repsol Honda Team is still leading the team’s standings with an advantage of 42 points over the Ducati Marlboro Team.
And if the performance of the riders of the Repsol Honda Team in the MotoGP was a highlight, the darker side of the day was the average performance of the 250cc riders.
Shuhei Aoyama, was hoping for a good performance, similar to his third place in France two weeks ago and at least be part of the fight for the places on the podium. However, Shuhei made a mistake during the first lap that spoiled the rest of the race. Far from the leading riders, Aoyama finished ninth after fighting against West, Ballerini and Guintoli for the eighth place. Team mate Sebastián Porto finished thirteenth after starting from the twentieth position.In the minor class, Bradley Smith finished nineteenth after being twenty-ninth after the first lap. Smith showed his competitiveness on Friday under the rain – eighth fastest in the first qualifying session – but the young Repsol rider has not been able to follow the pace of the fastest riders in the race.
Rider´s comments:
Dani Pedrosa:
‘Today was a good race for me – I’m happy with the result because this track is very tiring to ride and I was expecting to lose more time on the leaders. So I’m happy because being only two seconds behind the winner at my first time on a MotoGP bike at Mugello is perfect for me. We had some problems with the settings during the race , especially in the last ten laps, but it’s not serious and is something we can fix. I was always behind the pack watching what was going on rather than being in the middle of the battle. I’m looking forward to watching it on TV which because I know Capirossi was sliding a lot. I got fourth and I’m quite happy.’
Nicky Hayden:
‘After Le Mans I needed to come back this weekend and answer the bell, and today I did that. I didn’t help myself with the start – I mean there’s no excuses for getting a start like that! Regardless, it was a good battle and everybody was out for blood today. I’ve had a few hard battles like that for seventh but it’s fun when it’s for the lead. Everyone was trying hard but nobody did anything too crazy. Melandri came up under me one time and I got into the corner hotter than I had all weekend – and he was in two bikes hotter than me so I didn’t think he was going to keep it on the island. With the atmosphere here and the crowd, these are the days you really enjoy. Towards the end I was on the leaders and I actually felt a little bit stronger so I thought I might be able to try and spoil it for them a little bit. But there’s no excuses today – I didn’t get it done. Thanks to the Repsol Honda Team. We made some big changes on Friday which helped me a lot. Now the season has really started, we know who’s going to be there every week and it’s starting to get good. We’re coming to a few tracks I really like and tomorrow we’ll do some testing which should help. I’m having fun but I definitely want to win some races along the way.’
Shuhei Aoyama:
‘I didn’t make a bad start, I think that I recovered one position at the end of the straight, but I made a mistake so I was tenth after the first lap, more than two seconds behind the leading group. That’s where my fight for the leading positions ended; there was nothing I could do to get closer to the lead. It’s a shame because I was hoping to make again a race like in Le Mans.’
Sebastián Porto:
‘Complicated. The truth is that it is a difficult situation. Considering the weekend, being in the scoring area isn’t bad, but as always, it’s not what I’m looking for. We’ve really been far back this weekend. We knew that it would be more complicated here because it’s a difficult circuit, very technical and if you have problems it gets worse. But the truth is that I’m very angry, because there are more problems than normal, and the situation is a bit difficult. So now I have to calm down and wait if there are new things to test, because it’s going to be difficult to improve in the future like this.’
Bradley Smith:
‘Starting from thirty-second didn’t do me any favour but we made a good start. I followed Olive along the first corner and we went really wide, maybe I lost a bit of time there but it wasn’t possible to get to the inside so that was the option. Then I made a mistake; I pushed hard in the first laps trying to pass some people and braked too late into the first corner. The back end came up and I nearly went in the grass so it was difficult to turn and get back. I lost the contact to the second group, the big group, and then I went on the race on my own. I just tried to do consistent lap times but it is difficult when you’re on your own. Nineteenth is something you should be happy but I’m not happy. I still want to be in the top fifteen and I want to be fighting for higher positions. I’m looking forward to Catalunya, because it’s a track I’ve been to and we’ll have more time to test and try different things.’
Standings MotoGP
- V.Rossi (Yamaha) 42’39.610
- L.Capirossi (Ducati) + 0.575
- N.Hayden (Honda) + 0.735
- D.Pedrosa (Honda) + 2.007
- S.Gibernau (Ducati) + 3.070
World Championship MotoGP
- L.Capirossi, 99 points
- N.Hayden, 99
- M.Melandri, 89
- D.Pedrosa, 86
- V.Rossi, 65
250
- J.Lorenzo (Aprilia) 40’35.185
- A. de Angelis (Aprilia) + 0.111
- A.Dovizioso (Honda) + 0.320
- Y.Takahashi (Honda) + 0.334
- A.Debón (Aprilia)+ 3.315
9. S.Aoyama (Honda) + 26.616
13. S.Porto (Honda) + 1’13.549
World Championship 250
- A. Dovizioso, 108 points
- J.Lorenzo, 88
- Y.Takahashi, 80
- H.Barberá, 78
- H.Aoyama, 75
10. S.Aoyama, 34
14. S.Porto, 20
125
- M.Pasini (Aprilia) 40’00.412
- A.Bautista (Aprilia) + 0.001
- L.Pesek (Derbi) + 0.052
- S.Gadea (Aprilia) + 1.203
- H.Faubel (Aprilia) + 1.2341
9. B.Smith (Honda) + 51.225
World Championship 125
- A.Bautista, 119 points
- M.Kallio, 88
- M.Pasini, 74
- H.Faubel, 67
- S.Gadea, 67
