MotoGP – The Grand Prix of the Netherlands MotoGP turn-based –

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The MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix turn based

MotoGP - The Grand Prix of the Netherlands MotoGP turn based -

After nine rounds of twists and turns, MotoGP arrives on a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of the Grand Prix. After his English victory, Stoner arrives as the favorite but Rossi, Pedrosa and Hayden intend to give him a hard time ! Round by round.

For this 60th edition of the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen, all spectators have their eyes riveted on what promises to be the battle of the titans: from the tests on Thursday, Casey Stoner puts everyone in agreement. taking the best time with almost half a second in advance !

But Rossi has an eloquent record on the Dutch track: winner in the premier class in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2007, the Italian could well be matched by Mike Doohan’s performance (five wins)….

Unfortunately, all the drivers can only watch, helplessly, a real demonstration from the world champion: in race tires, the Australian beats the lap record held since 2006 by Hopkins and even pays for the luxury to stick three tenths to the pole record of Nicky Hayden of 2006! The tone is set…

While he was just getting back on the handlebars, Loris Capirossi suffered a violent high side and will have to forfeit: the Italian veteran, deeply injured in the right forearm, will not be replaced and should be handed over for the Grand Germany prices.

Friday afternoon during qualifying, the opposing forces are balanced: if Casey Stoner still delivers very fast lap times, Valentino Rossi, Colin Edwards, Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa can retort this time !

Stoner then leaves the big game 20 minutes from the end, but Vale appears like a devil from his box and takes pole again at the end of a lap where the Doctor has used the least cm2 of track! But the Ducati official reacted and took pole for 0.139 thousandths, while Rossi and Pedrosa, both set off to seek the first time on their last lap, missed each other in the same turn and had to abdicate !

This breathless suspense for pole should not make us forget the beautiful 5th and 10th places on the grid of our frenchies Randy de Puniet and Sylvain Guintoli: cocorico! Stoner will therefore start in front of Pedrosa, Rossi, Hayden, De Puniet, Edwards and Lorenzo.

Zoom on…

The violent falls that punctuated the practice sessions : after Loris Capirossi Thursday, John Hopkins comes out at an appalling speed Friday during qualifying. A broken bone in his left ankle (the medial malleolus) and two tibial fractures – in addition to a knee injury that needs to be investigated in more detail – forces the Kawasaki rider to forfeit Assen, the Sachsenring and possibly Laguna Seca…

The race !

Departure : It is on a dry track and under a shy sun that the 16 pilots of the premier class focus on the starting procedure: Dani Pedrosa is the quickest to start followed by Casey Stoner, Nicky Hayden, Shinya Nakano and Randy de Puniet. Toni Elias literally remains glued to the grid, his GP8 releasing a disturbing cloud of white smoke…

Thanks to a slow first left, Valentino Rossi tries to make Randy inside but the Doctor gets carried away and loses control of his machine: he comes to mow the unfortunate Randy who shows his dissatisfaction with the of n ° 46, already author of a similar stampede on the occasion of the 2006 French Grand Prix (read)…

The Parisian driver, who unfortunately will not be able to take advantage of his good place on the grid, holds his thigh and seems to be in pain. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time", he regrets."We both finished in the gravel, but he was lucky enough to join the race. He probably came too fast and lost the rear under braking to hit me afterwards. I am of course very disappointed because we could really fight for a good result here … Luckily I just opened my left thigh slightly".

The Italian star manages to raise his M1 and starts again 23 seconds behind the last one – Toni Elias -, while Dani Pedrosa still contains Stoner, Hayden, Nakano, Dovizioso, Vermeulen, Lorenzo, Toseland and Drômois Sylvain Guintoli. Despite all the racing genius of the seven-time world champion, it’s hard to imagine that he could come back to fight at the forefront. !

