MotoGP – The Valencia Grand Prix MotoGP turn by turn –

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The Valencia MotoGP Grand Prix lap by lap

MotoGP - The Valencia Grand Prix MotoGP turn by turn -

The last race of the season, the Valencia GP is also the scene of Michelin’s final appearance in MotoGP, but also of Guintoli, Nakano and West. In the paddocks, it’s time for a certain nostalgia and preparation for 2009 ! Round by round.

It is not without a certain emotion that the 18 "cracks" of the premier category of motorcycle sport land in Spain: the GP Valencia traditionally signs the last performance of the Continental Circus and for some, Sunday’s race resonates like a baroud d ‘honor…

Zoom on …

Sylvain Guintoli’s last MotoGP race, before joining Suzuki in the English Superbike in 2009. The French left the GP world after a disappointing season in a Ducati that was difficult to take. With a 6th place in Germany as the best result this season, "Syl" leaves for new horizons where his experience and the equipment at his disposal should allow him to fight at the forefront..

Thus, the French tire manufacturer Michelin is installing its famous yellow and blue trucks for the last time in the paddock, leaving – definitely? – the premier class to make way for the Bridgestone single-brand. Worthy, the men of the Bibendum wanted to thank and congratulate all their collaborators and Eurosport France will broadcast an advertising spot throughout the weekend, in which the Auvergne house recalls its many successes in the category (26 titles in 35 years all from same!) and insists on the importance of competition in the group’s philosophy.

More discreet and less publicized, the departures of Sylvain Guintoli (see box opposite), Shinya Nakano – who will join Max Biaggi at Aprilia in Superbike next year – and Anthony West – who will henceforth drive a Honda in Supersport -, will almost pass unnoticed next to the presence of Catalan Sete Gibernau, who came to present his team and his Ducati GP9, with which the 35-year-old former vice-world champion will begin testing on Monday !

The Italian manufacturer will therefore have five motorcycles in 2009 and the red team manager has already warned that Niccolo Caneppa, Mika Kallio and Sete Gibernau would have the same support and a priori the same technical development as the official GP9s of Casey Stoner and by Nicky Hayden! The latter will conclude nine years of collaboration – including six at the HRC – with the first manufacturer by the best times during a first day of testing marked by rain..

Quick, the "Kentucky Kid" will nevertheless have to cede pole position to his next team mate: Casey Stoner indeed signs his ninth pole of the season by completing the 4.005 km of the Ricardo-Tormo circuit in 1’31.502! Rossi keeps his 2006 record (1’31.002), but the Italian seems to be struggling to set up with his M1 and only qualifies in 10th position on the grid.

Dani Pedrosa is only 0.053 seconds off the Australian’s reference time and will start from second place ahead of Nicky Hayden. Full card for Tech 3 who saw Colin Edwards and James Toseland in 4th and 5th place on the grid, just ahead of Randy de Puniet. Local hero of the race, Jorge Lorenzo does not really take advantage of the new colors of his Yamaha and his helmet – which modestly display the 14 flags of the countries where the Mallorcan won in GP! – and will start from the third row alongside Capirossi and Dovizioso.

The race !

Departure : Dani Pedrosa performs – once again – the hole shot in front of Casey Stoner, Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden. From the second corner, Stoner passed Pedrosa cleanly from the inside and took the lead. !

Dovizioso is threatening on Hayden, while Capirossi is already under the threat of a Valentino Rossi who nibbles place by place to come back in contact with the leading men. John Hopkins did not make it easy for him, however, by passing n ° 46 a few turns further! Annoyed, because faster than the American, Rossi replied immediately and definitively got rid of Hopkins: places are expensive in the premier class !

To the dismay of the French clan, Randy de Puniet loses his temper once again on entering a curve. But the Frenchman simply shoots straight into a paved loophole and after a U-turn, the n ° 14 manages to start again dead last.

2nd round : Casey Stoner completes this first lap without having been worried and it is visible that the Australian has put his finger on settings which he lacked during the practice sessions in the dry: "we finally found some set-up that we might not have been able to improve by working all weekend in the dry. We were lucky to stumble upon it", humbly concedes the Ducati rider after the race.

