Motorcycles and news

With so many competitors riding injured; Marco Melandri (Fortuna Honda RC211V) carrying neck and shoulder injuries, Loris Capirossi a bruised chest, Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) a broken foot and throttle hand and with Toni Elias (Fortuna Honda RC211V) in hospital in Barcelona receiving treatment on a broken shoulder, this was a race where taking points would be critical in terms of the World Championship.

In bright sunshine with the track at 29-degrees and air temperature at 23-degrees, all those bar Elias took to the grid in front of a capacity 91,000 crowd: Rossi from 18th and last after his crash on Thursday, Melandri from a very creditable seventh on the grid and Capirossi from 15th.

Pole man John Hopkins (Suzuki) was second into turn one from the lights as Edwards headed the field. As lap one was swiftly completed, Edwards led from Hopkins and Nakano with Nicky fourth ahead of Melandri and Pedrosa. But by lap four Nicky set a fastest lap of 1m 37.106 seconds having moved past Nakano for third on lap two.

Edwards, Hopkins and Hayden soon established a 1.3 second lead over Nakano in fourth, with Casey Stoner (LCR Honda RC211V) now fifth ahead of Dani and Melandri, with Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) eighth, Kenny Roberts (Roberts KR211V) in ninth and Makoto Tamada (Konica Minolta Honda RC211V) lying tenth.

By mid-race distance of this 26-lapper around the new, tighter confines of the shortened 4.555km Circuit Van Drenthe, Edwards and Hayden had dropped Nakano and Hopkins. The leading duo held a 2.2 second advantage and they would stretch that to five seconds during the final laps.

Behind the dicing lead duo it was all action as Hopkins faded and lost ground while Nakano held station in third, just ahead of a Pedrosa, Stoner and Roberts, who were locked in combat for fourth place.

As the last three laps approached it became clear Nicky was going to get close to Edwards to heap as much pressure on the Texan as he could. And on the penultimate lap Hayden slid up next to Edwards on the brakes into the back chicane.

Edwards ran off track after the move and although he straight-lined the remainder of that chicane he was now just over a second down on the flying Hayden. It looked like Nicky’s race now.

But Edwards dug deep and had clawed his way back in touch as they fought on the last lap. Edwards moved inside Nicky as they entered the Hoge Heide kink and then squeezed Nicky to the left as the Honda man bravely tried to outbrake his rival around the outside of the final chicane as the finish line loomed.

Nicky was forced to straight-line the final chicane losing drive and the lead. But Edwards lost the rear of his machine as he put the power down while on the still on the grass of that chicane. He was spat off, his bike careering into the tyre wall. The crestfallen Yamaha rider remounted but smashed the screen of his machine in frustration as he collected 13th place instead of a possible win.

Pedrosa got the verdict from Stoner and Roberts for what he thought was fourth only to be directed towards the podium after seeing the stricken Edwards extracting his Yamaha from the run-off area. This was some race in what is turning out to be some World Championship.

Hayden has increased his lead at the top of the points table and now sits on 144 points to Dani’s 102. Capirossi is third on 100 points, and Rossi fourth on 98 after his eighth place finish here. Melandri also has 98 after his seventh place finish. Stoner lies sixth with 78, Edwards seventh on 63.

After his second career win, and his first of this season, a jubilant Nicky said, “It was a wild one today and I definitely enjoyed it ­ it’s just a really good day for me. I’m proud to win for Repsol Honda and really proud to score Honda’s 200th win in the top class of Grand Prix too. At the end of the race I felt really good and really strong. Going into the last chicane he was going in so deep so I used a move I used on Hopkins earlier in the race. Honestly it wasn’t going to work and I caught neutral, but he ran off the track too.”

Dani, in third, said, “I lost a lot of time at the beginning of the race, especially battling with Melandri. On the last lap Stoner tried to overtake me and in the last section I re-overtook him and we almost touched once so it was pretty close. Nicky and Colin’s pace was a bit faster than mine so I think third position is good for the team, and I was also lucky because Colin crashed at the last corner and gave me the final place on the podium.”

