British MotoGP: Stoner dominates wet race

Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner has taken the lead in the MotoGP championship with a dominant victory at a rain soaked Silverstone circuit.

Current champion Jorge Lorenzo got the holeshot into the first corner, but Stoner and team-mate Andrea Dovizioso passed him before the end of the first lap. Stoner passed Dovizioso at the first corner on lap two and from then on was unstoppable, eventually opening up a lead of 15.159secs by the end of the race.

Second spot wasn’t as secure, with Dovizioso, Jorge Lorenzo and Marco Simoncelli all in with a chance of taking 20 points. Simoncelli had a big moment on the brakes into turn one of lap four and ran off the track, relegating himself back to fourth behind Lorenzo.

Some of the pressure was taken off Dovizioso at the begninng of lap eight when Lorenzo highsided his factory Yamaha machine coming out of the first corner, less than a lap after team-mate Ben Spies crashed his Yamaha at Copse.

This gave Simoncelli chance to catch Dovizioso, which he did, but he was unable to make a move stick. On lap 11 Simonceli virtually guaranteed Dovizioso second place, crashing hard on the brakes at the end of the new start/finish straight.

The best result of the day must surely go to Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards, who only nine days after breaking his right collarbone at Catalunya, nursed himself and the bike home to take the final step on the podium.

Nicky Hayden pressured the Texan towards the end of the race, setting the fastest lap of the entire race on lap 17, but it was too little too late and the Ducati rider had to settle for fourth.

Valentino Rossi made up seven places during the race to finish sixth, but that was still 1’04.526mins back from race winner Stoner and 28.956secs behind fifth place finisher Alvaro Bautista.

1 25 27 Casey STONER AUS Repsol Honda Team Honda 147.9 47’53.459
2 20 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team Honda 147.1 +15.159
3 16 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 146.8 +21.480
4 13 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 146.5 +26.984
5 11 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 146.1 +35.569
6 10 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Ducati Team Ducati 144.6 +1’04.526
7 9 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Ducati 143.3 +1’32.650
8 8 24 Toni ELIAS SPA LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 142.3 +1’51.938
9 7 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 142.3 +1’52.350
10 6 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Pramac Racing Team Ducati 141.8 +2’03.312
11 5 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP Ducati 139.7 1 Lap
12 4 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Pramac Racing Team Ducati 139.5 1 Lap