Daily Update MotoGP

Ducati team boss Livio Suppo says it's 99 percent certain that Marco Melandri will stay at the team at least until the US Grand Prix.

The Italian's future in the team is in doubt after a dismal season, in which he has been completely overshadowed by teammate Casey Stoner.

Melandri's position has led to speculation about his immediate future, with former GP winner Sete Gibernau linked to the ride already for this season.

Gibernau tested for Ducati last month and is testing again this week, in what it is rumoured to be his preparation to return to MotoGP racing action following his retirement in 2006.

Suppo said, however, that no announcement will be made at the end of the test and that Melandri is likely to ride at Sachsenring and Laguna Seca, the two races before the Czech Grand Prix at Brno.

"It's 99% certain that Melandri will race at Sachsenring and in the USA," Suppo told Gazzetta dello Sport. "Do not expect announcements at the end of testing."

Melandri has been linked with a switch to the Kawasaki team, who could be looking for a replacement for the injured John Hopkins, likely to miss at least two races following his heavy crash at Assen.

The Japanese squad, who had failed to make an impression so far this year, have been rumoured to be considering fielding a third bike for Melandri if the Italian leaves Ducati.
ref[AS]

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Valentino Rossi accepted responsibility for his first lap crash at Assen and does not think it will prove too costly for his championship bid.
The Italian fell and then collected Randy de Puniet's LCR Honda at the start of today's Dutch TT, before rejoining to take 11th.
The result saw Rossi lose the championship lead to Dani Pedrosa, whose second place puts him four points ahead in the standings.
"It's a shame. I also want to apologise to de Puniet because it was my mistake," Rossi told Italia1 television.
"When I turned left the tyre was still cold and I lost it and I caught him with me. I made a mistake. Unfortunately we have this chronic problem at the start when I never manage to have a good getaway, after which I made a mistake.
"A mistake after seven consecutive podiums is acceptable. We lost the lead in the standings but we are still close to Pedrosa."

Rossi also took comfort from his race pace, as he regularly matched the leaders' lap times despite his Yamaha being damaged in the accident, with much of the gear-pedal destroyed.
"I was so pissed off that I was changing gears with my nervousness," he said.
"I don't know, I didn't even look at it, but I managed somehow. On top of that my handlebar was completely bent, giving me trouble when changing direction.
"Despite that I did the third best lap of the race, we weren't far off. This morning we made a modification that allowed me to ride a lot better, with the front much more under control. So it's a double shame, because my pace was good, I could do 1:36s too, so I was the only one who could threaten (Casey) Stoner.
"It's a shame because we had the potential, we were up there, I was quicker than at Donington and I felt better with the bike. In fact at the end I was going quick even with a bent bike.
"For sure today I would have been able to go quicker than Dani, so it's positive that our closest rival can't go as quick as us."
Stoner's dominant win today closed him to within 25 points of Rossi, and the multiple champion believes the Assen result has set up a three-way head-to-head for the second half of the season.
"We'll see in Germany, with a track where Pedrosa has always gone very quick," Rossi said. "Stoner is in shape, he's found out how to use his bike at its best, and they've solved the
"As for the standings, Pedrosa is the one leading with the most points. These two races Stoner has gone really really quick so it's hard to say.
"We are halfway through the championship, so we must work well in this second part of the season, where last year we had some problems. But with the Bridgestones I think we can be quick at all times.
"When Stoner is well sorted he can be faster than Pedrosa, he's going very quick. I don't want to say more about one compared to the other because usually when you do that the opposite thing happens. So it's 50-50."
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Reigning MotoGP champion Casey Stoner confirmed that he and his Ducati Marlboro are back with a vengeance after completely dominating the Dutch TT at Assen.
After his Donington Park victory, this was the second win in six days for the Australian, and his third of the season, enabling him to reduce the gap to the top of the standings from 45 to 29 points.
But the championship lead has changed hands from Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi to Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa, with the former classified eleventh after a first-lap crash and now languishing four points behind the latter, who finished today's race in second.
The start saw Pedrosa making a perfect getaway from second on the grid to pip pole-setter Stoner at the first corner, but before the end of the lap Stoner was back in front and never looked back, with his gap to Pedrosa increasing throughout the race to be over eleven seconds by the end.

