Casey Stoner said he was delighted with the ground gained in the championship after taking his second MotoGP win of the season at Le Mans.
The Australian, who also won the opener in Qatar, had fallen back in the standings when he was taken out by Valentino Rossi in Spain, and then only finished third in Portugal.
But with Dani Pedrosa crashing out in an incident with Marco Simoncelli at Le Mans today and Jorge Lorenzo coming home fourth, Stoner’s victory moved him to within 12 points of the latter in the title chase.
“It’s been an awesome weekend and from start to finish everything has been amazing,” said Stoner, who was quickest in all the practice sessions before dominating the race.
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“I’m just really looking forward to the next race now. It was good to get some points back today.” Yahoo! Eurosport UK
Simoncelli was fifth, barely besting Spies by just .364 of a second. Then came Hayden, some four seconds adrift of the fight ahead of him and 16 seconds clear of Hiroshi Aoyama.
Hector Barbera and Karel Abraham rounded out the top 10. Toni Elias was 11th followed by Alvaro Bautista and Colin Edwards.
Stoner’s win and Lorenzo’s fourth allowed the Australian to close to within 12 points of the Yamaha man, 78-66. Pedrosa is third with 61 points, though the Spaniard is reported to have suffered a broken right collarbone in the crash.
Stoner was also fined $5000 for smacking Randy de Puniet during morning warm-up when he was angered at the Frenchman for baulking his progress in the session. Cycle News
Pos. Points Num. Rider Team Time/Gap 1 25 27 Casey STONER Repsol Honda Team 44'03.955 2 20 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSORepsol Honda Team 14.214 3 16 46 Valentino ROSSI Ducati Team 14.564 4 13 1 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha Factory Racing 21.075 5 11 58 Marco SIMONCELLISan Carlo Honda Gresini 31.245 6 10 11 Ben SPIES Yamaha Factory Racing 31.609 7 9 69 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 35.566 8 8 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA San Carlo Honda Gresini 51.502 9 7 8 Hector BARBERA Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP +1'03.731 10 6 17 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing +1'03.885 11 5 24 Toni ELIAS LCR Honda MotoGP +1'04.068 12 4 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +1'04.192 13 3 5 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2 Laps Not Classified 65 Loris CAPIROSSI Pramac Racing Team 7 Laps 26 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 11 Laps 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW Monster Yamaha Tech 3 22 Laps 14 Randy DE PUNIET Pramac Racing Team 27 Laps
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