This afternoon at Motorland Aragon, Casey Stoner from Repsol Honda secured another effortless victory in MotoGP, with team-mate Dani Pedrosa finishing six seconds behind and reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo claiming the last spot on the podium.
The 2007 world champion gained the lead from Ben Spies at the conclusion of lap one after overtaking Pedrosa for second place, then quickly distanced himself from the competition, allowing the Spaniard to pass the Texan before vanishing from sight himself.
Spies managed to maneuver around the Repsol bikes into turn one following a brief tussle at the start, but he lacked the pace to keep up, gradually falling back into the reach of San Carlo Honda’s Marco Simoncelli, who had overtaken Lorenzo on lap four.
However, Simoncelli became overzealous, running wide into the complex before reaching the back straight, which sent him back behind Lorenzo. The HRC rider regained his rhythm but could not match the speed of Lorenzo, who overtook Spies for third place with ten laps remaining and began to pull away.
Simoncelli quickly surged past Spies for fourth place on the brakes into turn one and swiftly built a half-second gap on the former World Superbike Champion, who could only secure fifth from his position on the front row. Alvaro Bautista from Rizla Suzuki finished sixth, while Nicky Hayden held onto seventh, ahead of Hector Barbera.
Starting from the pitlane after using a seventh engine, Valentino Rossi of Marlboro Ducati was fortunate to gain two positions when Karel Abraham crashed and Randy De Puniet veered off the track to avoid him. He then maneuvered past Colin Edwards and Hiro Aoyama, setting up a contest with Britain’s Cal Crutchlow.
Rossi overtook the former World Supersport Champion and attempted to create a gap from the Monster Yamaha rider, but Crutchlow would not allow it, closely following Rossi until his tires began to wear. Ultimately, Crutchlow overtook Rossi on the outside at the last turn to reclaim ninth place with five laps left, managing to stay in front.
Aoyama finished 11th, De Puniet in 12th, and Edwards was the last to complete the race in 13th. Andrea Dovizioso crashed out on lap one after losing the front, while an erratic Loris Capirossi collided with Toni Elias’s bike with seven laps to go, resulting in both riders crashing but remaining unharmed.
