Stoner eases to victory in Malaysia
2007 world champion Casey Stoner rode a controlled race to take his tenth victory of the season in the Malaysian MotoGP at Sepang on Sunday
Stoner grabbed the lead at the start and was never headed. In the early laps he was followed closely by Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa, but in the middle of the race he eased out a small gap up to around two seconds.
In the closing laps Marco Melandri reduced the gap to just over a second, but just when it looked like Stoner might be put under pressure for victory, he opened the gap back up to win by 1.7 seconds.
After starting the race on the front row, Marco Melandri fell back to fourth at the start, but moved into third ahead of Randy de Puniet on lap five. Four laps later he passed Pedrosa for second, the two having a bit of a dice before Melandri asserted himself.
In the closing laps the top four riders of Stoner, Melandri, Pedrosa and de Puniet appeared to be riding in formation, each separated by a gap of one to one and a half seconds, and that was how it finished.
After a poor weekend leading up to the race, fifth place a second behind de Puniet and less than five behind winner Stoner must've seemed almost like a win for Yamaha's Valentino Rossi. A good start saw him quickly up to sixth by lap three and from there he matched the leaders' pace, but was unable to close the gap to make a move.
A distant sixth was the second Gresini Honda of Toni Elias, 13 seconds behind Rossi, who finished a couple of seconds ahead of the Suzuki riders of Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins, who spent most of the race swapping positions back and forth, the Australian eventually winning the battle.
Just behind Hopkins was Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden, who should've finished sixth or higher. But an outbraking move gone wrong at the final hairpin on lap 12 sent him through the gravel and in the end ninth was a good result.
The hard luck story of the race went to Anthony West, who instead of lining up fifth on the grid, lined up where sixth did in the 125cc and 250cc races. Slightly out of position, he ran in the top five in the early laps, but was penalised for his grid error.
Resuming 20th, he recovered to 15th by the end of the race to score the final point.
Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 43:04.405 2. Marco Melandri Honda (B) + 1.701 3. Daniel Pedrosa Honda (M) + 2.326 4. Randy de Puniet Kawasaki (B) + 3.765 5. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (M) + 4.773 6. Toni Elias Honda (B) + 17.667 7. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) + 20.950 8. John Hopkins Suzuki (B) + 22.198 9. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) + 22.450 10. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) + 29.746 11. Loris Capirossi Ducati (B) + 34.923 12. Alex Barros Ducati (B) + 35.667 13. Nobuatsu Aoki Suzuki (B) + 44.113 14. Carlos Checa Honda (M) + 44.486 15. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) + 49.658 16. Shinya Nakano Honda (M) + 51.726 17. Chaz Davies Ducati (B) + 58.905 18. Makoto Tamada Yamaha (D) + 59.596 19. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha (D) +1:23.119 20. Kurtis Roberts KR (M) +1:50.960
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