Meanwhile, Rossi had a bad start from third and dropped to seventh behind LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet. As the Italian tried to recover he lost the rear at the second corner and crashed into the Frenchman, taking both out in the gravel.
But while de Puniet retired with an injury on his left thigh, Rossi rejoined the track dead last and ended the first lap half a minute behind Stoner and 25 seconds behind the next man up the road, Marco Melandri in 13th place.
The Ducati rider, who was 12th by then thanks to Kawasaki's Anthony West crashing on lap eight, was caught and overtaken by Rossi on lap 20. The seven-time champion then went on to overtake Toni Elias's Alice Ducati three laps later.
Before the first lap was over Alex de Angelis also crashed his Honda Gresini and broke his left little finger.
While Stoner was opening a gap to the factory Hondas of Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards began to make up places after being delayed by the de Puniet-Rossi crash.
The Tech 3 Yamaha rider was tenth after lap two and fourth by lap 15, seven seconds behind Hayden. The Texan within six laps managed to reduce the gap to the Kentucky man to just over four seconds, a gap that stayed about the same until the end.
But just when Hayden was about to score the maiden podium for HRC's new pneumatic-valve engine, he appeared to run out of fuel while on the finish straight and had to concede third position to Edwards.
JiR Team Scot Honda's Andrea Dovizioso classified fifth after resisting a late surge by the works Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo, who finished just over a second behind the Italian.

Pos Rider Bike Time
1. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 42:12.337
2. Dani Pedrosa Honda (M) + 11.310
3. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) + 17.125
4. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) + 20.477
5. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) + 27.346
6. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) + 28.608
7. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) + 32.330
8. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) + 34.892
9. James Toseland Yamaha (M) + 38.566
10. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) + 38.817
11. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) + 46.025
12. Toni Elias Ducati (B) + 48.213
13. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) + 59.594
ref [AS]
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Casey Stoner beat Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi to pole position for the Dutch TT after a stunning battle between the trio in qualifying at Assen.
World champion Stoner had dominated the majority of the session, setting an early 1:36.623 lap that was a full second clear of the rest of the field at the time.
Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards briefly held provisional pole after an early qualifying tyre run, but when Stoner improved to a qualifying record 1:35.995 on his first qualifying tyre with 15 minutes remaining, it looked like he would prove unbeatable.
Rossi took the fight to the Ducati rider however, producing a 1:35.659 lap in the closing minutes to take the provisional top spot by three tenths of a second.

But Stoner wasn't finished yet, and with his last lap of the hour he regained pole position by lapping in 1:35.520.
Despite Rossi's best efforts, the championship leader was unable to beat Stoner's time, and he then lost second place when his title rival Dani Pedrosa (Honda) threw in a 1:35.552 lap in the final seconds.
Pedrosa had been up on Stoner's benchmark for three quarters of the lap, only to lose time in the final sector.
Nicky Hayden will start fourth on the second works Honda, alongside LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet and Edwards.
John Hopkins, who had already crashed at the chicane in the early part of the session, suffered a violent accident at the De Bult corner near the end of the hour.
The Kawasaki rider hit the barriers at high speed and received immediately medical attention. No information has yet been released about his condition.
Rossi's teammate Jorge Lorenzo qualified seventh, with Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen eighth ahead of Shinya Nakano's Gresini Honda.
Sylvain Guintoli completed the top ten after a very impressive effort on the hitherto uncompetitive Alice Ducati.
Pos Rider Team Time Laps
1. Casey Stoner Ducati Marlboro Team 1:35.520 23
2. Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 1:35.552 + 0.032 28
3. Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1:35.659 + 0.139 29
4. Nicky Hayden Repsol Honda Team 1:35.975 + 0.455 25
5. Randy de Puniet LCR Honda MotoGP 1:35.985 + 0.465 28
6. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha 1:36.278 + 0.758 23
7. Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team 1:36.532 + 1.012 26
8. Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1:36.768 + 1.248 25
9. Shinya Nakano San Carlo Honda Gresini 1:36.804 + 1.284 25
10. Sylvain Guintoli Alice Team 1:36.823 + 1.303 26
11. Andrea Dovizioso JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1:36.899 + 1.379 22
12. Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini 1:36.948 + 1.428 24
13. James Toseland Tech 3 Yamaha 1:36.978 + 1.458 26
14. Toni Elias Alice Team 1:37.287 + 1.767 25
15. John Hopkins Kawasaki Racing Team 1:37.643 + 2.123 20
16. Anthony West Kawasaki Racing Team 1:37.793 + 2.273 26
17. Marco Melandri Ducati Marlboro Team 1:38.726 + 3.206 25
ref[AS]
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Reigning champion Casey Stoner took a dominant victory over rivals Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa in the British MotoGP at Donington Park.