Fourth-placed Stoner said, “I made a good start but got blocked by another rider. Then I got a good pace going and got fifth and then Dani came past so I was happy to sit in behind him for few laps. Dani was a little slower than me but hard to pass, then I made a mistake on the final lap, which allowed Dani to get past again. The positive is that we had a good race package and were racing for a podium.”

I just tried to keep working my way up after a poor start,” said Kenny Roberts, who finished fifth. “I felt I had a bit better pace than Pedrosa and Stoner but whenever I tried something on them, they tried it back on me. I need to make sure I now get better grid positions and stay out of trouble on the first five laps.”

Melandri, in seventh, said, “That’s a great result considering my physical condition, even if I wanted to do better. I got a great start, but the bike didn’t feel that good. Then the bike felt a bit better after three laps, but I began to lose strength. When I lost contact with the leaders I just tried to defend my position and finish the race.”

Tamada, 11th, said, “The problem was with the front-end. I used the same 16-inch tyre that I’ve been using for the last two days, but after five laps I lost feeling under braking into the corners. I can’t understand it because everything was exactly the same as it was during qualifying.”

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda 1st:
“It was a wild one today and I definitely enjoyed it its just a really good day for me. I’m proud to win for Repsol Honda and really proud to score Honda’s 200th win in the top class of Grand Prix too. My start wasn’t the best and I saw Colin up there and thought I’ve really got to try and get on the back of him because his race pace has been so good all weekend. I was just holding on for the whole race and knew I had to do something different. So I changed my lines a little bit in the middle part of the track that made a huge difference. At the end of the race I felt really good and really strong. Going into the last chicane he was going in so deep so I used a move I used on Hopkins earlier in the race. Honestly it wasn’t going to work and I caught neutral, but he ran off the track too. Huge thanks to my team and everyone working around me at Repsol Honda, and also to Michelin. I’ve been wearing my tyre on the rear pretty hard this weekend, but in the race they came through perfectly for me.

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda, 3rd :
“I lost a lot of time at the beginning of the race, especially battling with Melandri. At the start, on new tyres and with a full tank, it was very difficult for me to brake late. I will have to improve at the beginning of races because I am often struggling a little there. On the last lap Stoner tried to overtake me and in the last section I re-overtook him and we almost touched once so it was pretty close. Nicky and Colins pace was a bit faster than mine so I think third position is good for the team, and I was also lucky because Colin crashed at the last corner and gave me the final place on the podium. It wasn’t a perfect result for me today, but the Michelins worked well today so I’m happy about that. The championship is more open this year than normal, I’m new in this class so being in second place is very good, but I still have a lot to learn.”

Casey Stoner, LCR Honda 4th:
“The front brake wasn’t adjusted properly and I lost ten minutes while that was fixed. Then with the set-up we went in the wrong direction this afternoon and the bike wasn’t handling like it did in the morning session. The team figured it out and changed the bike back to the practice settings, but I couldn’t get a decent time on a qualifying tyre; I would have been better off on a race tyre. I’ve always made good starts, in dirt track racing you have to. I use the launch control at the start but for me I don’t think it makes a big difference. There is not a lot of room to pass on the new track, so it’s wait and see in the race.”

Kenny Roberts Jnr, KR211V 5th:
“I just tried to keep working my way up after a poor start. I felt I had a bit better pace than Pedrosa and Stoner but whenever I tried something on them, they tried it back on me. I need to make sure I now get better grid positions in qualifying and then stay out of trouble on the first five laps.”

Marco Melandri, Fortuna Honda, 7th:
“Seventh place is a good result considering my current physical condition. I got a good start but after a few laps on the bike I really started to suffer. I had a lot of pain in my neck, shoulders and legs. I wanted to stay with the lead group but as the laps went by my strength disappeared. My main objective was to try and finish the race so I have to be satisfied. Now Im going home to England I need a rest!”

Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolta Honda: 10th
“I had a problem with the front end. I ran the 16-inch tyre I have used for the last two days, which I had a good feeling with. But today after five laps of the race I completely lost feeling with the front end while braking into the corners, I could not be aggressive. We can’t understand why, everything was virtually the same as in qualifying ”

Toni Elias, Fortuna Honda: dnr - due to shoulder injury sustained in practice.