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MotoGP World Championship
2007 - Round 16 - Phillip Island, Australia |
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MotoGP World Championship
2007 - Round 16 - Phillip Island, Australia |
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| The sunshine that greeted the 125 riders
continued to belt down on the 250cc grid and would also encourage
the MotoGP riders in pit lane, who would race later in the day.
Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo was the quickest man in the
warm-up and romped to pole position on Saturday by almost an entire
second, eight tenths to be exact. That time advantage would prove to
be a highly fact come race day. As the revs rose and lights went out it was, not surprisingly, Lorenzo who made the best jump from the line. He was followed by his main title rival Dovizioso and Alvaro Bautista. Hector Barbera who started second made a shocking start, dropping down the field to 10th place. Lorenzo instantly began to build a gap over ‘Dovi’ in second as Bautista, DeAngelis and Luthi gave chase behind him. Mika Kallio crashed out of the race on lap two, suffering a massive high side. Bautista moved into second place, past Dovizioso early on as Lorenzo continued to clear out. Hector Barbera retired from the race, obviously suffering from some sort of mechanical gremlin from the get go. Lorenzo had built a two second lead over three laps as the languishing riders were forced to battle for second place in his wake. Simoncelli was the next man to demote Dovizioso down the order, only to have it snatched away from him instantly. Dovizioso was desperate to drop no lower than fifth place as if he did and finished there, Lorenzo would win the championship, assuming he went on to win the race, a likely looking outcome in the early stages. The battle for second place, now being fought some five seconds behind the rampant Lorenzo was being contested by Bautista, Dovizioso, DeAngelis, S.Aoyama, Simoncelli and Luthi. Efren Vazquez crashed out of the race on lap five of the 25 lap race. Simoncelli began to drop down the order after fighting in the lead group initially; he was way down the order in 10th place after suffering an off track excursion. Shuhei Aoyama moved past Bautista and into second place as the young Japanese Honda rider was showing strong front running form for the first time this year. After showing so much promise early, Aoyama had a big tank-slapper and ran off the track, re-joining in 11th place behind Locatelli and Takahashi. Lorenzo was lapping, somewhat ridiculously, two seconds quicker than Dovizioso. The Italian was battling hard to hang on to third and fight off a swarm of Aprilia pilots. Both Honda and Aprilia have taken 5 victories in the 250cc class at Phillip Island but Aprilia looked certain to add to that tally through the seemingly effortless work of Lorenzo. Imre Toth joined his teammate Hector Faubel as a retiree from the race with engine failure in the middle stages of the race. Lorenzo’s lead was a staggering 10 seconds with 15 laps remaining, the battle for second now being fought between six riders; Bautista, Dovizioso, Luthi, Simon, H.Aoyama and DeAngelis in seventh. The race began to dull down somewhat, turning into a procession at the midway point as the race winner was all but decided. The only real on track action was sadly reserved to a fight for second, as it had been all weekend long, something the entire field would not feel very satisfied about. With 10 laps to run of the rather uninspiring 250cc contest, the order of the top 10 was headed by a ridiculous margin by Jorge Lorenzo from Bautista, Luthi, Dovizioso, Simon, H.Aoyama with a further gap back to DeAngelis, Simoncelli, S.Aoyama and Takahashi. If Dovizioso was to fall back to fifth or lower, as was outlined earlier, the championship would go to Lorenzo come the greeting of the checkered flag. ‘Dovi’ was doing his utmost to not drop lower than fourth but he was encountering severe pressure from fellow Honda rider Julian Simon and KTM star Hiroshi Aoyama. As the dreary laps ticked down Lorenzo continued to strengthen and extend his lead, lap after lap, as the pack of five behind him bickered and squabbled for the proverbial scraps of the 250cc race. Dovizioso moved back up into the podium places, taking third from Luthi as the battle for second really began to fire up again, this move sparked a flurry of much needed action in the chasing group. The Italian quickly found himself back down into fifth however, as Aoyama and Luthi bit back hard. Luthi, who won the 125 race at the Island two years ago, continued his forward progress and moved up into second past Bautista who now had Dovizioso right on his tail. Lorenzo continued to lap half a second quicker than the rest of the field as the contest behind him maintained its intensity. Luthi ran wide on the main straight heading onto lap 22 as Bautista and Dovizioso moved by him at turn one, due to the Swiss riders’ loss of momentum. Heading onto the penultimate lap and Lorenzo was well and truly home; as he was from lap one to be truthful. The battle for the final podium places would provide a bit of a show over the final two laps. Dovizioso mounted some fierce pressure on Spanish rookie Bautista in second and eventually made a move past the youngster through the fast kink leading up the hay shed, a brave place to pass. On the final lap Bautista, who won the race here last year in the 125 class, wrestled second place back from Dovizioso. The power advantage of the Aprilia down the straight clearly evident compared to Dovizioso’s Honda. Halfway through the final lap Dovizioso moved back into second under brakes at Honda corner but Bautista was having none of it as the two continued to swap places over the closing stages of the lap. Lorenzo took a commanding, brutal and supremely dominant victory at the Island by just under 20 seconds as Bautista won the drag to the line and claimed second place after a hard fought battle with Dovizioso, who rounded out the podium places. Hiroshi Aoyama, Luthi, Simon, Simoncelli, S.Aoyama, DeAngelis and Takahashi rounded out the top 10. The championship was one step closer to being decided with this victory as no one had any answer for Lorenzo, similarly to last year where he also won from pole. Bautista just managed to hold off Dovizioso, who had to struggle and fight very hard for his podium place and keep his slim championship chances alive. Lorenzo’s points lead now 45 points strong over ‘Dovi’ heading to Malaysia in just a week’s time. |
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