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Moto GP, Round 10, Sachsenring Germany
MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner continued his spectacular return to form
with victory at the Alice Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland, his third win in
as many races. The Ducati rider braved the wet conditions of the Sachsenring
circuit and appeared equally adept to the task as he had been in the dry
practice sessions, a sign that will have his title rivals preoccupied for
the second half of the season.The race had looked set to be a wet weather repeat of Dani Pedrosa´s
comprehensive 2007 victory, after the Repsol Honda rider once again took the
holeshot. He stormed out of the blocks and immediately created a 2 second
gap. The advantage increased to 7.5 seconds by the time the Spaniard crossed
the line for a sixth time, but just moments later disaster struck as he lost
control of the RC212V and picked up his first DNF of 2008.
Pedrosa´s crash allowed Stoner to return to the script written in practice
sessions for the German race, and the Australian needed no further
invitation. He assumed the reins in the same style with which he had taken
the win at the past two races, breaking free and riding solo for 23 laps
right up until the checkered flag was waved.Chris Vermeulen forced his way through the pack for a first podium of 2008,
behind valentino Rossi, while Andrea Dovizioso finished 4th ahead of Sylvain
Guintoli, Loris Capirossi, Randy de Puniet, Shinya Nakano and Anthony West,
with all riders outside the top ten lapped on the second shortest MotoGP
circuit.Besides Pedrosa´s tumble, there were also crashes for Jorge Lorenzo, Colin
Edwards and Marco Melandri as they fell foul of the tricky conditions.Casey Stoner – Race Winner
“I saw Dani riding off into the distance and thought `fair play´, there was
no way I would have been able to go so fast at that time. We used a harder
compound on the tires and they were taking time to warm up. Then I saw Dani
tumbling and rolling in the gravel. Given his past record in the wet, he was
riding very well up until then. From then on it was just a matter of making
sure of increasing a small advantage with every lap. We ran the harder
compound on the left side, with just some small `loses´ during the race
which worried me a bit. Thanks to the team for everything, and its nice to
close the championship up a bit more.”Chris Vermeulen – 3rd:
“I am very happy to be on the podium here in Germany. It was a really
difficult race, as there was a lot more water on this circuit. I have got to
give full credit to Bridgestone as they pushed me to go for a much harder
compound than I wanted and it definitely worked. I really want to thank my
crew as well, and the Japanese Suzuki staff, as we didn’t really have a lot
of set-up in the rain but the bike worked really well. It wasn’t perfect but
it was more than capable of getting me home, so I am really pleased to have
put it on the podium for them as well. Let’s hope this is the start of a
good run and now we are off to a track I enjoy a lot so hopefully we can
move up to the top step there!”
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