22006 MotoGP Championship - Round 13 - Sepang, Malaysia - September 8/9/10

250 Race - By, Jake Leech

Locatelli jumped out to an early lead ahead of championship leader Jorge Lorenzo and closest rival Andrea Dovizioso. Dovizioso stuck it to Lorenzo early, while KTMs Hiroshi Aoyama got involved in the battle for the top four positions.

Ant West went from 26th to 12th on the first lap only to have his bike expire on him on the second lap. Hector Barbera crashed early after starting from pole, Cardenas also crashing out. Hiroshi Aoyama also retired with mechanical issues on lap 3 from 3rd position.

On the fourth lap the order of running was Dovizioso followed by Lorenzo and Locatelli. Alex De Angelis and Yuki Takahashi were battling for fourth and fifth whilst gaining on the front runners.

On the fifth lap Locatelli moved by Lorenzo into 2nd and gave chase to the leader Dovizioso who had pulled some time on the other two. Having just moved to second Locatelli crashed out of second handing it back to Lorenzo. Locatelli rejoined in p6 battling with Shuhei Aoyama in 5th.

Straight fight between Dovizioso and Lorenzo now on lap 8 with DeAngelis and Takahashi closing on them fast.

Lap seven and Alex Deangelis takes .6 of a second out of Lorenzo, Dovizioso leads Lorenzo by .6. Locatelli moves up to 5th the next lap.
Westys teammate Heidolf also retired with mechanical issues.

Half race distance, three way battle for the lead now, DeAngelis having broken away from Takahashi and joining Dovizioso and Lorenzo. Nine laps to go Dovizioso and Lorenzo swapping positions regularly, Dovizioso coming out on top of most exchanges, the most agressive he has been all year. The leaders dropped DeAngelis off slightly, but perhaps he is just biding his time.

Lorenzo grabbed the lead with 7 to go and tried to break Dovizioso and DeAngelis, however, next lap Dovizisos retook the lead.

With five laps to go DeAngelis stuck it up the inside of Dovizioso for second and allowed Lorenzo to get away slightly. Dovi was baulked very badly by the fiery man from San Marino when he parked it mid-corner right infront of Andrea.

Dovizioso got back past DeAngelis with four laps to go, but now Lorenzo had a lead that would be enough for victory and an extra five point extension to his championship lead.

With three laps to run Lorenzo had a lead of 1.4 seconds now, gaining .4 on the previous lap. Dovizioso will not be happy with DeAngelis at the end of the race, who has cost him a chance at the win today.

Two laps remain and Lorenzo now leads by 1.8 seconds and race over.

Lorenzo takes the victory over Dovizioso and DeAngelis after an extremely strong showing from Andrea who was up for the fight until an optimistic move from DeAngelis cost him a chance at victory. Lorenzo now leads the championship by 12 points and edges a little bit closer to ending the season as the 250cc world champion. Takahashi 4th, Locatelli 5th, S.Aoyama 6th, Guintoli 7th, Simoncelli 8th, Espargaro 9th, Cluzel 10th.

Aussie Update: Ant West was interviewed after the race and he actually lost the front on the second lap after pushing through half of the field and getting out wide onto some of the "loose" dirt from the rain yesterday. He remounted and finished 15th to gain a solitary championship point, Ant said he wanted to show the team and the world he isn't willing to give up and wants to stick at it.