Intense rain spoils first Motorcycle Grand Prix of China.
Different luck for Repsol riders in a rainy day.
The rain was pouring down today on the Chinese track of Shanghai and the first Motorcycle Grand Prix of China had to be staged on a completely wet track. In the sporting aspect, it hasn’t been a really brilliant Grand Prix for the Repsol riders in the three classes. The morning started with the 125cc race which was delayed for about half an hour due to the heavy rainfall over the Shanghai Circuit.
An extremely difficult MotoGP race under constant and intense rain saw the victory of Valentino Rossi, solid leader of the World Championship standings, and a surprising second place for Olivier Jacque, who had entered this Grand Prix replacing the injured Alex Hofmann at Kawasaki, and Marco Melandri on third. Max Biaggi was fifth and Nicky Hayden ninth. The race started with Roberts on his Suzuki in the lead, followed by Rossi and a group of riders including both riders of the Repsol Honda Team. After a couple of laps, Roberts disappeared from the lead due to mechanical problems, Rossi took a comfortable leadership and Gibernau who was lapping second, was first passed by Jacque and then by his teammate Melandri.
Max Biaggi, who was lapping beside Gibernau was also overtaken by Melandri, finishing the race in fifth position. Hayden, who made a good start, started to loose positions while his bike was having more and more chattering problems, forcing him to slow down the rhythm and to settle for the final ninth place.In the 250cc, there were two riders who marked the differences from the start, setting a very high pace nobody else was able to follow. After only two laps Stoner and Dovizioso had already opened a gap of a couple of seconds over the rest of the group. Behind them, De Puniet, third, seemed to be able to escape as well, but his attempt was quickly neutralised by the rest of the riders of the second group, which included Aoyama, De Angelis, Pedrosa, Barberá and his teammate Sebastián Porto.
Halfway the race, Dovizioso and Stoner went on controlling one another, while in the back, De Puniet managed to stay third, closely followed by De Angelis, with Aoyama, Pedrosa, Porto and Barberá further in the back. The race went on normally until four laps before the end of the race, when, De Puniet started to have problems with the engine of his Aprilia, loosing positions until crossing the finish line in a back eighteenth place. His teammate Sebastián Porto, unable to keep up with the pace set by Aoyama and De Angelis during the last laps, finished fifth. Japanese rider Aoyama achieved his first podium finish of the season finishing third and his teammate Dani Pedrosa, who today lost the leadership in the overall standings, took the chequered flag in sixth place, right behind Porto. Winner of the race was Australian rider Casey Stoner.
Average performance of the Repsol riders in the 125cc race, with he fastest of them being Joan Olivé, fourteenth, followed by Héctor Faubel, fifteenth, who despite the average performance of the weekend is fifth in the overall standings. Winner of the race was Italian rider Mattia Pasini.
Standings:
125
- Kallio, 50 puntos.
- Lai, 49
- Pasini, 46
- Simoncelli, 41
- Faubel, 30
250
- Dovizioso, 53 puntos.
- Stoner, 50
- Pedrosa, 48
- Porto, 38
- Aoyama, 26
9º De Puniet, 16
MotoGP
- Rossi, 70 puntos.
- Melandri, 45
- Barros, 43
- Biaggi, 36
10º Hayden, 16
Repsol rider´s comments:
MotoGP. Max Biaggi
5th, 50’22.014:
‘In dry conditions, with our set-up problems and the 14th qualifying time, things could have been much worse. But I can’t be happy with fifth place. That’s not what I and HRC are here for. Surely, under the rain the rider counts much more and I could partially close the technical gap between me and the fastest for many laps. But with these cornering problems I was forced to push it to the limit and even beyond the safety border. That’s why I had to slow down after half the race. We are not doing well, not at all. We must grow much more and very soon.’
MotoGP. Nicky Hayden
9th, 50’41.762:
‘That was a pretty tough race in those conditions. The start was reasonably okay but then in the first few laps we really didn’t make much progress. We then picked up the pace and started moving forward and got into a pretty good rhythm and I was making a bit of a charge but then towards the end we picked up a bit of a problem. The bike started vibrating a bit and I lost a few places at the end which wasn’t cool. In the last few laps I just wanted to hang on and bring the bike home and pick up some points which we did. We just gotta’ learn and move on.’
250. Hiroshi Aoyama
3rd, 48’28.639:
‘Getting to a new circuit and being on the podium is something very complicated, almost unthinkable yesterday, but I think that I’ve done a good race. I didn’t feel comfortable at the beginning, riding with the second group, but when I saw that the gap was closing I felt more comfortable and that gave me strength to take the lead of the group, with Stoner and Dovizioso far away. It’s my first podium of the season and now we’re going to Le Mans, a circuit I like a lot’..’
250. Sebastián Porto
5th, 48’39.084:
‘It’s been a hard race, because it’s always difficult for all of us under these conditions. But after the problems we’ve been having throughout the weekend this result is satisfying, fifth is positive. I didn’t make a good start and I lost some tenths, but bit by bit I began to gain confidence and increased the pace until reaching the second group. I went to the limit and I’ve been just about to crash two or three times, but fortunately it went well and after all, the eleven points we’ve scored are very important for the championship.’
250. Dani Pedrosa
6th, 48’47.725:
‘It’s always been difficult for me to be in the front with rain, but I think that a sixth place is good for me. At least it’s my best result in a wet race. I tried to stay with the second group as hard as I could because Stoner and Dovizioso were lapping really fast, but I had a problem with the gear change. The sixth gear was too short for this circuit and I lost a lot of time on the straight and was afraid to break the engine. Although I finished in the back, I spent most of the race with the group of those riders who are fast in wet races and that’s positive for me’.
250. Randy De Puniet
18th, 50’20.660:
‘It’s been a complicated weekend, because we’ve been having several problems during the practices and during the race. In addition, the weather hasn’t been of much help. I felt good today and was confident that I was going to achieve a good result. I was convinced that I would be able to foinish on the podium but with four laps to go my bike stopped. I don’t know why, but now I’ll sit down with my team to see what has happened. The negative side is that I haven’t scored in two of three races and that isn’t favourable at all for the championship.’
Repsol rider´s tyres choice
- Nicky Hayden Rain – Medium Rain – Medium
- Max Biaggi Rain – Medium Rain – Medium
- Dani Pedrosa Rain Rain
- Sebastián Porto Rain Rain
- Randy de Puniet Rain Rain
- Hiroshi Aoyama Rain Rain
