Third Win of The Season For Stoner At Dutch GP
Jun 29, 2008
MotoGP
Australia’s Casey Stoner won the Dutch Moto GP on Saturday after rival Valentino Rossi crashed in the opening lap.
Stoner finished in 42 minutes, 12.337 seconds for Ducati after starting from pole position.
The world champion eased into the lead from the first bend and was rarely threatened after Rossi — a four-time winner at Assen — lost control of the back of his bike and collided with Randy De Puniet.
Rossi began the Dutch TT at Assen eleven points clear of Pedrosa, but fell on the opening lap, while Stoner - who had been a distant 45 points from Rossi at the start of the event - romped to his second victory in less than a week and third of the year so far.
Pole sitter Stoner lost the lead to Pedrosa at turn one, but calmly overtook the Spaniard into the final chicane at the end of the opening lap and rode into the distance thereafter - the Ducati star’s official victory margin a huge 11.310secs by the time the chequered flag was waved 26 laps later.
I was a bit nervous and tentative at the start but soon settled down. It’s a pleasure to ride this bike and it’s been really enjoyable,” said Stoner, who clocked up his 20th career win.
The consecutive victories mean Stoner has bounced back into championship contention after a dismal first half of the season, which saw him go six races without a win.
Stoner made up more points than was expected on championship leader Valentino Rossi, who crashed in the opening lap, but returned to finish the race in 11th place.
“I had no clue what happened, I noticed later on he (Rossi) was down the field and that there was some grass on the track which suggested there had been some sort of accident,” said Stoner.
“I don’t want anybody to crash so that I can win points that way, but I’ve had some bad luck too this year. The team have done a great job this weekend.”
Pedrosa’s second-placing and Rossi’s bad luck now means the Spaniard assumes the lead in the championship standings on 171 points.
“It was important to finish in front, and second is a very good result. We had struggled a little, and in the race it was impossible to follow Casey,” said the Spaniard, winner of the Catalunya GP.
“He was so fast, so I just tried my best to push. I am happy with this result, with returning to the podium and with the championship position.”
Behind the front two, Edwards advanced six places in five laps to move up to fourth by lap 15, hot on the heels of Nicky Hayden.
It seemed as though that was how it would stay, until on the very last lap when Hayden appeared to run out of fuel on the final straight and had to concede a podium finish to Edwards.
JiR Team Scot Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso finished fifth after surviving a late challenge from the works Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo, who finished just over a second behind the Italian.
Chris Vermeulen finished in seventh ahead of Japanese rider Shinya Nakano. Toseland in ninth and Sylvain Guintoli rounded out the top 10.
