Carnage in qualifying saw Nicky Hayden (Ducati) miss his home race today, while Casey Stoner (Honda) managed to race despite torn ligaments and fractures in both his ankle and leg. Ben Spies (Yamaha) also made it to the start line after his own major get-off yesterday.
While Stoner soldiered home in fourth place, teammate Dani Pedrosa took the win with a good gap on second place Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha). Andrea Dovizioso (Yamaha) filled out the podium in third.
Spies? He was running a strong second place, when his engine faltered and then exploded. Another DNF.
Lorenzo continues to hold the series ponts lead. For additional details, results and points visit the official MotoGP site here.
Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time/Gap |
1 | 25 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 151.8 | 46’39.631 |
2 | 20 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 151.2 | +10.823 |
3 | 16 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 150.9 | +17.310 |
4 | 13 | 1 | Casey STONER | AUS | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 150.7 | +19.803 |
5 | 11 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 150.6 | +22.556 |
6 | 10 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | GER | LCR Honda MotoGP | Honda | 150.2 | +30.072 |
7 | 9 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 148.7 | +57.614 |
8 | 8 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | CZE | Cardion AB Motoracing | Ducati | 148.2 | +1’08.442 |
9 | 7 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | COL | Avintia Blusens | BQR | 148.0 | +1’11.106 |
10 | 6 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | 147.9 | +1’14.079 |
11 | 5 | 24 | Toni ELIAS | SPA | Pramac Racing Team | Ducati | 147.3 | +1’26.305 |
12 | 4 | 22 | Ivan SILVA | SPA | Avintia Blusens | BQR | 146.5 | +1’40.274 |
13 | 3 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | USA | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | Suter | 146.0 | 1 Lap |
14 | 2 | 15 | Steve RAPP | USA | Attack Performance | APR | 145.3 | 1 Lap |
15 | 1 | 77 | James ELLISON | GBR | Paul Bird Motorsport | ART | 145.5 | 1 Lap |
16 | 20 | Aaron YATES | USA | GPTech | BCL | 142.5 | 1 Lap |
Since Ben had already announced his decision to leave Yamaha and therefore had little to lose, that asswipe in Yamaha management who questioned his integrity before Laguna is fortunate not to have a broken jaw right now.
Just…wow.
I think he’s getting Jorge’s leftovers, crashed take offs, old motors, poor Ben.
And yes i was there. The moto3 was the best race of the weekend.
I’ve been a huge fan of motorcycle racing and MotoGP/500GP since 1991 and for the 1st time ever I am losing interest. The Spanish owned series with spanish sponsors are pushing for Spanish riders. Soon it eill be a Spanish only series. All 3 classes were won by Spanish only riders.
I now understand why Ben quit Yamaha. With all the mechanical failures, lack of respect and threats from Yamaha management after Mugello I now think he made a good decision to leave.
After the engine explosion, it was a real snore fest. I would have hated to have been there just for that. At least at home I had the DVR to fast forward through the entire thing. Is it just that Yamaha doesn’t want Ben to finish ahead of Jorge any time just to save face and preserve the lead in the championship?
What will fail this weekend in Brno? Exhaust falls off the bike? Chain falls off? We will hold our breath and wait…
re: “What will fail this weekend in Brno?”
my question is who will get hurt (or worse) this weekend in Brno due to what may be yamaha’s professional misconduct…? spies…? a bunch of other riders…? spies along WITH a bunch of other riders…? so far, only 1 individual keeps being affected, but what we have here is a safety time bomb. gonna be pointless to try and “defuse” AFTER it’s gone off.
scary isn’t it? These guys go out there and risk their lives for this, we hope that they would take the mechanical issues seriously.
The tragic ending of Marco last year should have been their cue to step up the quality standards to assure the riders that the bikes are running at 100% every time they are out. The failure of the tires is one of the reasons Casey is leaving.
Here you go Valentino, have fun with my bike next year, when it doesn’t break it handles great
I have a sneaking suspicion that Yamaha is having Ben test new parts for Jorge’s machine. I understand about the broken subframe, that was his crew chief’s fault if anyones, but a swingarm and motor two weeks apart?!
By now, Spies must be thinking:
I’m Tellin’ Y’all It’s a Sabotage