MotoGP 2006 - Round Three

The front row at Le Mans again saw three different manufacturers represented with Pedrosa's Repsol Honda scoring him the #1 spot on the grid with the Rizla Suzuki of John Hopkins alongside and Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano rounding out the front row.

Dani Pedrosa's record breaking streak continued at Le Mans with that pole position with the Spaniard becoming the youngest ever rider to take back to back pole positions in the premier class. And of course if he goes on to take back to back wins and he will also become the first rider to ever have taken victories across all the classes at the French circuit.

Randy De Puniet highlighted the new speed of the Kawasaki by qualifying in fourth place which marked the first time in history that Kawasaki had two machines amongst the top four qualifiers. While Nakano's second place was the best ever qualifying result by any Kawasaki rider.

The fortunes of Kawasaki certainly appear to be on the up while of course John Hopkins has been showing great speed of late on the Suzuki also. At Le Mans Hopkins started from the front row for the second successive race.

Another big surprise from qualifying came from the fact that Hopkins had recorded the second highest speed through the traps with 292kph. Heading the speed charts in the qualifier though was Casey Stoner, the young Australian hit 295.8kph according to the Dorna provided figures, a full 12kph quicker than the next fastest Honda, the Repsol machine of Hayden who was seventh quickest through the traps. Rossi had been third quickest with 288.2kph, Nakano was next best on 285.3kph and Gibernau's Ducati was the fifth quickest machine with 284.1kph. That made it five different manufacturers in the top five highest speeds, a quite incredible statistic.

But as the riders readied themselves on the grid dark clouds descended over Le Mans and a little rain started drizzling at some parts of the circuit. Not enough for anyone to swap their slicks for intermediates or wets but enough to furrow some brows with worry.

At the end of the warm up lap though Kenny Roberts Jnr entered pitlane to swap to his spare bike with a slick front and intermediate rear.

Marco Melandri led the field through turn one while Randy De Puniet went head over heels and out of the race after being nudged by Valentino Rossi. Colin Edwards was on the outside of Nakano and had to go dirt tracking across the top of the gravel to avoid Nakano and thus was shuffled to the back of the field.

Melandri was the early leader form Hopkins and Pedrosa while Loris Capirossi gave chase. Hopkins then moved through to the lead halfway around the first lap and immediately pulled ground on Melandri. Rossi was sixth at the end of lap one, Stoner eighth and Vermeulen 10th. Roberts started from the pit lane but then entered the pits for a different tyre at the end of the first lap to add to his woes.

Melandri looked to be holding up Pedrosa, Rossi and Capirossi which was giving Hopkins a clear track and an opportunity to make a small break over his pursuers.

Rossi took third place from Pedrosa to take third place and at the next turn made short work of Marco Melandri to take second place and set a new fastest lap in the process. Hopkins had an 8-tenths of a second buffer when Rossi took second place. Pedrosa got in front of Melandri but Melandri took his position right back but the young Spaniard finally managed to make a pass stick and Melandri then ran wide which also allowed Capirossi through.

Adding insult to Kawasaki's injury with De Puniet's exit was the news that Shinya Nakano had been judged as jumping the start and thus received a stop-go penalty.

Valentino Rossi went through to the lead on lap five and again set a new fastest lap of the race with a 1m35.08. Hopkins was not letting the reigning World Champion escape though and sat on the tail of the Camel Yamaha throughout the whole next lap. Melandri got back past Capirossi for fourth place while Pedrosa started closing in on Hopkins and Rossi.

Pedrosa pounced on a mistake by Hopkins on lap eight to sneak through under the American and quickly closed onto the tail cowling of Rossi's #46 Yamaha. Rossi got a 'Pedrosa 0.1' on his pit-board to let him know the state of affairs and he responded on the next lap to pull half a second on the young gun. Hopkins lost the front in his struggle to stay with Pedrosa and Rossi and tumbled off into the kitty litter which no doubt will cast a shadow over his 23rd birthday party tomorrow. He managed to remount and continue but was down in 15th place and rode another lap before heading back to pit lane.

Up front the battle was unfolding between Rossi and Pedrosa in what could shape up to be a tyre war. Both riders on Michelins but Pedrosa on soft compounds and Rossi on a medium front and hard rear.

As the race entered its second half Rossi started to take a little ground out of Pedrosa who seemed to be struggling with the front end of his Honda. After 16 laps of the 28 lap race Rossi had 1.2 seconds over Pedrosa who in turn had four seconds over Melandri and Capirossi who were continuing their battle over third place. Hayden and Stoner were the next best, Stoner battling a horrid flu and Hayden struggling for traction.

With ten laps to run Rossi had stretched his gap out to a full three seconds and it appeared Pedrosa was keen to settle for a fairly safe second place rather than losing the front and scoring no points.

Stoner got the better of Hayden for fifth place. The next man in his sights was Loris Capirossi but the Ducati man had nearly the whole length of the pit straight over the LCR Honda rider with seven laps to run, more than five seconds the gap.

Just when the podium looked decided Rossi coasted to a stop on the side of the track robbing him of what looked like an almost certain victory. Rossi's legendary luck has certainly deserted him this year.

Capitalising on Rossi's misfortune of course was Pedrosa who inherited the race lead but he was not going to have it all his own way as Marco Melandri had picked up his game and had closed to within striking distance of the Spaniard. The gap only one second with six laps to run.

Melandri upped his pace again when he was victory was within reach and he quickly closed on Pedrosa and then took the lead with five laps to go.

Capirossi also realised that he may also have an opportunity to run down Pedrosa and the Ducati man put his head down to chase and with four laps to run had the gap down to only two seconds. Stoner was a further five seconds down in fourth place but with a narrow buffer over fifth placed Hayden.

Capirossi had closed the gap to Pedrosa down to only half a second with two laps to run. Melandri had pulled away to a safe buffer over Pedrosa and looked certain for the win.

As they started the last lap Capirossi was only a couple of bike lengths behind Pedrosa. The diminutive Spaniard was painting big black lines on the tarmac in his efforts to stay ahead of the Italian but Capirossi put in a big move under Pedrosa which sent the Spaniard wide but the move worked and Capirossi took that second place and kept it to the flag. Melandri the surprise race winner, Capirossi second and Pedrosa rounds out the podium. Casey Stoner took fourth ahead of Hayden while Colin Edwards had put in perhaps the best ride of the race to take sixth place after being shuffled to the back of the field on lap one while evading the crash of Randy De Puniet.

Hayden retains the lead in the championship but his 12 point lead has been shrunk to only four points ahead of Melandri and Capirossi who both leave Le Mans with 79 points apiece. Pedrosa lies fourth in the standings with 73 points while Stoner is still in the hunt in fifth with 65 points. The next best is Colin Edwards on 45 points who holds a slender one point advantage over Toni Elias.

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