Daily Update MotoGP

Returning after a race out on the sidelines, Jorge Lorenzo is pioneering a more cautious approach to riding at Donington Park.
Whilst it can rarely be said that fearless rookie Jorge Lorenzo is a rider lacking in confidence, a concussion-inducing crash in Catalunya means that the Fiat Yamaha rider will be looking to regain self belief and World Championship points at Donington Park.
According to his team, results will not be the main focus of the Spaniard´s weekend, with physical and mental recovery top of the list of priorities. Visible signs of the former will be apparent through Lorenzo´s use of special silk glove, protecting the fourth and fifth fingers of his right hand recently treated with a skin graft.
`It has been a tough couple of weeks for me and watching the Barcelona race from my hospital bed wasn´t much fun,´ admits Lorenzo, who is contemplating modifying his racing approach in order to avoid the spate of crashes that have plagued his rookie MotoGP season.
`I´m looking forward to getting back on the bike, although I think I have to ride a little more cautiously this weekend! It is like starting again from scratch so I have to change my approach. What I can say about Donington is that I have got great memories from there – I took 250cc victory in 2006 and last year I was riding really well in the wet. It is a fast circuit, other than the final section, and it will be interesting to ride there on a MotoGP bike for the first time.´
ref[motogp.com]

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Kawasaki rider John Hopkins is aiming to put on a strong result at the British Grand Prix despite being sore following his injury in Barcelona.
The Anglo-American rider is still recovering from the fractured vertebrae he suffered in a crash during practice for the Catalan Grand Prix.
Despite the injury, he raced in the Spanish event and finished in 10th place.
Hopkins admits he is still not feeling 100 percent, but the Kawasaki rider is fired up ahead of what he considers his second home race.
"Following the Catalunya race we had a one day test where I rode as many laps as I could with the back injury I sustained in practice," said Hopkins in a team preview.

"In the lead-up to the last two races I had been training very hard so thankfully I haven't lost any fitness, which is always a problem when carrying injuries, and I've had the chance to rest to help the healing process.
"I'm still very stiff and sore, but Donington Park is like a home away from home, and it's a track I definitely enjoy.
"For me the British Grand Prix is one of the biggest races of the season, with many members of my family coming to support me, and regardless of my injury I'll be looking to gain a strong result aboard the Kawasaki."
ref[AS]
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Dani Pedrosa dominated the motorcycling Grand Prix of Catalunya in front of his Barcelona home crowd to reduce the gap in the championship to Valentino Rossi.
The Repsol Honda rider, thanks to this second victory of the season, now lies seven points behind the Fiat Yamaha rival, who finished second in today's race.
Starting from second on the grid behind Ducati Marlboro's Casey Stoner, Pedrosa made a perfect getaway to lead at the first corner and never looked back. Within five laps he was over three seconds ahead of everyone else, a gap which opened to almost eight seconds with around two thirds of the race through.

Having ridden the perfect 25-lap race, Pedrosa administered his advantage towards the end to cross the line less than three seconds before Rossi, who however had his hands full in defending his position from Stoner.

Rossi, coming from three consecutive victories this season, made a great recovery from his lowly ninth slot on the grid. He didn't have the best of starts, however, as he didn't really gain any positions.

By the end of the first lap the seven-time champion was only eight, but started to make up positions on lap three when he overtook Tech 3 Yamaha's James Toseland for seventh, after which he took sixth from Nicky Hayden's factory Honda on lap five, and fifth from Randy de Puniet's LCR Honda two laps later.

Next up the road was Colin Edwards's Tech 3 Yamaha, which Rossi overtook for fourth place on lap eight. On that same lap he caught up with Stoner and with a hard-fighting Andrea Dovizioso, whose JiR Honda managed to take second from the Australian thanks to a mistake by the latter.

On lap nine Stoner managed to take the position back from the Italian rookie, but Rossi was unstoppable and overtook them both before the end of the same lap.

While Dovizioso struggled to keep up the pace with the two riders ahead of him, Stoner would not let Rossi run away from him, and in fact overtook the Italian on lap 17 when Rossi did not seem to try to defend the position.

At the beginning of the penultimate lap Rossi outbraked Stoner on the straight and opened a bit of a gap that the Australian was unable to bridge, finishing the race half a second behind the Italian.

