Race Results – MotoGP 2011 – Round 14 – Aragon Casey Stoner took another 25 points home at the Gran Premio de Aragón as the Australian took his eighth win of the 2011 season, with Dani Pedrosa crossing the line second and Jorge Lorenzo third. Stoner’s victory at the MotorLand circuit on Sunday gave Repsol Honda their 100th GP win as well as putting the Australian 44 points clear of defending World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing). Dani Pedrosa finished the round in second place behind his team mate, while Lorenzo made his way to the final podium spot. Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) crossed the line 6 seconds behind Lorenzo to take fourth, a strong finish for the Italian despite running off track during his first attempt at passing the YZR-M1 of Ben Spies. Spies had a great start off the outside of the first row, leading into turn one in front of fellow front row starters Stoner and Pedrosa, but the two Repsol Honda riders passed him by lap two, and the American finished the race in fifth place. Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) crossed the line sixth from an eleventh place start, passing Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) on lap 10 and holding the position to the finish line. Hayden and Héctor Barberá had a scrap for seventh, with the American passing the Mapfre Aspar rider on the penultimate lap. Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) finished ninth, ahead of Valentino Rossi who started his Ducati Team machine from Pit Lane having used his seventh engine of the season in the warm up, with Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) in 11th. A first lap crash for Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) caused Randy De Puniet to run off track to avoid the Czech rider, the Frenchman rejoining the race to finish 12th. Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) also fell on the first lap and was unable to rejoin, while Loris Capirossi (Pramac Racing) collided with Toni Elías (LCR Honda) on lap 15, both riders going down in the gravel.
– HRC Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda RC212V) rode another faultless race in today’s Aragon Grand Prix to win his eighth victory of the season and further strengthen his position at the top of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship. Team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) finished second to complete Repsol Honda’s fifth one-two of the year, while Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) scored a hard-fought fourth-place finish. Stoner had been race favourite after dominating practice and qualifying, but track conditions were very different from yesterday, with much cooler temperatures and a strong tail-wind on the back straight. Today’s track temperature was 15 degrees lower than during qualifying, which created grip issues for several riders during the 23 laps. Nothing, however, could stop Stoner who started from pole position for the ninth time this year. Despite being beaten into third place during the first few corners by Pedrosa and Ben Spies (Yamaha), the 25-year-old Australian had regained the lead by the end of the first lap. From there he never looked back, establishing a new track record on lap four and steadily increasing his advantage over Pedrosa. The success also increased his championship advantage to 44 points over reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) with four races to go. Stoner ended the race 8.162s seconds in front of Pedrosa who also had a lonely ride to his third consecutive runner-up result. Pedrosa always knew it was going to be difficult running Stoner’s pace because throughout the weekend he had been losing several tenths through the track’s first section. During the later stages of the race he also struggled with wheel-spin issues, though he was always well clear of third- and fourth-place finishers Lorenzo and Spies. Today all three Repsol Hondas ran a special one-off livery created by Spanish designer Davidelfin, a superb way to celebrate the partnership’s 100th Grand Prix victory. Repsol Honda achieved its first premier-class win with Mick Doohan at the 1995 Australian GP. Although the Stoner/Pedrosa one-two made today an almost perfect day for the team, Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V) was unable to complete the race after sliding off on the first lap. Simoncelli did everything he could to make it an all-Honda podium, just as he had done at last month’s Czech GP. The lanky Italian came through strongly after finishing the first lap in sixth place, passing Nicky Hayden (Ducati), then Lorenzo and Spies to move into third on lap nine, only to run wide the next lap and ruin all his hard work. Demoted to fifth, Simoncelli kept his cool and slowly worked his way back towards Spies, from whom he took fourth place with seven laps to go. But with his rear tyre past its best there was nothing he could do about Lorenzo. Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) enjoyed a spirited battle with seven-time MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi, who started the race from pit lane after exceeding his ration of six engines per year. The pair spent the last half of the race with Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) who won the three-way contest after making contact with Aoyama on the last lap. Aoyama – who had great hopes after qualifying on the third row – finished just behind Rossi in 11th. Toni Elias (LCR Honda MotoGP RC212V) was unable to complete the race after being taken down by Loris Capirossi (Ducati) as they attacked the turn eight/nine chicane with eight laps remaining. Capirossi dislocated a shoulder in the incident. Today’s strong winds produced some big top speeds, with Aoyama’s RC212V the fastest bike of all at 330.5km/h (205.3mph). The MotoGP paddock now packs up and heads eastward for the first of three ‘flyaway’ races outside Europe: the Japanese, Australian and Malaysian GPs. The action then returns to the Continent for the season finale at Valencia, Spain, on November 6. Casey Stoner, Repsol Honda: race winner Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V): 2nd Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 4th Hiroshi Aoyama, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 11th Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda: DNF Toni Elias, LCR Honda MotoGP: DNF – Ducati The Aragon weekend was particularly challenging for the Ducati Team and its riders, who are working to speed up the development of the Desmosedici. On one hand, the choice to use a seventh engine for Valentino Rossi enables his team to have two identical motorcycles available to work on during the last races of the season, but on the other hand, he was obliged to start from pit lane today, ten seconds after the race start. That didn’t prevent the Italian from stubbornly climbing to ninth place, even if a worn rear tyre prompted him to subsequently lose a position to Cal Crutchlow. Nicky Hayden started very well from the third row and finished in seventh place after a nice battle with Hector Barbera that lasted until the final corner. Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 7th- “I had a good start and was decent at the very beginning. We knew tyre wear was going to be an issue, and we had a drop in performance after the first couple of laps. It lost grip, and I also wasn’t able to load the bike well for turning. I was okay in parts of the track, but compared to the fast guys, I was losing time in the last corner. I hoped to hang onto the second group for a while, but it just wasn’t possible. I’d like to have fought with Bautista on the last lap because he was on our pace, but Barbera and I were going back and forth, which hurt both of us and let him escape. It’s unfortunate, because coming here we hoped that we could put up a better fight. Still, this is the first race I’ve finished normally with the GP11.1, since at Indy I reentered just to get points. Hopefully that will help us to get some data and be better off in the future.” Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 10th – “It was definitely a difficult race, even if objectively speaking, we could have done a little better than we did. We used the setup from yesterday morning, with which I had done some good laps with a very used tyre. Unfortunately, in the race the rear tyre was sliding much more than it did in practice. It was almost used up just when I was catching Nicky and his group. That said, we’re still not where we should be. We’re working on several fronts, with short-term solutions that haven’t been conclusive, and others that are longer-term and that I still hope can bring more substantial improvements. We’ll see what they think at the factory. For now, we’re still pretty far, and given that time is our biggest enemy, we’ll continue also working on development during the races.” Vittoriano Guareschi (Team Manager) – “This race was very difficult for us, but it was also important because we began a project that, while it caused a penalty for Valentino, is also one of the first steps in the direction of the Desmosedici’s development. We know that it’s not easy for a rider to knowingly sacrifice any chance of having a better performance, and this gives us enormous motivation to try to speed up our work as much as possible. Nicky and his team are also trying extremely hard to gather as much information as possible on his GP11.1 which, despite not having the updated front chassis part like Valentino’s, is still a new bike with a lot of margin for improvement with regards to its setup.” – Yamaha Lorenzo Takes his First Aragon Grand Prix Podium Yamaha Factory Racing rider Jorge Lorenzo made the weekend’s hard work count today, taking his first ever Aragon Grand Prix podium with third place. Having dropped from fourth on the grid in the early laps, the reigning World Champion gradually picked up the pace, running well under his qualifying time to gradually reel in the front runners. By lap 10 he had caught both his team mate Ben Spies and Marco Simoncelli, passing them both to take third which he held to the line. The results mean the gap to Championship leader Stoner has now increased again to 44 with four races remaining of the season. Fellow Yamaha Factory Racing rider Spies had probably his best start of the season so far, shooting off the line to outride both Stoner and Dani Pedrosa for the lead into turn one. Having then dropped to third the Texan was maintaining a gap to fourth, scoring the third fastest lap of the race on lap four with a 1’49.593. A dramatic drop off in grip on the sixth lap then affected his pace. He was passed by team mate Lorenzo and then Simoncelli, dropping to fifth place. The result sees Spies retain fifth in the Championship standings, now 24 points behind Pedrosa in fourth as they head to Motegi next week. Jorge Lorenzo – Position 2nd – Time +14.209 Ben Spies – Position 5th – Time +27.739 Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager “The drop in temperature this afternoon probably compromised the work we’ve done up to this morning in set up. Ben really couldn’t do more because the rear tyre was really bad after just