By Mark
Yet another pole position for Casey ‘Punchy’ Stoner but it was by just 0.059 seconds over second place man Marco Simoncelli.
It was Andrea Dovizioso who joined them on the front row with Dani Pedrosa having to settle for fourth making it a one, two, three, four for Honda.
Lorenzo was then in fifth with British rider Cal Crutchlow starting in sixth in what was an excellent qualifying though he said he is struggling on the first few laps.
Casey Stoner has never won at Le Mans but that has now been changed thanks to this dominant performance.
Another great start from Dani Pedrosa saw him take the lead with Stoner and Dovizioso right behind and Simoncelli following making it 1,2,3,4 for Honda, Lorenzo was in fifth and Rossi in sixth.
It was an unlucky day for Randy De Puniet as he went down in the second lap on his home race. Jorge Lorenzo was determined to do well and managed to bully his way past Dovi early on but couldn’t pull away.
This race was a big change from the previous ones as it was frantic stuff with Rossi and Lorenzo barging their way through the field.
Simoncelli wasn’t going to sit behind Lorenzo for long though as just two laps after being passed he got took Lorenzo and then gapped him seemingly quite easily.
Meanwhile at the front Stoner and Pedrosa had started to open a slight lead over Simoncelli though he had the hammer down doing his best to make up the time
Disaster for Cal Crutchlow as he lowsided just a few laps in and despite getting back on the bike he was forced to retire shortly after.
Simoncelli wasn’t able to catch the two factory Honda’s but did manage to pull out a gap over fourth place Lorenzo who was coming under increasing pressure from Andrea Dovizioso.
Dovi got past on lap ten with a lovely move on the brakes up the inside meaning Lorenzo was starting to fall back into the clutches of none other than Valentino Rossi.
By lap 14 however Lorenzo had regrouped and managed to get back past Dovi, all this battling was allowing Rossi to catch them both and the battle for fourth turned into a three-way battle.
Things got worse for Tech3 as Colin Edwards also chucked the bike down the road, got back on but was forced into the pits. He did come back out on track to finish last.
Stoner kept his cool at the front and really started to pull away from Pedrosa in 2nd with around 12 laps to go.
Pedrosa’s pace dropped enough to allow Simoncelli to start catching him. With 10 laps to go Simoncelli got past, Pedrosa used the factory speed to get along side but disaster hit as he hit Simoncelli, folded the front and fell hard on his shoulder, fracturing his collarbone.
Replays did show that Simoncelli was trying his best to get round the outside and perhaps should have given way to Pedrosa?
With five laps to go Simoncelli was given a ride through penalty for an ‘illegal manoeuvre’ which was very harsh.
With 4 laps remaining Rossi decided to make a move and went into third past Lorenzo who was also mugged by Dovi.
It was short lived for Rossi though who didn’t seem to have the power of Dovi who took him to take 2nd place leaving Rossi safe in 3rd as Lorenzo had a moment and lost time.
The race will all be about the incident between Simoncelli and Pedrosa which is a shame as Stoner was dominant at the front and Rossi did brilliantly to get the Ducati on the podium.
- Casey Stoner (27) – Repsol Honda –43.03.955
- Andrea Dovizioso (4) – Repsol Honda +14.214
- Valentino Rossi (46) – Ducati +14.564
- Jorge Lorenzo (1) – Yamaha Factory Racing +21.075
- Marco Simoncelli (58) – San Carlo Honda Gresini +31.245
- Ben Spies (11) – Yamaha Factory Racing +31.609
- Nicky Hayden (69) – Ducati +35.566
- Hiroshi Aoyama (7) – San Carlo Honda Gresini +51.502
- Hector Barbera (8) – Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP +1.03.731
- Karel Abraham (17) – Cardion AB Motoracing +1.03.885
- Toni Elias (24) – LCR Honda MotoGP +1.04.068
- Alvaro Bautista (19) – Rizla Suzuki +1.04.192
- Colin Edwards (5) – Monster Yamaha Tech3 +2 laps