Dovizioso, who started the race from seventh on the grid, ended up in an impressive fourth position, over seven seconds behind Stoner but five seconds ahead of Edwards and ten over Toseland.

Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen finished in seventh, while Hayden, who started from the front row, could do no better than eighth, over 20 seconds behind teammate Pedrosa.

On lap 11 Suzuki's Loris Capirossi and Honda Gresini's Alex de Angelis crashed out while fighting for tenth place, leaving the veteran rider with a fracture in his right hand. On the following lap de Puniet also retired from sixth position after a crash.

Alice Ducati's Toni Elias was black flagged on lap nine after ignoring a ride-through penalty for having jumped the start.

Pos Rider Bike Time
1. Dani Pedrosa Honda (M) 43:02.175
2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) + 2.806
3. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) + 3.343
4. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) + 10.893
5. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) + 16.426
6. James Toseland Yamaha (M) + 21.482
7. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) + 21.548
8. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) + 22.280
9. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) + 22.375
10. John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) + 46.835
11. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) + 57.991
12. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) + 59.168
13. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) +1:00.779

Retirements:

Rider Bike Laps
Randy de Puniet Honda (M) 11
Alex de Angelis Honda (B) 10
Loris Capirossi Suzuki (B) 10
Toni Elias Ducati (B) 7
ref[AS]


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Casey Stoner took his first pole position of the year at Barcelona ahead of tomorrow's MotoGP of Catalunya.
The Ducati Marlboro rider, who has won only one race this season after dominating the championship in 2007, was the only Bridgestone rider in the top seven positions.
The Australian set his blistering lap of 1:41.186 just after the time in the 60-minute session expired. That came a handful of seconds after Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa took provisional pole away from teammate Nicky Hayden.
Pos Rider Bike Time
1. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 1:41.186
2. Dani Pedrosa Honda (M) 1:41.269 + 0.083
3. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) 1:41.437 + 0.251
4. Randy de Puniet Honda (M) 1:41.571 + 0.385
5. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) 1:41.609 + 0.423
6. James Toseland Yamaha (M) 1:41.820 + 0.634
7. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) 1:42.053 + 0.867
8. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) 1:42.365 + 1.179
9. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) 1:42.427 + 1.241
10. Alex de Angelis Honda (B) 1:42.580 + 1.394
11. Toni Elias Ducati (B) 1:42.622 + 1.457
12. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) 1:42.643 + 1.462
13. Loris Capirossi Suzuki (B) 1:42.648 + 1.622
14. John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) 1:42.819 + 1.633
15. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) 1:43.204 + 2.018
16. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) 1:43.719 + 2.533
17. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) 1:44.558 + 3.372
ref:[AS]

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Dani Pedrosa was once again the fastest rider on track on Friday afternoon in Barcelona.
The fastest rider in the opening practice session, Dani Pedrosa made it a clean sweep from the two Friday MotoGP runs at the Circuit de Catalunya by further improving his times in the afternoon. The Spaniard began the preparations for his home race with a 1´43.017 lap of the tricky Barcelona track, which caught out half of the 18-rider field in one form or another.
Pedrosa was among the participants to take a fall, crashing his standard engine-powered Repsol Honda RC212V with just over ten minutes to go in the second session, immediately after clocking the fastest time of the day. He was unhurt in the crash.
Second fastest in the combined standings was Loris Capirossi, continuing his upturn in form onboard the Rizla Suzuki GSV-R. He trailed Pedrosa by just 0.006, with the top four covered by less than a tenth of a second. Capirossi ran off track twice in the afternoon run.

