Aragon MotoGP 2011: Clinical Casey edges closer

ANOTHER Spanish event in the 2011 MotoGP championship happened at the weekend and it was another win for Casey Stoner.  The Australian’s eighth win of the season moves the Australian 44 points clear of the gallant Jorge Lorenzo, as he edges closer to his second title.

DOMINANT: Stoner took another victory to edge closer

      Stoner took his ninth pole position of the season in qualifying, but made a poor getaway and was overwhelmed by Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa and the second Yamaha of Ben Spies.  Further back, Karel Abraham had a nasty looking accident, as his bike flipped and hit his back.  Luckily, Abraham walked away from the gravel pit, whilst the unlucky Randy de Puniet did extremely well to miss the flying machinery.  Unfortunately, his evasive action meant a trip through the gravel, which ruined his race efforts.

     However, Stoner was back in the lead by the end of the first circuit and a silly error from Spies in the final corner handed Pedrosa second spot.  Meanwhile, the third Repsol Honda of Andrea Dovizioso crashed out early on; his first retirement since another Spanish event, in Jerez back in March.  The early passing was produced by Marco Simoncelli, who seems to have calmed down from his early season antics.  He overhauled Nicky Hayden, Lorenzo and Spies in quick succession to snatch third position.  However, his good work came to nought two laps later, when the Italian ran wide and allowed both Yamaha’s past him.  After a fairly lacklustre race, Lorenzo woke up and finally got on terms with his team-mate Spies to claim third place with ten laps to go.  However, it was too late to get on terms with the dominant Honda’s. 

     Having announced his retirement from motorcycling at the end of the season, the enigmatic Loris Capirossi certainly wants to leave the sport on a high, but he is having a nightmare swansong.  He crashed into the back of Toni Elias and took both riders out.  In the process of crashing out, Capirossi picked up a shoulder injury, which rules him out of next weekend’s rescheduled MotoGP event in Motegi, Japan.

     Having started from the pitlane following an engine change, Valentino Rossi fought upto ninth position, but was passed by Britain’s Cal Crutchlow in the closing stages.  It left Rossi down in tenth; his worst finish of the season.  Despite his pitlane start, he will be disappointed to finish behind team-mate Hayden, who was seventh and the customer Ducati of Hector Barbera in eighth. 

     Out infront, Stoner cruised to another victory, seven seconds clear of Pedrosa.  Lorenzo finished third, ahead of Spies and Simoncelli.  However, he knows victory in Motegi is now imperative if he wants to maintain any hope of producing a remarkable comeback as this MotoGP season enters the finishing straight.

Dutch MotoGP 2011: Brilliant Ben dominates Assen TT

AMERICAN Ben Spies destroyed the opposition to win the famous Dutch TT at Assen on Saturday afternoon.  Spies took full advantage of another costly crash from Marco Simoncelli to record his maiden win in the premier class of motorcycling.  He is the first rider who came from World Superbikes to win a round of MotoGP since Troy Bayliss triumphed at the 2006 season finale in Valencia.

     Practice and qualifying was held in tricky weather conditions and all three Honda works riders had accidents in the early moments of qualifying.  Despite this, Casey Stoner still lined up on the front row, behind Simoncelli, who showed his raw pace against and Spies.  Yamaha were portraying a different colour scheme, to celebrate their 50^th year of Grand Prix racing.  Spies took off the startline fastest, but Simoncelli’s habit of crashing to the tarmac continued to haunt him at the third bend of the race.

     Like in Estoril, he pushed too hard on cold tyres and dropped his bike, taking out world champion Jorge Lorenzo.  Both managed to remount, but they lost loads of ground on the leaders.  The drama continued on the opening couple of circuits, with crashes from Karel Abraham and Randy de Puniet.  Abraham broke his little finger in his accident, whilst de Puniet’s tumble was the last thing the Premac team needed, as Loris Capirossi had crashed earlier in the weekend.  The veteran Italian fractured his shoulder, which ended his participation in the event early. 

MARGIN: Spies built up a healthy advantage throughout

     In all the confusion, Spies opened up a solid advantage over Stoner, enough to allow him to cruise through a dull second half of the event.  Stoner seemed content to settle for second, knowing that he was beating his title rival Lorenzo and extending his points advantage.  The only other incident of significance was a tyre problem for Cal Crutchlow.  Crutchlow, who qualified a tremendous sixth on the grid, despite having had major surgery on his collarbone earlier in the week, was a brilliant fifth when the rear Bridgestone tyre destroyed itself and forced him into the pits.

     Andrea Dovizioso continued his consistent run of points finishes, ending up third, whilst Valentino Rossi came up to fourth from a lowly 11^th on the grid, on a brand new Ducati bike.  Lorenzo did brilliantly to recover to sixth, behind the second Ducati of Nicky Hayden.  Colin Edwards was seventh, ahead of Hiroshi Aoyama, who had an unspectacular run on the third of the works Honda bikes.  Dani Pedrosa, still mysteriously missing is expected back in the saddle for the Italian round at Mugello this weekend.  A devastated Simoncelli came back to ninth, but faces a race ban, if he doesn’t calm down on his over-exuberant riding. 

    This was a deserved win for Ben Spies and it was nice to see a different winner in MotoGP, but ultimately, the big winner again was Casey Stoner, who extended his already healthy margin at the top of the championship.