Dani Pedrosa tries to stay in contact, but the Spanish jockey has already had to give up a few lengths to his rival. Colin Edwards follows the rhythm with ease and contains Hayden and Dovizioso’s comeback. Loris Capirossi is now under threat from his compatriot Rossi, while John Hopkins is already slightly behind the two Italians. Jorge Lorenzo, Shinya Nakano, Alex de Angelis and James Toseland follow.

Nicky Hayden tries a desperate braking on Colin Edwards at the entrance of a tight left, but the "Kentucky Kid" gets carried away and the "Texan Tornado" easily comes back out of the turn! Stubbornly, n ° 69 whips his RCV 212 and succeeds in infiltrating under the wheels of n ° 5 two turns further. !

3rd and 4th rounds : Stoner continues to widen the gap, while behind the group remains quite compact: Hayden tries to get back on his teammate, while Dovizioso turns around Colin Edwards and Rossi looks for the fault on Loris Capirossi! The Italian ends up finding it at the entrance of a tight right and the Yamaha passes the Suzuki without firing from the inside.

Quickly, the Doctor puts Andrea Dovizioso back on and passes him under braking from the pit straight line: Dovizioso resists, but the n ° 46 closes all the doors so as not to have to pass the same riders several times, while seeing Stoner and Pedrosa s ” take the lead.

5th round : Casey Stoner plays his score wonderfully and sets the fastest times that allow him to prance in the lead with 0.569 seconds ahead of Dani Pedrosa and 2.650 seconds over Hayden. Despite his rapid recovery, Valentino Rossi is already 3.381 seconds behind the fastest kangaroo in the world !

More impressive, Jorge Lorenzo currently 11th, is already more than ten seconds behind the leader of the race in less than five laps completed! The Mallorcan is definitely not having a good day and he precedes James Toseland, Anthony West and Sylvain Guintoli who puts all his heart into his last race in MotoGP. Randy de Puniet is 18th 15.5 seconds behind Stoner, but less than three seconds behind the penultimate Toni Elias.

6th round : Stoner irremediably widens the gap on Pedrosa and sticks him half a second in just one turn! Ultra fast, the "red ball" beats the lap record by more than a tenth! Quickly too, Valentino Rossi came out of the last long left stuck to Colin Edwards’ fairings and passed it under braking from the pit straight line. The maneuver gives ideas to Andrea Dovizioso who taxes Edwards from the inside a few turns further !

Sensing the threat, Valentino Rossi quickly overtook Nicky Hayden from the inside and tried to get back on Dani Pedrosa who seemed to be slowing down. As before, Dovizioso wants to follow in Rossi’s footsteps and immediately tries to overtake Hayden, but he takes care to slam the door in his face … until the next left, where the young Italian rushes under the wheels of the HRC pilot !

7th round : Annoyed at being overtaken by a "Sat" RCV, Hayden let the power of his pneumatic return engine speak for itself in the pit straight and regained the advantage over Dovizioso. But his successor in the HRC is visibly more lively at the start of the curve and after a first abortive attempt, the n ° 4 passes the American inside in a left !

In front of the two men, Casey Stoner continues to fly, while Valentino Rossi tries to fill the 3.5 seconds between him and Dani Pedrosa.

8th and 9th rounds : Casey Stoner passes the timing cell 1.7 seconds ahead of Dani Pedrosa, himself 2.8 seconds behind Valentino Rossi. Gradually, the Italian returns to his rival, but the gap to be filled is still significant. Dovizioso, Hayden, Edwards and Capirossi hang on a little further.

Sylvain Guintoli is in 13th position, while Randy de Puniet has passed a Toni Elias who has definitely been in free fall for several races: the times for the Spaniards are surprisingly slow and irregular. Will the n ° 24 be able to recover with a factory Honda RCV 212 next year? ?

10th, 11th and 12th laps : Casey Stoner seems definitely out of reach and continues to stick a few tenths to a Pedrosa who sees Rossi come back gently on him. Andrea Dovizioso tries to stay in contact with the new world champion, but little by little the gap is widening. Hayden and Edwards continue to fight for fifth place, but the Tech 3 rider gradually lets go and Capirossi, joined by Nakano, seems in a position to go carving out American-style croupiers. !

