IT'S STONER'S RACE IN MUGELLO
By Motorsportchannel.com
2 June 2009

2007 MotoGP Champion Casey Stoner made the most out of Round 5 of the Motorcycle Grand Prix Championships at the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello by securing a flag-to-flag victory and accomplishing an eagerly awaited win on homeground for Ducati. In wet to dry track conditions, Stoner led the field from start to finish for his 18th career MotoGP victory and currently leads the MotoGP riders' standings.

Main rivals Yamaha duo of Jorge Lorenzo (above left) and Valentino Rossi (above right) fought with each other for the entire race to secure a close encounter second and third behind Stoner. Rossi, meanwhile, saw his streak of 7 consecutive victories in Mugello snapped and had to be content with third. The Championship sees Stoner on top with 90 points, followed by Lorenzo 4 points adrift and Rossi a further 9 points down.

In the Honda camp, Andrea Dovizioso was the highest finisher in fourth-place, just five hundredths of a second off a podium place and just 2.1 seconds behind the race winner. Further down the order, Suzuki's Loris Capirossi took a brilliant fifth, while Tech 3's Colin Edwards rounded off the top six.

Conditions at the Italian Grand Prix start were very similar to the previous Grand Prix at Le Mans, the race getting underway on a damp track, with all riders starting on rain tyres and then switching to their slick-equipped machines as the circuit dried out. Once again, the changing conditions made for a thrilling race, with frequent changes of position, both on the track and in the pits.

Stoner, Lorenzo, Rossi and Dovizioso all made a storming start to the race, smoking their tyres as they roared away from the damp grid. Dovizioso made the best of starts and took the lead from Stoner on lap four. The Italian led for four laps and pitted earlier than most, switching bikes at the end of lap nine. However. Alex De Angelis, Yuki Takahashi and Dani Pedrosa all fell victim to damp tarmac during the next few laps.

Pedrosa (right), who had already injured his right hip while fighting to control a slide on Saturday's qualifying session, fell at a chicane during his third lap on slick tyres.

The Spaniard had been in severe pain following Saturday's incident and underwent painkilling injections before warm-up and the race. Pedrosa’s lap 13 tumble ended a run of three brilliant podium finishes and left him battered and bruised.

Dovizioso retook the lead from Marco Melandri (left) in a privateer Kawasaki on lap 11 and stayed there for another three laps until Stoner came past once again.

The second-year rider was in the hunt for a podium finish all the way to the flag, slipstreaming Rossi across the finish line.

De Puniet (right) enjoyed a similarly hectic race. The Frenchman struggled in the early laps on rain tyres but got right into the groove once he had swapped bikes and his slicks had got up to temperature.

He battled with Tech 3's James Toseland (background, right) for sixth position for the remainder of the race, though both were passed by another Tech 3 rider Colin Edwards during the final laps, de Puniet crossing the line in eighth spot, just 1.6 seconds behind Edwards.

De Angelis remounted after his tumble to take the final point in 15th, one place behind team-mate Toni Elias (left) who on the last lap just failed to get the better of rookie MotoGP rider Mika Kallio for 13th place.

The other rookie Yuki Takahashi crashed out of the race after he switched to slick tyres as the circuit dried out. A disappointment for Takahashi who had qualified tenth on the grid, his best grid slot in MotoGP.

Capirossi (below left), who secured fourth in the classifications, was just over one second away from scoring a sensational podium on his GSV-R at his home Grand Prix at Mugello. Team mate Chris Vermeulen (below right) got an amazing start from the fourth row of the grid and led the race at the end of lap one. He stayed with the leaders right up until he pitted to change his bike, but he was unable to generate enough grip in his slick race tyres to give him the performance he wanted to continue his challenge towards the front.

As the race wore on he started to get a better rhythm and reeled off consecutive personal fastest laps, eventually overtaking two riders towards the end to give him a 10th place finish.

Stoner's team mate Nicky Hayden (right) produced another fighting performance to charge from sixteenth on the grid to finish ninth before being slowed by a small problem with his rear brake.

[View Results & Standings]

The MotoGP contingent moves across Europe for the Spanish Grand Prix, which will be held at the Circuit de Catalunya on 14 June.