This is the Ducati Marlboro rider's second victory of what has turned out to be a difficult season. Today's win allows him to take third in the points table ahead of Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, but still 45 points behind Rossi.

Stoner made a perfect start from pole position and after four laps he already had a one-second gap over Rossi, which doubled five laps later and steadily increased to over six by lap 25 of the 30-lap race.

Starting from the second slot of the grid, Fiat Yamaha's Rossi immediately fought and defended his second place with JiR Honda's Andrea Dovizioso, who had a fine start from sixth.
Pos Rider Bike Time
1. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 44:44.982
2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) + 5.789
3. Dani Pedrosa Honda (M) + 8.347
4. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) + 12.678
5. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) + 14.801
6. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) + 15.690
7. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) + 18.196
8. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) + 21.666
9. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) + 29.354
10. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) + 41.030
11. Toni Elias Ducati (B) + 44.426
12. Randy de Puniet Honda (M) + 46.199
13. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) + 48.731
14. Ben Spies Suzuki (B) + 49.591
15. Alex de Angelis Honda (B) +1:22.186
16. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) +1:30.021
17. James Toseland Yamaha (M) + 1 lap

Retirements:

Rider Bike Laps
John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) 16

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Andrea Dovizioso put himself in the driving seat for this afternoon´s MotoGP qualifying run, recording the fastest wet time of the weekend in the final free practice.

A frantic finale to the third MotoGP free practice session saw Andrea Dovizioso walk away with the fastest time of the Saturday morning run. The JiR Team Scot rider was the only participant unable make improvements in yesterday´s afternoon outing, but was back on form as the soaked Donington track threw up a new challenge for the riders.

Dovizioso´s quickest time was a 1´43.957 lap of the British circuit, ahead of another rider whose ability to compete to the fullest was in doubt. Repsol Honda´s Dani Pedrosa had taken a heavy bump in Friday´s second session, but continued unabated on the spring valve engine-supported Repsol Honda RC212V at just 0.038 slower than Dovizioso.
Second factory Honda rider Nicky Hayden once again showed himself to be more suited to the pneumatic valve version of the Japanese factory´s motor, half a second down on his teammate in third and with reason to be optimistic ahead of qualifying.
MotoGP´s `Rain Man´, Anthony West had no complaints about the typically British showers as he gave his best practice performance of the year. The Kawasaki rider has spent the gap between Catalunya and Donington testing in Japan, and seems to have gone some way to addressing his previous rear-grip problems.
After the indignity of finishing below debuting replacement Ben Spies in yesterday´s combined timesheet, Sylvain Guintoli bounced back as the fastest Ducati rider in fifth, ahead of 2007 World Champion Casey Stoner who led the way for most of the session.
Alex de Angelis was once again at the sharp end of the standings, ahead of the Fiat Yamaha duo of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi and Spies himself.
Whilst no rider in the top ten took a tumble, there were crashes for five participants as they fell foul of the slippery track. Randy de Puniet, Chris Vermeulen, John Hopkins, Shinya Nakano and home rider James Toseland all had inconsequential falls.
ref[motogp.com]
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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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