MotoGP 2008 - Round Three - Estoril (Portugal)

MotoGP 2008 - Round Three - Estoril (Portugal) - MotoGP Race

By Trevor Hedge

Casey Stoner’s title defence got off to a perfect start at the season opener in Qatar but a disastrous round two at Jerez put the pressure squarely back on the Ducati man’s shoulders. That pressure continued through to qualifying for round three at Estoril where the young Australian only managed to qualify ninth, 1.5 seconds from pole to equal his worst ever qualifying performance since joining Team Ducati.

Sitting in that pole position at Estoril was the qualifying star of 2008, Jorge Lorenzo. The Spaniard the first rider in the history of the sport to score pole position in his first three premier class events, his performance underlining the strength of Michelin’s qualifiers and the speed of the Yamaha on qualifying rubber. Putting that fact in bold was the fact that all four Yamaha men had qualified on the front two rows of the grid and all seven Michelin riders were in the top eight places on the grid. Rossi was the highest performing Bridgestone man in qualifying with the third best time earning him right to start alongside Jerez dominator Dani Pedrosa.

Lorenzo’s pole was half a second under the previous pole record set by Valentino Rossi in 2006. Fronting the second row was Nicky Hayden with Tech 3 men Colin Edwards and James Toseland flanking him.

High drama unfolded when the lights finally went out to signal the start of the race with Lorenzo, Rossi, Dovizioso and Pedrosa all challenging hard for the lead. Adding to the drama further was a few drops of rain falling around the circuit as the riders completed the opening lap but it was not enough to slow them down. Race organisers brought the white flag out to signal that riders are free to enter pitlane and swap their slicks for intermediates or wets but with the precipitation only at the minor spitting level none of the front runners were too interested in such a move. Up front it was a Yamaha 1-2, Rossi and Lorenzo the chief protagonists as Pedrosa and Dovizioso continued to give chase. John Hopkins joined that party late on lap two in a great performance on the Kawasaki. Colin Edwards was also keen to throw his hat in the ring and was inching his way closer to the front pack.

Lap four saw Casey Stoner get the better of Chris Vermeulen for eighth position but he certainly didn’t walk away from the Suzuki man. James Toseland was right on Vermeulen’s tail also and that trio all running in close quarters. A couple of laps later Vermeulen managed to get back in front of Stoner and shortly afterwards Toseland also went through on Stoner to push the Ducati man back into ninth position just ahead of Loris Capirossi and Randy De Puniet. Lap nine saw De Puniet push Stoner further back to 11th place as the Australian struggled with an onboard video camera that had come adrift and sometimes locked his steering or got stuck behind the clutch lever!

At the front of the race it was still that same quartet trading blows; Rossi, Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Dovizioso the men setting the pace. Rossi was holding sway at the front of that pack and Pedrosa frustrated at not being able to get in front of Lorenzo and was looking to be held up a little by his countryman. It took Pedrosa until lap ten to set a new fastest lap of the race to finally get the better of Lorenzo. Two laps later Lorenzo upped his pace to better Pedrosa’s quickest lap of the race to sneak back past the Honda for second position once again. Half a lap later Lorenzo plonked his Yamaha under Rossi’s machine at the change of the direction in the chicane in quite a wonderful move that the Italian legend certainly didn’t see coming.

Pedrosa took second place from Rossi as they passed the halfway mark in the 28 lap race. A lap later Dovizioso’s brilliant ride came to an end when he fell exiting the Parabolica. Another half a lap saw another Honda go down when Nicky crashed out of the fourth place he had inherited from Dovizioso. That made it three Yamahas in the top four positions, the only man spoiling their chance of an all Yamaha podium a defiant Dani Pedrosa.

Benefitting from those crashing Honda men was Casey Stoner. With eight laps to run he managed to climb up to sixth position after getting the better of Toseland. With Hopkins in fifth place some ten seconds ahead of him though it certainly looked as though the ten points for sixth place was the best Stoner could hope for.

As the entered its final stages Lorenzo and Pedrosa left Rossi in their dust and with four laps to run Rossi was more than six seconds adrift of the leading pair. Stoner had closed the gap to Hopkins down from more than 10 seconds to a much more reasonable six seconds but with only four to run it was still looking like sixth place was the best the Ducati man could hope for. Battling over seventh place was Toseland and De Puniet but on the penultimate lap De Puniet lost the front after getting the better of Toseland which handed seventh place right back to the Briton.

Lorenzo got the last lap board with a 1.1 second buffer over Pedrosa who in turn had a significant 8.5 second buffer over Rossi. Edwards a further 5.5 seconds down in fourth place with a 6.5 second buffer over Hopkins who in turn had a 3 second buffer over Stoner.

