Aragon MotoGP: Stoner storms to eighth win of season

Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner stormed to his eighth victory of the season at Aragon to extend his championship lead over Jorge Lorenzo to 44 points.

Team-mate Dani Pedrosa and Yamaha’s Ben Spies beat Stoner in to the first corner, but by the end of the first lap Stoner was back to the front and starting to gap Pedrosa and Spies.

Pedrosa then passed Spies shortly afterwards on his way to a lonely second place. Marco Simoncelli then caught Spies and passed him on lap 9, but ran off track soon afterwards, allowing both Spies and Lorenzo through.

Spies’ pace started to drop, and with 10 laps to go team-mate Lorenzo got passed, before gapping the American for a comfortable third place finish. After his earlier mistake Simoncelli again passed Ben Spies to finish fourth.

Brit Cal Crutchlow rode a good race, finishing in ninth after battling with Valentino Rossi in the later stages of the race. Despite an obvious top speed disadvantage Crutchlow rode aggresively to keep the factory Ducati rider – who started from pitlane – at bay and in 10th position.

1 25 27 Casey STONER AUS Repsol Honda Team Honda 165.7 42’17.427
2 20 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 165.2 +8.162
3 16 1 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 164.8 +14.209
4 13 58 Marco SIMONCELLI ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 164.4 +20.646
5 11 11 Ben SPIES USA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 163.9 +27.739
6 10 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 163.7 +30.373
7 9 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 163.5 +34.288
8 8 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP Ducati 163.3 +37.305
9 7 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 163.2 +39.652
10 6 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Ducati Team Ducati 163.1 +39.832
11 5 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 163.1 +39.997
12 4 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Pramac Racing Team Ducati 162.2 +54.717
13 3 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 162.0 +58.430