There was also a good battle for ninth place: John Hopkins and Alex de Angelis clash in every bend and use their motorcycles to the maximum! The San Marinese will finally manage to pass the Kawasaki rider, who sees Jorge Lorenzo, James Toseland and the surprising Marco Melandri fall on him! Sylvain Guintoli is 14th, Randy de Puniet 16th, ahead of West and Elias.

13th, 14th and 15th laps : The leading positions seem frozen and Dani Pedrosa reacted to Rossi’s comeback: gradually, the Spaniard managed to stabilize the gap, then regain time on Casey Stoner.

Jorge Lorenzo manages to shift at the end of the pit straight and brake Hopkins who cannot respond. James Toseland is found just behind the American, but the n ° 52 seems to have difficulty apprehending the tricky corner entries of Valencia and his Yamaha regularly widens in the curves..

As in the previous lap, Jorge Lorenzo takes advantage of his excellent top speed to get rid of Alex de Angelis, while just behind Toseland performs the same maneuver on Hopkins! More surprisingly, Marco Melandri rings the charge and in turn overtakes John Hopkins from the inside, containing – for once – the assaults of his Ducati which nevertheless rushes in all directions !

His future Kawasaki teammate did not hear it that way, however, and John Hopkins remained inside the Ducati for two turns, then abdicated, ill placed to attempt anything. !

16th and 17th rounds : Casey Stoner enters the halfway point with a substantial lead over his rivals, while Pedrosa seems to be able to control Rossi’s comeback. Andrea Dovizioso is now several lengths from No.46 and has a slight margin over Nicky Hayden.

For his last MotoGP race, Shinya Nakano gives the best of himself and manages to pass Loris Capirossi to appear behind Colin Edwards. Randy de Puniet is now in contact with Chris Vermeulen and we feel the Frenchie at ease behind the Australian: the LCR driver is close to the points !

18th and 19th laps : Casey Stoner is now 3.2 seconds ahead of Dani Pedrosa who slightly widened the gap over Valentino Rossi. Andrea Dovizioso is already more than 12 seconds behind the leader, and keeps Hayden almost three seconds behind.

Continuing to surprise after a season spent at the back of the grid, the second Ducati official, Marco Melandri, gets the best of James Toseland with perfectly mastered braking: will the Ravenna hedgehog have suddenly discovered the instructions for use of his motorcycle ? Still, his lap times are far from ridiculous and that the Italian comes back like a rocket in the wake of Alex de Angelis and Jorge Lorenzo !

20th and 21st laps : The three leading men seem definitely out of reach and Valentino Rossi seems to have understood that he will not be able to join Dani Pedrosa who has more than four seconds in advance. Moreover, the Italian already seems to be in slight difficulty with the front of his motorcycle and his entrances to curves are losing their confidence at the start..

The n ° 46 is suddenly made an enormous heat in the last turn: the front of his M1 slips away at the point of rope, but the doctor manages to recover with his knee! Hot ! Careful, "Vale" lifts his foot and appears more than five seconds from Pedrosa the next loop.

22nd and 23rd laps : Casey Stoner unrolls in front of the parade and his lead is almost four seconds on Pedrosa. Valentino Rossi concretizes his third place on the podium more than nine seconds behind the Ducati rider and Valencia seems to refuse once again to the Yamaha rider who has not won there since 2004 !

Fifth in the race and second Michelin driver behind Andrea Dovizioso, Nicky Hayden appears above all with more than 22 seconds behind his next leader: this represents one second per lap since the start! And what about Lorenzo in ninth place who is more than 33 seconds behind on this track where he has yet won in the past? ?

Just behind the Mallorcan, Alex de Angelis is under the pressure of a found Marco Melandri, who turns three tenths faster than the Honda rider! Dominator, the n ° 33 will take advantage of the incredible power of his Ducati to literally drop de Angelis in the short straight line of the Spanish track !

24th and 25th laps : For his part, Stoner does not have to worry about overtaking, since apart from the one on Pedrosa at the start of the race, the Australian will have led the race from the start without being joined by his rivals! Ducati rider too, Sylvain Guintoli seems able to attack John Hopkins and steal the points from 13th place !

