An unlucky day for the Repsol riders in the Japanese GP, the 14th date in the 2007 World Championship. After dominating the MotoGP training sessions the whole weekend the Repsol Honda Team rider Dani Pedrosa was not able to round off this good work with a victory.
After a hot start to the weekend, with sun and high temperatures, today Sunday, the day began with rain and the thermometers having fallen several degrees. This situation changed all the team`s plans, and the pole positions won by Shuhei Aoyama in 250cc and Dani Pedrosa in MotoGP came to nothing. The MotoGP race became a lottery, the bikes started in the wet and so had wet tyres on. As the track dried out all the riders were obliged to make a pit-stop to change their bike and they went out with new mixed tyres. This meant that the lead was constantly changing, with some riders not having changed bike and others climbing in the classification after their change.
The race started with Dani Pedrosa setting a fast pace with the clear intention of getting away from the rest of the group. However, his time alone was short after he was neutralised by West and his Kawasaki, although later the Australian rider was penalised for overtaking at the start. Behind West came Stoner, Melandri and Rossi, who all overtook Pedrosa, who was fourth after the penalty given to West.
With the pit-stops Pedrosa got into second place behind Rossi, and on the lap the two were going to change bikes – lap 15 – Pedrosa had a spectacular fall, he was thrown off his machine after the rear wheel on his Honda RC212V slid. The Repsol Honda Team rider got a strong blow on the big toe of his left foot – a fracture has not been ruled out – and an injury on the same knee that he hurt in Malaysia last year, the right one, although without any serious consequences. His teammate Nicky Hayden did not have a good day either.
The American was one of the first to make a pit-stop and when he got back on the track he was 17th, he fought back to finish in 9th position. Today Hayden discoverd who will hold his crown for the next year, none other than the Australian Casey Stoner, who this afternoon at Motegi was proclaimed World MotoGP Champion 2007.
In 250cc Julián Simón was 6th in a tough race, the winner was the Finn Mika Kallio. The Spanish rider got off to a good start, and finished the first lap in 6th place. He fought with the Aoyama brothers, with De Angelis and Simoncelli throughout the race. Shuhei Aoyama was not able to confirm the good sensations he gave after winning the pole postion yesterday.
The Repsol rider started well, however, some front tyre problems gradually made him drop down the field and he finished in 9th position. In the day`s first race, dominated from start to finish by the Italian Mattia Pasini, Lady luck abandoned the Repsol riders. In the lottery caused by the rain, both Esteve Rabat and Bradley Smith had to retire from the race because they fell. The Repsol riders got off to a good start, with Smith 7th and Rabat 12th after the first lap.
As the race went on they managed to climb in the classification since many riders fell on the slippery track. But on the ninth lap Rabat ended up on the ground at the curve at the end of the straight, and on the following lap his teammate did the same on the curve just before the home straight.
