The Australian wins after a heavy downpour in a good day for the Repsol Honda Team, due to the 1-2 achieved together with Andrea Dovizioso, who was second.
Casey Stoner secured at the British Grand Prix his fourth win of the season – second consecutive victory and 34th in his World Championship career – the day he took part in his 150th. Grand Prix of the World Championship. A result that allowed him to jump to the first position in the overall classification, followed on the podium by his team mate Andrea Dovizioso, who had an excellent race under the rain that fell relentlessly over the Silverstone track.
Without leaving any chances to his rivals during all the weekend, Casey Stoner offered a great exhibition for the third race in a row, this time under the rain that poured over Silverstone. The Repsol Honda Team rider is currently in a league of his own and today, although Jorge Lorenzo surpassed him at the start and Andrea Dovizioso also overtook him, before the end of the first lap the two orange Hondas were able to overtake the Spaniard’s Yamaha and in the second lap Stoner took the lead of the race.
From that moment on, Casey steadily increased his margin over the rest, flying over the tarmac, wet from the rain that fell persistently since dawn. A track nearly flooded, with great puddles in several places, that turned into a trap from which Stoner and Dovizioso came out as winners. The Italian was able to resist the attack first from his countryman Simoncelli and afterwards from Jorge Lorenzo. Both riders finished on the ground after trying to overtake him.
Lorenzo, who had steadily come closer to the Repsol Honda Team rider, fell in the seventh lap. The same happened to Marco Simoncelli, who overtook Andrea Dovizioso in the tenth lap, but was surpassed by the Repsol rider just some corners afterwards. Simoncelli crashed and left the Italian to take his second podium of the season and the second 1-2 for the Repsol Honda Team this year after the one achieved in Le Mans.
After the race, Stoner takes the lead of the overall standings, with 18 points over Lorenzo and 33 over his team mate Andrea Dovizioso, now in third position.. Dani Pedrosa, who did not compete this weekend in England, is now fifth in the overall classification.
Andrea Dovizioso >> Audio
2nd at 15.159 sec.
“I’m really happy with today’s podium. It’s a second place that feels like gold. The track conditions were very tricky, with much more water than in the warm up this morning. We made a modification on the set up to have more rear grip and then we did a very good strategy. It helped us doing two laps before the race to bring the tyres up to temperature quicker. I had a very good start and then I was focused to manage the second position with Casey. I was braking very hard to close the doors to Lorenzo and Simoncelli. I had a good rhythm, not to far from Casey’s pace, but he is very strong with these conditions so I preferred to manage my race the best I could. I want to thank my team for the hard work and the support. We need to improve the performance also in qualifying but at the important moment, in the race, we are there. We never give up. With today’s second place we have consolidated the third position in the Championship and reduced the gap to Lorenzo. The season is still long so I’m confident”.
Casey Stoner >> Audio
1st – 47:53.459
“At the beginning of the race we didn’t have a great start and I needed to wait for the tyres to get up to temperature. In the first few laps when I was behind the other riders I got a lot of spray up inside the visor and it was hard for me to see, or for me to push. At this time I was being careful, trying to cover my lines to stop them coming inside, then after five laps my visibility got clearer and the water drained away from my visor and I was able to start doing the lap times we were looking for and started to open up a gap. I was just happy to stay up on the bike, it was incredibly cold and I was so nervous as in these conditions it’s so easy to crash! We had a great race today in very tough conditions where anything could have happened, but to come away with a win is fantastic”.