Nothing changed in that order over the final lap which meant a Spain 1-2 and also put the two Spaniards into equal first at the top of the championship table with 61 points apiece. Rossi’s third position cementing his third place on the charts with a tally of 47 points giving him a seven point buffer over defending Champion Stoner. MotoGP rookie James Toseland fifth in the standings with 29 points to his credit.

Lorenzo the star of 2008 thus far with three pole positions and three successive podium finishes making him the youngest ever rider to achieve such a feat.

Estoril continues to be a happy hunting ground for Michelin with the Portuguese circuit one of five on the 2008 calendar where Bridgestone have never taken a MotoGP race win.

Rossi’s podium result his ninth in succession at Estoril but it also marked the seventh race in succession that the famous #46 machine has failed to cross the finish line first to claim a race victory.

1st - Jorge Lorenzo - “I feel like I’m in heaven! First of all I have to say thank you to Yamaha and to Fiat because without their confidence in me I wouldn’t be here now. I can’t believe it and it’s really impossible for me to describe my feelings, I’m so happy for everyone! My team did a fantastic job and my Yamaha and my Michelin tyres worked very, very well today. The start of the race was quite crazy because there were some drops of rain and it looked like it might get worse. Anyway I just carried on and really I can’t remember the details of exactly what happened…I remember making my pass on Valentino; I know it was quite a risk so I’m sorry to him but at that point I felt that I could make it and get away from him, so I took the chance and it worked. I’m so proud of everyone, to be here after just three races and at the top of the championship as well is something that I could never have even dreamed of. We can’t afford to relax now however because Pedrosa and Rossi are here as well and they are two very fast and clever riders. I had some pain again in my arms today so tonight we will make a decision about whether or not I will have the operation before China, but for now I’m just going to enjoy this moment!”

2nd - Dani Pedrosa - “After our difficult preseason it’s good to be in this position now, so we are very happy. Today was a good race, the beginning was quite fun, but also a little dangerous because it was raining a bit and there were a few passing manoeuvres. When the rain stopped, the pace got faster and faster, so we had to concentrate very hard to maintain tyre grip all the time. Eventually we finished second and we’re happy. We always expected a tough race, so this result is very important for us. When Lorenzo started pulling away I still had to pass Rossi, then when I did pass Rossi, Lorenzo already had a gap. I tried to close the gap, or at least maintain it, and the gap stayed the same more or less for the remainder of the race. Finally we got second and it’s a good result."

3rd - Valentino Rossi - “At the end of the day this isn’t a bad result for us because we expected this to be quite a difficult track for us. My M1 worked well today; I got a good start and was able to stay at the front to begin with and have some fun. My Bridgestone tyres were working well but I was thinking about trying to conserve them as much as possible because I knew 28 laps was going to be hard. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay with Lorenzo and Pedrosa in the later stages and I started to slide a little bit, but anyway to have two podiums in a row with Bridgestone is very important because we’re still in the learning stages of our relationship. I think we’ve made another step forward this weekend and we have an important test tomorrow – I hope in China we will be able to fight for the win!”

5th - John Hopkins - "I'm really pleased as my aim was for a top five finish today. I got a really good start and the first lap was quite frantic as I went around the outside of a few riders, before settling into a rhythm with the leading pack. There was a bit of rain to contend with in the opening laps and I made some small mistakes, which caused me to drop back a little. Around halfway, the grip level dropped but I raced as hard as possible as Casey Stoner was closing the gap between us. Our main area to improve on is qualifying, as we keep giving ourselves a lot of work to do in the race by having a poor grid position. I'm looking forward to Shanghai: the Kawasaki will be better suited to it and we can hopefully achieve an even stronger result there."

6th - Casey Stoner - "It was incredible what happened today, we had a problem which was no fault of the bike from the beginning of the race. I didn't understand what was going on and wasn't sure if an important part of the bike was involved. It was a major distraction. Sometimes the piece would lock the steering and sometimes it locked the clutch lever. It was a very difficult situation but eventually I worked out a way to ride around it. Every time I came down the straight I pushed it back into place but the turbulence from the wind would blow it back out again so it was very frustrating. I think a better result for sure was possible without this but we have to take this as a positive thing and not reflect on the negatives. It wasn't a good weekend for us but the problem in the race was not a general fault with the bike, just one of those things that happens from time to time. We need to continue working hard in China, a track that should be a little better for us, and hope for a bit more luck."

8th - Chris Vermeulen - “I made a good start from the fifth row and picked up some places in the first couple of corners. It was spitting with rain a bit at the start so it made it difficult to judge how hard to push. I got into a good position and had a battle with Stoner, Toseland and de Puniet for quite a long while in the race. Towards the end we started to get a bit of front end vibration and that caused me to slow down a bit, but it is the closest we have been to the front this year and we must keep making progress!”

MotoGP next reconvenes in China for round four which will be held over the first weekend in May.

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MotoGP 2008 - Round Three - Estoril (Portugal)

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