In his wake, the Drômois sees Chris Vermeulen come back on him who has definitely got rid of Randy de Puniet. Patient, "Syl" sticks Hopkins during two full laps and decides to attack him in the straight line of the pits: the n ° 50 and the n ° 21 are elbows to elbows in the straight line, and the Ducati will finally take the best on the Kawasaki! Sylvain Guintoli applies his braking and manages to close the door in the face of Hopkins who can not reply !

26th, 27th and 28th laps : Four laps from the checkered flag, the leading positions are still frozen, but the fight continues in the middle of the field! Sylvain Guintoli seems to want to tackle James Toseland, while Marco Melandri is still just as swift behind de Angelis !

The two Italians were knocked out by a Jorge Lorenzo found who now points in the exhausts of Loris Capirossi’s GSV-R: the Spaniard is showing himself more and more threatening and tries to find the fault in a "Capi Rex" which do not give up ! The n ° 48 will finally win in the pit straight line, benefiting from a visibly greater reach than that of his rival’s bike. After having done one of his best races of the season, Marco Melandri misses a report at the entry of the curve and shoots straight !

Last round : Casey Stoner enters the last lap with a comfortable lead over Pedrosa and Rossi. The Australian is heading towards his sixth victory this season and demonstrates a competitiveness that the loss of the world title has failed to alter.

The Ducati official goes under the checkered flags standing on his wheelie bike, followed by Pedrosa, Rossi – who climbs on his 16th podium of the season! -, Dovizioso, Hayden, Edwards, Nakano, Lorenzo, Capirossi, de Angelis, Toseland, Guintoli, Hopkins, de Puniet, Melandri, West and Elias.

In the general classification, Valentino Rossi explodes his own record of points scored in one season (367 points in 2005, equalized by Casey Stoner in 2007) and now stands at 373 points, that is to say 93 more than his dolphin Stoner and 124 more than Dani Pedrosa, third.

Jorge Lorenzo retains his fourth place overall ahead of Andrea Dovizioso who makes the affront to precede the factory Hayden-RCV duo with his Honda satellite for his first season! Colin Edwards finished in 7th position ahead of Chris Vermeulen and Shinya Nakano who left the premier class by obtaining his best ranking since the creation of MotoGP in 2002.

Loris Capirossi fails in a disappointing 10th place with his Suzuki, just ahead of rookie James Toseland and irregular Toni Elias. Sylvain Guintoli left the MotoGP field with a nice 13th place in the final, ahead of Alex de Angelis and Randy de Puniet. Red card for Kawasaki who appears in 16th position with John Hopkins (4th in the championship in 2007!), Marco Melandri – Kawasaki rider in 2009 – and Anthony West who ends his first full season in the premier class with the little envied last place in the classification … 323 points behind Valentino Rossi !

They are explained:

Casey Stoner (1st) : "I couldn’t ask for better! It’s been a tough season with a lot of ups and downs. I’m looking forward to testing the new bike – that’s why I continued to ride – but it’s great that I got two good results. Yesterday we couldn’t find a good set-up, but the work done after qualifying and during the warm-up got us ready for the race.".

Dani Pedrosa (2nd) : "Stoner never needs a long time to set up his machine. In the race he was just a little faster. He was better than me today. I’m a little disappointed, because I wanted a victory in front of my fans and with the Repsol special colors. I’m happy to be back on top after a bad mid-season where I wasn’t feeling very well so that’s a good thing for us".

Valentino Rossi (3rd) : "We completely missed the dry practice session and because of that I started from the fourth row. We changed our settings, I got off to a very good start and quickly overtook several drivers. I got behind Dani pretty early on, and attacked but we weren’t 100%. We still have difficulties here, but I’m happy to end the year on the podium. The season has been excellent, see you next year"

Nicky Hayden (5th) : "I didn’t get the start I wanted and these guys were faster. Obviously, I would have preferred to finish my last race with Honda on a better note. I attacked hard this weekend and I am now looking forward to a new adventure. Finally, I have to thank my team, Honda, Michelin and everyone here. They made me a world champion, I’m grateful to them".

Sylvain Guintoli (12th) : "For my last race with the Alice team, I wanted to get a good result. Today I gave my maximum and got a few more points in the world championship standings. I would like to thank all my technical team for the support and the work done this year. We have had many difficulties but no one has ever given up.".

Alexandre BARDIN – Photos DR

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