"I took Randy de Puniet with me falling and I want to apologize to him. It was a big mistake, because today we had improved the set-up of the bike and had a great pace. We could have fought for victory", regrets in turn the Italian after the race.

Alex de Angelis is also caught in the gravel after falling from the front, bringing the number of drivers still on the track to fourteen: each driver reaching the finish will automatically be awarded points, which is Rossi’s business. currently dead last in the race! Casey Stoner takes matters into his own hands and easily drops the HRC official to the left of the G.T Bocht chicane.

2nd and 3rd rounds : The 95,000 spectators saw the Ducati rider complete the first lap in front of Pedrosa, Hayden and the surprising Nakano.

The red rocket takes its cruising speed and just like during the tests, Stoner accumulates the gun times, increasing partial after partial his gap on a helpless Dani Pedrosa … Colin Edwards only points to a modest 10th place: the American was embarrassed by the hookup between Randy and Rossi.

4th and 5th rounds : The current reigning world champion crosses the pit straight 1.3 seconds ahead of Dani Pedrosa, who also has to come under the pressure of a found Nicky Hayden !

The Kentucky Kid is in Olympic form on a circuit where he secured the third MotoGP victory of his career in 2006, and it is not excluded to see the No.69 dislocate his teammate before the end of the Dutch race !

Thanks to a super fast lap in 1’36.7, the n ° 1 widens an impressive gap on his rivals to whom he sticks nearly eight tenths per lap !

Galvanized by his paneling which announced the fall of Valentino Rossi and his painful recovery, the Australian knows he can achieve an excellent operation in the world championship standings, not to mention the sledgehammer he deals with the morale of all his opponents !

6th and 7th rounds : Shinya Nakano moved from fourth to sixth, overtaken by the obstinate Andrea Dovizioso and the man of the 2007 pole position, Chris Vermeulen. This one is remembered to everyone’s good memory by getting rid of the Italian in favor of an interior to the left of the chicane. Colin Edwards got the better of Sylvain Guintoli and takes on his own teammate, James Toseland.

Casey Stoner returns to his – good – habits of 2007 by truly "punishing" his rivals: the Australian’s GP8 crosses the line with 3.471 seconds ahead of Dani Pedrosa! Little consolation for Alberto Puig’s protege: if the classification does not move (the Doctor still being 14th several lengths behind the penultimate, Marco Melandri), the HRC driver would start again in the lead of the general at the exact midpoint. championship season.

While his teammate is in hospital in the USA, Anthony West loses the front of his machine and gets up, furious but unharmed.

8th round : Stoner leads (by far!) The dance in front of Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden who has let go a little on his teammate. At several lengths already and at a slower pace, Vermeulen, Dovizioso and Nakano continue to pull the plug: feats of arms that delight the spectators gathered around the track, frustrated at not seeing a fight in the lead.

Colin Edwards overtook Toseland and swooped down with disconcerting ease on the man who took his place in the official Yamaha team, Jorge Lorenzo. Sylvain Guintoli misses the braking of the chicane, but the n ° 50 manages to regain the track without losing positions.

The fight between the two Yamaha riders is at loggerheads, each having at heart to prove his worth in the eyes of their employer: he floats like an air of revenge in the attempts to overtake Colin Edwards on Jorge Lorenzo !

9th and 10th laps : The n ° 5 swerves when braking the straight line of the pits and deposits the boiling Iberian at the entrance of the Bocht bend! James Toseland, out of feeling since his English misadventures (read), is already more than a second away from the two men.

Four seconds later, Sylvain Guintoli is heading towards his best result of the season with an honest 10th place … out of thirteen drivers still on the track! Elias and Melandri are more than 24 seconds behind their leader Ducati, while the unfortunate Valentino Rossi closes the ranking with 40.196 seconds behind Casey Stoner !

This poor performance of the Italian alone illustrates the turning point that the world championship is taking: but after all, who would complain to see the general classification revived at mid-season? ?

