Honda Racing Press Release

Australian ace Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda RC212V) rocketed to a dominant victory at Catalunya. His third win of the year and his second consecutive success moves him to within seven points of series leader Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) who finished in second place.

Lorenzo’s team-mate Ben Spies completed the podium just ahead of Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V). Pole position man Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) came home in sixth spot.

Stoner was the clear favorite after setting a lightning-fast race pace throughout the two days of practice. Even though he missed out on pole position – because he didn’t have the set-up to fully exploit the extra grip of the softer tyres – the 2007 World Champion was confident he could be more than competitive today.

Second behind Lorenzo at the end of the first lap, Stoner took the lead at the start of lap two and stayed in front for the rest of the 25-lap race. He steadily built an advantage until the midway point when he sensibly eased his pace as light rainfall affected the final section of the Catalunya track. Lorenzo – who was able to gauge his pace in the treacherous conditions according to Stoner – closed the gap from more than two seconds to 1.8 seconds, but as soon as the rain stopped Stoner re-established his advantage. At one point he was almost four seconds ahead of Lorenzo. Finally he crossed the finish line 2.4s ahead.

Dovizioso had a highly competitive, but slightly frustrating race. He was in fourth place almost from start to finish, chasing Spies throughout, but never quite getting close enough to mount an assault on the American. Dovizioso had Valentino Rossi (Ducati) briefly get ahead of him in the early stages and spent the remainder of the race sandwiched between Spies and Rossi, playing the tricky game of simultaneously attacking and defending. The result moves the Italian into third place overall ahead of team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) who missed this race after breaking his right collarbone at Le Mans three weeks ago.

Yesterday Simoncelli scored the first pole position of his MotoGP career and much was expected of the lanky Italian in today’s race. But he got swamped by his rivals in the rush to the first corner and ended the first lap down in seventh. Simoncelli was able to overcome Nicky Hayden (Ducati) and get close to Rossi, but in the end he had to settle for a sixth-place finish.

Toni Elias (LCR Honda MotoGP RC212V) had another difficult outing, crossing the line all alone in 13th position. The reigning Moto2 World Champion raced a modified chassis for the first time, but struggled with both front and rear grip and will try bigger changes for next weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) crashed out on lap four, taking Randy de Puniet (Ducati) with him. Neither rider was injured in the accident.

Continue reading Stoner Dominates At Catalunya, Closes In On Points Lead