The remainder of the aforementioned top four were Fiat Yamaha´s Valentino Rossi and Ducati Marlboro´s Casey Stoner, after an eventful day for both riders. Rossi attracted attention for his special `Azzurri´ themed livery and leathers, whilst Stoner had early problems with the track that led to his crashing and running-off in the morning.
Alex de Angelis maintained his Mugello momentum with the fifth fastest time, ahead of Rizla Suzuki man Chris Vermeulen and his own San Carlo Honda Gresini teammate Shinya Nakano.
Learning the Catalunya circuit, James Toseland was eighth fastest, whilst the top ten was completed by American duo Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards.
The biggest crash of the afternoon befell Jorge Lorenzo, local rider and World Championship contender. He hit the ground from a highside at a lower altitude than that of his Shanghai spill, but his momentum made for a bumpy journey through the gravel trap. The Fiat Yamaha man was taken to the Clinica Mobile and took no further part in the afternoon session, with the latest news on his condition indicating a fractured right ring finger and an ankle contusion.
Another rider stopping early was John Hopkins, who completed just a handful of laps before a highside on his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR, whilst Randy de Puniet had his second crash of the day in the afternoon outing.
ref[motogp.com]
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Valentino Rossi and fellow podium finishers Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa gave their thoughts on a tough Mugello race, immediately after stepping off the rostrum.

Valentino Rossi – Race Winner
`It's a great feeling, like always. A lot of my family and close friends have come to see me. I tried to push hard and my Yamaha and Brigestone worked very well, right to the end. During part of the race I was faster than Stoner, but he came back and made me work hard. It´s wonderful to be on the podium with two very strong riders.´

Casey Stoner – Second Place
`This season´s been a bit disappointing, but we were a lot more confident with the setup today. It was an awesome race. On one part of the circuit I was losing a lot of time, and we knew today that the bike would be lot better at the end of the race. I´m very happy with the race and want to give thanks to all at Ducati.´

Dani Pedrosa – Third Place
`It was tough race, all the time I was pushing. The race pace was quite high; I tried to follow but Casey and Valentino were making it quite hard. I made a mistake and Casey pulled away, and at the end I had to push hard because De Angelis was coming from behind.
ref[motogp.com]
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Valentino Rossi took a dominant victory in his home Italian Grand Prix for the seventh time in seven years at Mugello, to add to his two additional wins in the lower classes.
This is Rossi's third consecutive victory this year, enabling him to further extend his lead in the MotoGP championship over Repsol Honda rival Dani Pedrosa.
The Italian, who didn't have the best of starts from pole with his Fiat Yamaha when he dropped back to fourth, took the lead from Ducati Marlboro's Casey Stoner on lap four and started opening a gap a few laps later, to extend it to as much as 3.5 seconds with two laps to go.

Pedrosa took the lead at the start but lost it to Stoner on lap two. The two riders stayed together throughout the race except at the end, when the Spaniard eased off after figuring he couldn't catch the Australian in second place.
In fact Pedrosa slowing down gave Honda Gresini's Alex de Angelis hope of getting on the podium, but it wasn't to be, with the former 250cc champion finishing 1.6 seconds ahead.
The rider from San Marino, however, must be the man of the race. After having an abysmal start from the tenth spot on the grid that dropped him back to last at the first corner, de Angelis fought back and was the only rider able to run at the same rhythm as the pace setters.
Fifth and sixth place went to the Tech 3 Yamahas of Colin Edwards and James Toseland, with Rizla Suzuki's Loris Capirossi finishing in a disappointing seventh place after starting from the front row.
Andrea Dovizioso took his JiR Honda to eighth place ahead of Shinya Nakano's Honda Gresini and Chris Vermeulen's Suzuki.
Rossi's teammate Jorge Lorenzo crashed out while trying to overtake Dovizioso from sixth place on lap seven, the same lap when John Hopkins had his race-ending fall from 13th spot.
On the previous lap it was LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet turn to slide off the track, but this also forced Ducati Marlboro's Marco Melandri to go off as he had nowhere else to go, resulting in both riders retiring.
Pos Rider Bike Time
1. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) 42:31.153
2. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) + 2.201
3. Dani Pedrosa Honda (M) + 4.867
4. Alex de Angelis Honda (B) + 6.313
5. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) + 12.530
6. James Toseland Yamaha (M) + 13.806
7. Loris Capirossi Suzuki (B) + 14.447
8. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) + 15.319
9. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) + 15.327
10. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) + 30.785
11. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) + 39.621
12. Toni Elias Ducati (B) + 50.021
13. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) + 50.440
14. Tadayuki Okada Honda (M) + 58.849
15. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) +1:00.736

Retirements:

Rider Bike Laps
Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) 6
John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) 6
Randy de Puniet Honda (M) 5
Marco Melandri Ducati (B) 5
ref [AS]
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