11th round : Casey Stoner continues to increase his lead over Pedrosa and Hayden. If Rossi’s mishap – and what about the unfortunate Randy! – does not harm him too much in the general classification (Stoner being relegated to more than 40 points from the leader following his breakdown at the French Grand Prix), the imperial form of the Ducati rider for two races is much more worrying for the Doctor…

12th and 13th rounds : Behind the three leading men, the battle for fourth place has not diminished in intensity: Vermeulen and Dovizioso continue to have a blast under the eyes of Shinya Nakano.

Colin Edwards continues his crazy comeback by irreparably unhooking Jorge Lorenzo and the embarrassment caused by the overtaking of the drivers in front of him allowed them to take back almost half a second !

Andrea Dovizioso passes Suzuki de Vermeulen thanks to daring braking at the entrance to the chicane. All these maneuvers precipitated the return of Nakano, but especially of the Texan Tornado: the n ° 5 overtook the Japanese from team Gresini thanks to a strong braking at the end of the pit straight and we felt that the American is boiling hot to fetch the two pilots in front of him !

Valentino Rossi had his fastest lap in 1’37.3, which placed him only five tenths of the best lap times for Stoner … but twelve places behind !

14th and 15th rounds : Colin Edwards achieves a magnificent interior on Chris Vermeulen at the level of the chicane at the back of the circuit and immediately sets off in pursuit of Dovizioso: the n ° 5 passes the Italian under braking at the entrance of the chicane which determines the straight line pits, and here is the American fourth with a handful of seconds of his compatriot Nicky Hayden !

Valentino Rossi seems to have regained all his speed despite his crash: he sets the best lap of the lap! The Doctor has only six seconds left to go "treat" his compatriot Marco Melandri !

16th round : Casey Stoner is heading straight for his thirteenth victory in the premier class, the first in Assen for Ducati and especially for Bridgestone, which inflicts a real snub on Michelin: Pedrosa, Hayden, Edwards and Dovizioso certainly squat the places of honor, but none moment they have only been able to worry Stoner…

Valentino Rossi continued his series of quick laps and appeared 4.7 seconds behind Marco Melandri. Edwards also sets stunning times, very close to Stoner’s records at the start of the race, and gets dangerously close to Nicky Hayden !

17th and 18th laps : The differences between the drivers seem incredible with less than ten laps from the finish: Stoner has 6 seconds ahead of Pedrosa, 9 over Hayden, 15 (!) Over Edwards fourth, 16 over Dovizioso and 18 over Vermeulen! The MotoGP ogre is definitely back and he still seems hungry for unchallenged victories !

Shinya Nakano takes advantage of Chris Vermeulen’s mistake to grab sixth, which would be his best result since the start of the season.

19th and 20th laps : While Stoner crosses the line with an increasingly comfortable lead (who said sickening ?!), Rossi closes the peloton still about forty seconds behind the Australian … Quite a symbol !

Edwards continues his effort and grabs tenth after tenth his delay on Hayden: we could well attend a final disputed between the two Americans, as in 2006 (read) but for third place, this time !

Valentino Rossi is back in the wheels of Marco Melandri: anxious not to repeat his early race ball, the Doctor takes all his time to overtake n ° 33, despite a lap time two seconds faster! The n ° 46 finally passes the Hedgehog of Ravenne at the entrance of the last chicane.

21st and 22nd laps : Meanwhile, Rossi’s "teammate" carries a virile attack on Vermeulen and steals seventh position from him! Surprised, the unfortunate Australian is forced to raise slightly and loses contact !

On his way, Jorge Lorenzo swallows Nakano’s Honda RCV212 with a relentless interior and is now in sixth place! The Mallorcan’s racing progress is impressive, just like in Donington last week.

Valentino Rossi continues his effort and still achieves the best lap time: admittedly, the n ° 46 does not go below 1’37 like his rival Casey Stoner, but the consistency of his lap times would have placed him in a serious candidate for the podium. Turning more than a second faster than Toni Elias who precedes him, Vale has the means and the speed to pick up the points for eleventh place !

