 |
MotoGP 2009 - Round 15 - Phillip Island - Race |
 |
|
|
MotoGP 2009 - Round 15 - Phillip Island - Race |
|
|
MotoGP Rnd 15 Casey Stoner’s dominance of his home circuit continued on Sunday as the Australian won at Phillip Island for the third year in a row, leading Valentino Rossi over the finish line by a margin of 1.935s. In his second Grand Prix back after a three-race absence, the 24 year-old celebrated his birthday weekend with an impressive win from pole position, his third race victory of the season, which took him to third in the championship standings. A frustrating weekend for Jorge Lorenzo was compounded when the Spaniard crashed out at turn one of the first lap after touching bikes with Stoner’s Ducati team-mate Nicky Hayden. Having struggled through the practice sessions and qualifying with both rear-grip issues and illness, Lorenzo was unable to continue after sliding off, although Hayden climbed back aboard his Desmosedici GP9 to finish 15th. Rossi’s second place opened his lead at the top of the championship to 38 points over Fiat Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo with two races remaining, after it had been cut down to 18 following the latter’s win last time out at Estoril. Dani Pedrosa secured his first podium at the circuit in the MotoGP class but came in 22.618s adrift of Rossi, while Alex de Angelis’ fine weekend was completed with a fourth-placed classification. Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) took fifth spot from fifth on the grid, and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) overcame his worst qualifying position since Germany – tenth – to take sixth place. Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing), Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda), Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) and Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini) all also finished inside the top ten. Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) came in twelfth after being demoted to the back of the grid after his team was penalised for using an extra engine outside its allocation. Marco Simoncelli narrowed the gap on Hiroshi Aoyama in the 250cc FIM World Championship to 12 points with victory, as the Japanese rider was classified in seventh position when the race was red flagged. Roberto Locatelli’s high-side crash which resulted in him lying stricken on the track brought the action to a premature end, with Simoncelli leading, Álvaro Bautista having already crashed when in second place earlier in the race, and Aoyama having risen to fourth from seventh on the last completed lap. Simoncelli assumed the lead early on and maintained it for the remainder of the race until the red flag on the 18th lap, with Héctor Barberá in second and Raffaele de Rosa in third. Mattia Pasini crashed out with 17 laps remaining to bring to an end a difficult weekend which saw him suffer a similar fate in qualifying, and a crash for Bautista took him out of the picture. On the next lap Jules Cluzel’s spill saw Aoyama climb to fourth, and the drama intensified with Locatelli’s spill at MG Corner which left the rider with a bruised lower back. That handed Simoncelli the race victory – the 200th for an Italian rider in the 250cc class – with Cluzel taking fourth despite his crash. Mike di Meglio finished fifth, and Karel Abraham’s sixth spot was the Czech’s best-ever race result. Julián Simón was crowned the 2009 World Champion as the Spaniard clinched victory on the final lap of the 125cc race, vindicating his decision to take the step down from 250cc for this season. An excitingly tight early race ensued as a group of seven riders which included Simón, his Bancaja Aspar team-mate Bradley Smith, Nico Terol, Pol Espargaró and Simone Corsi – starting on the front row for the first time in 2009 – all jostled closely for position. With four laps remaining there was just under a full second between Simón – at this point in second position – and Corsi in third, with the Spaniard seemingly happy to wait until the final lap to launch his bid for the victory which would deliver the title. He did so, and with Smith forced wide in a turn Simón attacked on the inside to stream through and take victory, while the Brit secured his fourth successive podium finish. Sandro Cortese (Ajo Interwetten) completed the podium, whilst Espargaró finished fourth from pole position. Corsi ended the race in fifth spot with Nico Terol (Jack & Jones) taking sixth. The FIM MotoGP World Championship now immediately heads to South East Asia for the Shell Advance Malaysian Grand Prix next weekend (23rd-25th October 2009). |
| MotoGP Rnd 10 - Race Result |
MotoGP Rnd 10 - Championship Standings |
|
|
| -- MotoGP Quotes Casey Stoner, 1st - "I’d forgotten how good that winning feeling is and of all my victories this is perhaps the most special. I can honestly say that from a physical perspective I can’t ever remember feeling this strong after a race, which shows that the work we have done and the time we took out has been spot on. I got a good start and was able to put together the lap times to keep us at the front but quite honestly I felt I could have gone even faster if we’d have been able to find a little more rear traction over the course of the weekend. Anyway, I can’t complain because the work the guys have done on the bike during the season has been phenomenal, from the swingarm to the new fairing… they just haven’t stopped trying to make it better even when I wasn’t around. Now my aim is to help them as much as I can over the last two races and give Filippo (Preziosi) as much useful data as I can so that he can work his magic and improve the bike even more for next year.” Valentino Rossi, 2nd - "This was one of the most fun and definitely one of the most important second places of my career! We were on the limit for the whole race and there were some amazing slides, it was 'old-style' racing. To have a race like this in the sunshine at Phillip Island is an incredible emotion and I really enjoyed myself. Of course I wanted to win but I had to use my head a bit and once I'd seen that Lorenzo was out, I knew that if I made a mistake it would be a big disaster! Anyway I tried in places but Stoner was a bit faster than me. I didn't give up until the end but Casey really deserved this win; I want to give him my congratulations. We leave with twenty important points and now the championship lead is big and we can try to