a few laps. Jorge achieved the best result possible, I think he did good job and thinking about the final championship standings, third place is still a good result. For sure it doesn’t make it so easy but we’ll keep going to the end.” Top 10 for battling Crutchlow at Motorland Aragon Cal Crutchlow produced one of his best performances of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship this afternoon, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team rider claiming a richly deserved ninth place in blustery conditions at the Motorland Aragon track. But it was a frustrating 23-lap race for Colin Edwards, who won’t remember his landmark 150th MotoGP with fond memories after he finished in 13th position. Crutchlow quickly found his pace after losing time in the braking zone at the first corner and his charge into the top 10 kicked off when he claimed 11th place from Edwards on the fourth lap. He then launched an immediate attack on Hiroshi Aoyama and Toni Elias, pas sing both with masterful overtakes to claim ninth on lap six. Nine times world champion Valentino Rossi then dropped the British rider back into 10th on lap seven. From that stage of the race until its conclusion 16 laps later, Crutchlow was involved in the most exciting battle on track in front of a windswept crowd of over 63,000 fans. The 25-year-old, Rossi and Aoyama were barely split by more than a second and as their intense fight reached an exciting climax, Crutchlow produced a brilliant attacking display. He passed Rossi and Aoyama on lap 18 and despite coming under intense pressure from the more experienced duo, he managed to keep them at bay to claim his best result since the Catalunya race in early June. The seven valuable points collected today moved Crutchlow two places up the World Championship rankings into 13th position and he moved back ahead of Karel Abraham in th e coveted Rookie of the Year classification. The race proved to be a difficult affair for Edwards, who struggled to find the right set-up to give him the rear grip he needed to push with his normal confidence. He made more weight distribution modifications to his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine ahead of the race, but the tweaks didn’t have the desired effect and he finished in 13th. Cal Crutchlow – Position 9th – Time +39.652 Colin Edwards – Position 13th – Time +58.430 Hervé Poncharal – Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team Manager – Suzuki Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista produced a thrilling performance in front of his home fans at Aragon in Spain today to equal his best dry result of the season so far. Staring from 11th on the grid, Bautista got boxed in on the first corner and was lucky to avoid a crash between two other riders, but by the end of the first lap the hard-charging Spaniard had moved up to eighth position. He then got involved in an almost race long battle with the Ducati’s of Hector Barbera and Nicky Hayden as the three of them traded places many times throughout the race, before Bautista got the better of the pair and made a break in the latter stages to secure a hard-fought, but deserved, sixth place. A crowd of over 63,000 spectators arrived at Aragon today to be greeted by overcast skies, strong winds and temperatures considerably below what they had been previously this weekend. Championship leader Casey Stoner produced another commanding performance to take victory on his Honda and further strengthen his position at the top of the standings. Rizla Suzuki and the rest of the MotoGP paddock now embark on a far eastern tour that will see them all race in Japan, Australia and Malaysia in the month of October. The first of these three races will be the re-scheduled round at Motegi in Japan on Sunday 2nd October, a race that was originally planned for earlier in the year, but was postponed due to the tragedy that struck that country shortly before the GP was due to take place. Álvaro Bautista: Paul Denning – Team Manager: – Bridgestone Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium, Ex Hard. Rear: Soft, Medium After a strong showing all weekend, Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner used his tyres very well to take his eighth victory of the season at Motorland Aragon today, strengthening his World title bid. With four rounds remaining, he leads reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo by 44 points. Although it remained dry today and the weather warning issued overnight didn’t materialise, conditions for the race were much cooler and windier. Nevertheless, Stoner set a new lap record on just his fourth lap of the race, indicating strong tyre warm-up performance, and ran consistently in the 1m 49second bracket over the first half of the race. His pace meant that he finished over eight seconds clear of teammate Dani Pedrosa, whose best effort was also under the previous lap record, and behind him Lorenzo crossed the line third after fighting back from fifth. Throughout the race, tyre management proved very important as wear rate on the surface was relatively high. Off-line the tarmac was dirty and this always leads to increased tyre wear, especially for those in battles further down the field who cannot always stick to the ideal and clean line. Every rider opted for the harder option rear slicks, and most also used the harder option fronts with the exception of Alvaro Bautista, Hiroshi Aoyama, Colin Edwards and Loris Capirossi who used a medium compound front. Bautista in particular used his to good effect, battling hard with Hector Barbera and Nicky Hayden throughout to finish sixth. Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department Masao Azuma – Chief Field Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Race Winner |