23rd and 24th laps : Stoner concrete in front with almost ten seconds on Dani Pedrosa who precedes Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards, Andrea Dovizioso, Jorge Lorenzo, Shinya Nakano and Chris Vermeulen. Rossi joined Elias at the start of the G.T Bocht chicane: the Italian came out from the left preceding the middle of the track and tangent under braking to the first right of the pif-paf! Toni Elias cannot retort and must give way to the official Yamaha…

25th round : Stoner does not give up and increases his lead over Pedrosa to 11 seconds! The Australian could be content with securing a victory that has been taken for him since the start of the race – or even the start of the weekend! – and yet, n ° 1 still attacks as if he had the devil on his tail !

Hayden for his part is gradually returning to Pedrosa, no doubt to protect himself from the rise of Colin Edwards! Chris Vermeulen passes Nakano one last time thanks to a beautiful interior !

Last round : The leading positions are unchanged but behind, the fight continues: achieving a brilliant time of 1’37.9, Sylvain Guintoli gives everything he has to go and steal the points of ninth place from a James Toseland who seems in difficulty since two towers !

Casey Stoner signs the twentieth victory of his career, standing in wheeeling on his Ducati. Behind, Dani Pedrosa gets his eighth podium of the season while Colin Edwards, taking advantage of Hayden’s gasoline failure a few meters from the finish, finally finished the race on the podium !

"I had a lot of issues with the electronics on the bike this weekend and there was something wrong from the start", regrets Hayden, quite irritated."Towards the end, I thought I would succeed and at one point the engine stopped! It’s frustrating because with such a system, there should never be any fuel running out. We should still be able to cross the finish line. On the starting grid a light came on and I knew that the calibration was not good"…

As for Sylvain Guintoli, he finishes in the exhaust nozzles of the Toseland Yamaha, showing in passing all his pugnacity !

In the general classification, Valentino Rossi was dislodged from his first place by Dani Pedrosa for four points. Behind the two men, Casey Stoner gradually resurfaces with 29 points behind the leader.

Jorge Lorenzo is solid fourth with 57 points behind Pedrosa, ahead of Colin Edwards by 16 points. Randy de Puniet loses his 16th place in favor of Sylvain Guintoli: sad outcome for the Parisian who loses the benefit of his brilliant tests and is now only six points behind the last, Anthony West…

They are explained:

Casey Stoner (1st) : "We knew we were on the right pace, but it was even more stressful knowing that the only thing that could be a problem was myself! The track stayed dry for the race and I’m happy with it. Valentino’s fall was unfortunate, because I don’t want to earn points from other people’s falls, but I was also unlucky this year … The team did a great job this weekend !"

Dani Pedrosa (2nd) : "It was important to finish ahead. Second place is a good result. We struggled a bit, and in the race it was impossible to follow Casey. He was so fast! I just tried to do my best. I am satisfied with the result, again on the podium, and I am happy with my position in the championship".

Colin Edwards (3rd) : "What to say ? Whoever laughs last will laugh, whatever you want! I thought I got off to a good start, and I realized I didn’t in the first corner. Valentino fell right in front of me and I almost had to stop. I got closer to Nicky and Dani, but there was little I could do. And then we were lucky, where I got tricked two years ago! I am very happy to be on the podium, especially in front of my wife and my children who came to see me !"

MotoGP race classification – Assen
1- C. STONER 6- J. LORENZO 11- V. ROSSI
2- D. PEDROSA 7- C. VERMEULEN 12- T. ELIAS
3- C. EDWARDS 8- S. NAKANO 13- M. MELANDRI
4- N. HAYDEN 9- J. TOSELAND
5- A. DOVIZIOSO 10- S. GUINTOLI

Alexandre BARDIN – Photos DR

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