finish it in Malaysia, where we will have the first 'match point'." Dani Pedrosa, 3rd - “It’s good to be on the podium again, especially after the crash in qualifying yesterday, so I’m happy about that. I pushed myself to the maximum in the race and we led for a short while from the start. Actually it’s a shame they don’t award points for getting the holeshot! Casey and Valentino were going superfast today and I just couldn’t keep pace with them once they came past. From then on I just tried to keep my rhythm going and tried not to make any mistakes. It’s a little frustrating of course not to be able to fight at the front, but considering the crash yesterday this result was OK and I’d like to say thanks to the team because they worked hard this weekend. The next race is in Malaysia and it’s a track that I like, so I’m looking forward to next weekend and I hope we can get another strong result.” Alex De Angelis, 4th - “It has been a fantastic weekend all round and I really enjoyed myself in that race – especially the first four or five laps when I was running with the top guys in the championship. It was a good feeling but their pace was incredible and for me it was just an achievement to stick with them for a while and open up a gap over the guys behind me. From then on it was a case of staying consistent and holding my position, which is a great result for us. Despite not scoring points in the last two races we have been on an excellent run of form since Germany – I’ve finished in the top five in four of the races since then, and I think I’ve proved that I deserve to be seventh in the championship and I deserve to be here again next year. It is a credit to my team as well because we have worked fantastically well together recently and I want to thank them too.” Colin Edwards, 5th - "I'll hold my hands up and say I really messed up the start. I pretty much fell asleep and when the lights went out, I was just sat there. That left me down in ninth place but the pace was pretty quick in the low 31s and I was able to pick off a few of them quite quickly. I knew if I didn't get my head down then I'd be towing them around because of how you can slipstream at this track. I never relented and my pace was pretty hot, and thankfully it wasn't too difficult for me to make a break from the pack. I saw de Angelis in front of me and I tried everything I could to get close to him. I'm tired of finishing fifth, so I gave it everything I had. But the start cost me fourth and some precious points. Towards the end of the race I started to lose some side grip and I couldn't do anything more to try and put pressure on de Angelis. I beat Dovizioso again which is all I can do to try and get fifth in the championship. I really want that fifth to reward all my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3. They've been great and I'll be giving it my all for them in the last two races." Andrea Dovizioso, 6th - “In the second half of the race my feeling on the machine improved and this was probably the highlight of my weekend here. Once I was clear of the battle for sixth I was able to ride at a good pace and realistically I think I could have fought with De Angelis and Edwards in this race. It’s just a shame that I lost time starting from tenth and then fighting with Kallio, De Puniet and Elias - which is what I feared might happen. I cannot be happy with the 6th position but I have to consider the whole weekend and the set-up issues we experienced in the practice sessions and also my physical condition which wasn’t perfect this weekend. Still, I felt good at the end of the race, so I’m looking forward to Malaysia with confidence.” Marco Melandri, 7th - TBC Randy De Puniet, 8th - “We could finish in a better position but I took a bad start and got stuck behind Elias for 4 laps. After that I started to set my pace and was pretty fast. I had fun battling with Dovizioso, Kallio and Melandri but in the middle of the race the rear tyre dropped and had too much spinning. With 8 laps to go I was not comfortable on the front and decided to keep my position to score important points for the world classification. Honestly I aimed to finish sixth today but I still feel very confident for the next races.” Mika Kallio, 9th - TBC Toni Elias, 10th - “We have made the bike a lot better as the weekend progressed but we never managed to find any consistency from the tyres. We had them working well for six or seven laps and after that they were gone. That is exactly that happened in the race: I got a great start and kept pace with the front guys for the first few laps but then the tyres went and I was dead. I went from setting high 1’31s to struggling around in the 1’33s – losing two seconds a lap is just ridiculous. Anyway, considering all the problems we’ve had we’ve rescued a few points and we’re within five points of seventh place, which is now occupied by my team-mate. That is our goal over the next two races and I’m sure we won’t suffer the same problems in Malaysia.” Chris Vermeulen, 11th - "We went with the harder rear tyre because we didn't notice a lot of difference between that and the softer one in practice, but in the first few laps we lost a lot of time as it took a lot to warm it. I was struggling, but then I had Loris on my tail for the rest of the race, so at least that gave us something to fight for. I had to ride consistently and make no mistakes, so with having Loris there kept me honest for the last few laps. Obviously we haven't taken the step forward here that we wanted to, but hopefully it will be a lot better at Sepang." Loris Capirossi, 12th - "It's easy to say that today has been tough, but really we have struggled all weekend and never found the best solution. We also had an engine problem in the warm-up and that forced us to start on the back of the grid, but that was no big problem. My start was not too bad but I just didn't have any feeling in the bike in the first five or six laps, so that was a nightmare for me. I caught up with Chris and we had a bit of a battle, but I couldn't get past him. Overall this race track is very difficult for us and I think we need to forget this weekend because we tried as hard as we could and got nothing from it. I hope we will have a better weekend in Sepang because we really need a good result, but we also need to fix why things have been so bad here." Gabor Talmacsi, 13th - “The engine was OK, and the bike was OK in the very fast last