Full results here.
Apologies for not writing up the qualifying this weekend but I was busy away from the PC. Anyway here's today's guest writer Pootle to tell you about today's race:
A fairly boring race considering the standard of racing and overtaking I expect from a single MotoGP race.
On the first corner there was a large crash involving Dani Pedrosa, Randy De Puniet and Nicky Hayden. Hayden coming off the best out of all three riders involved he was able to continue to move onto a hard fought 13th place after moving to the back; whereas De Puniet (who caused the accident) and Pedrosa were out of the race for good.
After two great starts the two Suzukis were second and third behind Casey with Hoppo leading the two. Rossi was in fourth position losing little bits of time per lap but still keeping in touch. On lap 5 however his bike suddenly let go, a terminal problem that unfortunately forced him to retire and to gift Stoner any points he picked up as a way to strengthen his lead.
Capirossi had a brilliant start going from 13th to 5th after a bad qualifying. He was overtaken by Marco Melandri who pulled off some stunning moves to bring himself from 12th on the grid to finish 4th after some pristine moves, particularly on Capirossi and West.
Vermeulen was obviously very fast and passed Hoppo not too far into the race Hoppo stayed right behind him as Vermeulen desperately tried to claw his way back up to Casey, bringing the gap down to 0.8 Seconds at one point. Casey then responded with a very consistant solid pace keeping Vermeulen a bit futher back, Hoppo dropped off from Vermeulen. I believe Hoppo just wasn't as good and pacey as Vermeulen on this particular circuit (which makes a change.)
Careless Chucker (Carlos Checa) for the first ever time managed to impress me with a nice passing manoeuvre on West (again which makes a change).
Baros had some fun making up some places before his bike gave up and he finished the race with a dead bike in the gravel. Elias finished with a decent pass on West riding injured still and West had a good consistent ride always fighting and performing better in the race than qualifying.
Suzuki must of been obviously delighted with the way their two riders rode and how they were the only bikes able to even stay in touch with the Ducati of Casey Stoner, on a different track though I think Hoppo would of been able to easily stay ahead of Vemeuelen and perhaps keep in touch with Casey. They both considerably gained from the race, taking out good points from Rossi and Pedrosa in the championship with both not finishing. Perhaps a 3rd or even 2nd place is on for Hoppo/Vermeulen.
As for Casey, well again he didn't put a foot wrong, he showed that formidable consistent pace that he has and just kept putting in the fast laps, he looks unstoppable for this season. Now with a massive 85 point lead over his nearest competitor Rossi and for it to be mathematically possible for him to wrap up the championship in the next race, it looks like it already is.
Apologies for not writing up the qualifying this weekend but I was busy away from the PC. Anyway here's today's guest writer Pootle to tell you about today's race:
A fairly boring race considering the standard of racing and overtaking I expect from a single MotoGP race.
On the first corner there was a large crash involving Dani Pedrosa, Randy De Puniet and Nicky Hayden. Hayden coming off the best out of all three riders involved he was able to continue to move onto a hard fought 13th place after moving to the back; whereas De Puniet (who caused the accident) and Pedrosa were out of the race for good.
After two great starts the two Suzukis were second and third behind Casey with Hoppo leading the two. Rossi was in fourth position losing little bits of time per lap but still keeping in touch. On lap 5 however his bike suddenly let go, a terminal problem that unfortunately forced him to retire and to gift Stoner any points he picked up as a way to strengthen his lead.
Capirossi had a brilliant start going from 13th to 5th after a bad qualifying. He was overtaken by Marco Melandri who pulled off some stunning moves to bring himself from 12th on the grid to finish 4th after some pristine moves, particularly on Capirossi and West.
Vermeulen was obviously very fast and passed Hoppo not too far into the race Hoppo stayed right behind him as Vermeulen desperately tried to claw his way back up to Casey, bringing the gap down to 0.8 Seconds at one point. Casey then responded with a very consistant solid pace keeping Vermeulen a bit futher back, Hoppo dropped off from Vermeulen. I believe Hoppo just wasn't as good and pacey as Vermeulen on this particular circuit (which makes a change.)
Careless Chucker (Carlos Checa) for the first ever time managed to impress me with a nice passing manoeuvre on West (again which makes a change).
Baros had some fun making up some places before his bike gave up and he finished the race with a dead bike in the gravel. Elias finished with a decent pass on West riding injured still and West had a good consistent ride always fighting and performing better in the race than qualifying.
Suzuki must of been obviously delighted with the way their two riders rode and how they were the only bikes able to even stay in touch with the Ducati of Casey Stoner, on a different track though I think Hoppo would of been able to easily stay ahead of Vemeuelen and perhaps keep in touch with Casey. They both considerably gained from the race, taking out good points from Rossi and Pedrosa in the championship with both not finishing. Perhaps a 3rd or even 2nd place is on for Hoppo/Vermeulen.
As for Casey, well again he didn't put a foot wrong, he showed that formidable consistent pace that he has and just kept putting in the fast laps, he looks unstoppable for this season. Now with a massive 85 point lead over his nearest competitor Rossi and for it to be mathematically possible for him to wrap up the championship in the next race, it looks like it already is.