Moto2 Race Results | 125 Race Results |
1 / Marc MARQUEZ / SPA / SUTER 2 / Andrea IANNONE / ITA / SUTER / 2.466 3 / Simone CORSI / ITA / FTR / 2.574 4 / Alex DE ANGELIS / RSM / MOTOBI / 3.054 5 / Aleix ESPARGARO / SPA / PONS KALEX / 10.831 6 / Bradley SMITH / GBR / TECH 3 / 10.87 7 / Thomas LUTHI / SWI / SUTER / 11.005 8 / Stefan BRADL / GER / KALEX / 11.212 9 / Dominique AEGERTER / SWI / SUTER / 11.81 10 / Mika KALLIO / FIN / SUTER / 11.939 11 / Anthony WEST / AUS / MZ-RE HONDA / 12.108 12 / Mike DI MEGLIO / FRA / TECH 3 / 12.114 13 / Max NEUKIRCHNER / GER / MZ-RE HONDA / 12.18 14 / Pol ESPARGARO / SPA / FTR / 12.908 15 / Scott REDDING / GBR / SUTER / 13.329 CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS TO DATE: | 1 / Nicolas TEROL / SPA / APRILIA 2 / Johann ZARCO / FRA / DERBI / 6.771 3 / Maverick VIÑALES / SPA / APRILIA / 18.929 4 / Efren VAZQUEZ / SPA / DERBI / 27.472 5 / Luis SALOM / SPA / APRILIA / 27.469 6 / Danny KENT / GBR / APRILIA / 27.75 7 / Sandro CORTESE / GER / APRILIA / 27.74 8 / Alberto MONCAYO / SPA / APRILIA / 27.778 9 / Adrian MARTIN / SPA / APRILIA / 43.009 10 / Jonas FOLGER / GER / APRILIA / 49.09 11 / Marcel SCHROTTER / GER / MAHINDRA / 53.876 12 / Luigi MORCIANO / ITA / APRILIA / 56.395 13 / Jakub KORNFEIL / CZE / APRILIA / 57.513 14 / Alessandro TONUCCI / ITA / APRILIA / 1’07.215 15 / Danny WEBB / GBR / MAHINDRA / 1’14.906 CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS TO DATE: |
— Moto2 Spanish star Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) took the hole shot from pole position, with Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) and Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) immediately challenging for the lead, Redding taking over at the front by the end of lap one and Bradl taking over on lap four. Meanwhile Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) made his way up to the lead pack off his tenth place start, along with Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project) and Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2), which then marked the start of a breathtaking five-way fight for first position. Márquez broke from the pack on lap 13, but not without Iannone making it very difficult for the young Spaniard to get away. The fight for second then commenced, with Iannone eventually crossing the line a tenth of a second ahead of fellow countryman Corsi, while De Angelis followed by half a second to take fourth. Aleix Espargaró (Pons HP 40) was fifth ahead of Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Racing), and Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) who made a great comeback to take seventh, after dropping down into 16th position on lap 8. Bradl dropped out of the leading pack by lap 16 with what appeared to be mechanical issues to finish the race in eighth, the lower than expected finish further denting the German rider’s Championship lead, with Márquez now trailing by just 6 points. Ninth place went to Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP) after a video image was required to determine his position in front of Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing) in tenth, the two crossing the line so closely it appeared simultaneous, while Redding finished 15th after dropping out of the lead group on lap 9. Marc Marquez, Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol-Suter: race winner Andrea Iannone, Speed Master-Suter: 2nd Simone Corsi, Ioda Racing Project-FTR: 3rd — 125 With wind gusts up to 30kph, the single cylinder class race commenced with Bankia Aspar’s Nico Terol heading first into turn one at the MotorLand circuit pulling an immediate gap on the rest of the field and holding it to cross the line over 6 seconds ahead of second place finisher Johann Zarco (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo). A poor start from Zarco off the second row once again saw the Frenchman desperate to make his way up to the front, finally breaking from the pack to catch pole starter Héctor Faubel (Bankia Aspar) with whom he then scrapped with for the second podium spot the entire race. Their battle lasted until the last lap when Faubel made a late braking pass in the second to last corner and lost the front, crashing out spectacularly and handing second to Zarco and third to Maverick Viñales (Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing Team), who had run the race in a lonely fourth position. A thrilling race long battle for fifth place, which turned into fourth after Faubel’s DNF, saw Luis Salom (RW Racing GP) finish ahead of Efrén Vázquez (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo), Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany), Danny Kent (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) and Alberto Moncayo (Team Andalucía Banca Cívica) in eighth, the pack of five finishing with just fractions of a second between each other and requiring a video image to determine sixth and seventh positions. Directly after the finish however, both Salom and Cortese were penalised for passing under a yellow flag and were therefore reclassified as finishing fifth and seventh, while Vázquez and Kent were moved to fourth and sixth respectively. Adrián Martín (Bankia Aspar) and Jonas Folger (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) completed the top ten, ahead of eleventh place finisher Marcel Schrötter (Mahindra Racing) and Luigi Morciano (Team Italia FMI) in 12th.Lorenzo Baldass |