corner. That was important. I have still problems going into the corners and in braking. But probably the main issue is the fact that I struggle when changing direction rapidly. I'm confident that if we can fix this problem, everything, including braking, will be by far better. Anyway, I can say we got the right direction. It's OK.” James Toseland, 14th - "I'm really struggling to describe how I feel right now. All I can say is I feel the jump start decision was incredibly harsh and I am extremely disappointed. I have looked at the start on TV and I can't see I've done anything wrong. It is hard for me to take but I've got to try and put it behind me as soon as possible and aim for a strong result in Sepang next weekend. I was confident of a strong race today and I was latched onto the back of the group fighting for fifth. I felt my pace was strong enough to have put up a strong fight for a positive result, but the ride through ended all that. I want to thank all my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 for all their hard work and effort this weekend. They have been brilliant as always and I'm not going to let this disappointment stop me from giving my all to finish this season on a high at the last two races." Nicky Hayden, 15th - “I got probably the best start I have had all season but unfortunately it proved to be my downfall! I’m not sure what happened to Jorge – I saw he got a bad start as I passed him, then the next thing I know I felt a really hard impact. It was so hard it tore both our bikes up and obviously he couldn’t keep his upright. Thankfully I did and I got back on track but the thing was so damaged I was just riding around. I considered coming in to conserve the engine but there was always the chance it might rain and give us the opportunity to swap bikes so we stayed out there and tried to stay out of harm’s way. I’m disappointed because I felt we had a chance to do something here and apart from anything I was excited to race here because it’s always so much fun. Anyway, I can’t blame Jorge because he is fighting for the championship, he obviously didn’t mean it and I know it is not his style. The good thing is that I didn’t get hurt, which could have easily happened in that corner, and now we go to Malaysia and try to get back in the thick end of the points.” Jorge Lorenzo, DNF - "I'm a little bit sad for this crash, not for the championship but for my mistake; I didn't expect this kind of mistake from myself. It was totally my fault, I miscalculated the distance off the line and Nicky braked earlier than I was expecting and I hit him. I thought I could save it but my front brake was broken and so when I tried to brake for the corner I couldn't and the rear made a big slide. I have a bit of damage to my nose and my finger but it could have been a lot worse. This is what happens in racing and, although I am disappointed about the race, the most important thing is that I am not badly injured. I want to say sorry to Nicky because I ruined his race today. As for the points, the title was a long shot anyway and now I just want to look forward to the final two races." -- Bridgestone Report - Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium. Rear: Hard, Extra Hard (asymmetric) The fiftieth premier class win on Bridgestone tyres came after a head-to-head shootout between the only two riders to have won World Championship titles using Bridgestone tyres. Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner triumphed over Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi after a race-long battle. Both riders were using the softer front and rear Bridgestone slicks as they pushed each other to within 0.03 seconds of the circuit lap record, and mid-race the duo were separated by less than one tenth of a second. The track conditions were cooler than they were during yesterday’s qualifying session, and every rider except the Suzuki Team pairing used the softer Bridgestone slicks front and rear. Only Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen mixed a soft compound front with the extra hard compound rear. Whilst the pace of Stoner and Rossi saw them run away from the rest of the pack, the competition in the midfield was much closer with a close four-way battle for sixth that was eventually won by Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso. Hiroshi Yasukawa – Director, Bridgestone Corporation “I’d like to congratulateCasey and the Ducati Team for their victory here in Australia today and for marking the 50th win on our tyres. It is apt that Casey took this win as it was he who took the first World Championship on our tyres in 2007. We are proud to have achieved this milestone, and whilst this is the first of three years for us as the Official Tyre Supplier, it is important to note that almost three quarters of these victories came in the tyre competition era, and that it was our success and the performance of our tyres that saw us become the sole supplier. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dorna and the FIM for their continued support, and wish each MotoGP team and rider the greatest success for the remainder of this season and beyond.” Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department “It was a hard race for the tyres because Casey and Valentino were pushing very hard until the chequered and the battle between them was faster than I expected. We can see from the laptimes that the softer option front and rear slicks performed well as even though the conditions were cooler this year than last, the race time was just 0.008 seconds slower which demonstrates their good consistency and the fastest lap was just 0.026 seconds from the lap record. I am very happy to celebrate the 50th win on our tyres using the new specification rear tyres we developed for Phillip Island.” Casey Stoner – Ducati Team – Race Winner “After the season we’ve had, to come back in Portugal and almost have the pace to win was good but here I am really happy; I enjoyed every lap! We were the ones who converted everyone to Bridgestone so to mark the 50th win is a nice feeling. Everyone was happy with what they had until we came along and did what we did and all of a sudden everyone wanted Bridgestone tyres so it was quite a proud moment for us. The fact that Bridgestone have listened to what we’ve said and made changes from that has been fantastic. Three wins from three years here is also a nice way to end the season!” |