ROSSI IS THE NEWEST CENTURION IN MotoGP
8 July 2009

At the Dutch TT Grand Prix in Assen, Round 7 of the Motorcycle Grand Prix (MotoGP) last Saturday, Valentino Rossi wrote another chapter in his extraordinary career, becoming only the second rider in history to reach 100 Grand Prix wins. 13 years after his very first victory in 125cc, the Italian took the hat-trick of pole position, fastest lap and race win with a perfect display in front of a huge Assen crowd to pass the century mark. It was his 40th win since joining Yamaha in 2004, meaning that over half of his premier-class wins have come with the Japanese factory.

On reaching the century mark in MotoGP victories, Rossi commented, “This is a very emotional moment and for sure I will remember this 100th victory for the rest of my life. It was a perfect race – I got a great start and my bike was incredible which meant that my pace was very strong. In fact I think it was better for everyone’s hearts not to have another last-lap battle like in Barcelona! I had a good advantage from Lorenzo in some parts of the track and it was a great ride for me."

Now I have 100 wins and I’m only the second rider to arrive at this number, but Agostini still has 22 more and for me he is still the greatest. 100 is a great result but the atmosphere in our team is wonderful and the motivation is still as high as ever – we want to win a few more races together yet!” he added.

His team-mate Jorge Lorenzo finished a strong second and had a milestone of his own to celebrate as it was the fiftieth podium of his career. Like Rossi, The Spaniard has now finished on the podium in all but one round this season. Fellow Championship contender Casey Stoner raced to another third place finish behind the Yamaha pair.

The Riders' Championship currently shows Rossi leading on 131 points, Lorenzo is second on 126 and Stoner is hard on their heels with 122.

Ducati had a mixed weekend at Assen, with some positive results balanced out by a few difficulties. The steps forward in the bike's performance were a definite positive, and that allowed Stoner to take yet another podium finish despite suffering physically once more during the race. The Australian suffered throughout the race weekend, with the physical condition which had already affected him in Catalunya worsening as the days went on. As difficult as a GP weekend is already, his physical condition just added to the obstacles to overcome as he was forced to race unwell. Team mate Nicky Hayden also had a great day after a brilliant start, and after battling hard for sixth throughout the race, only finished in eighth due to a technical glitch.

In the Honda camp, Randy de Puniet was Honda’s top finisher, taking a hard-fought seventh-place finish after Repsol Honda team-mates Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso crashed out in separate incidents. Pedrosa had high hopes of scoring a podium finish in the MotoGP race after he had qualified second fastest, just 0.085 seconds off pole position. And the Spaniard was looking good in the early stages, contesting third place with Lorenzo. But on lap five, Pedrosa lost the front at the first turn and slid off. Despite the tumble, which left him uninjured, Pedrosa believes that his team has taken a step forward with machine performance and is looking forward to the next races.

Team-mate Dovizioso took over fourth place after fighting his way through from seventh after a mediocre start. The Italian was confident of another strong result but he ran out of luck on lap 11 when he slid off at turn one. He too walked away unhurt.

While Rossi ran away with the race the interest settled on a frantic seven-man battle for sixth place, featuring de Puniet, Toni Elias, Alex De Angelis, James Toseland, Hayden, Loris Capirossi and Mika Kallio. Positions within the group changed constantly as the seven men fought for position through the challenging twists and turns of the Assen racetrack. There was little doubt that the finishing order would only be finalized during a last-lap sort-out and that is exactly what happened.

Kallio crashed at the high-speed Hoge Heide section just a few hundred metres from the finish, then Elias and Capirossi ran off the track at the final chicane, Elias crossing the line in eighth place, just metres ahead of Hayden and Capirossi. Elias had made an impressive charge through the pack, from 13th on lap four, but was penalised 20 seconds for his last-lap indiscretion at the chicane which put him in 12th place.

De Angelis spent much of the 26 laps in the group battling for sixth, happy with recent improvements made to his bike, but in the latter stages he lost some front grip and slipped back to a lonely tenth place. Rookie Yuki Takahashi, who broke a finger and hurt his back at Catalunya two weeks ago, took the last Championship point in 15th place.

Chris Vermeulen was the best Suzuki rider with a fifth place at the Dutch TT, and with that, he has achieved his best finishing position in the 2009 MotoGP Championships. Vermeulen got a great start from the fourth row of the grid and was in touch with the top-three at the end of lap one. He was forced back to sixth place on lap six, but with a rider falling just in front of Vermeulen on the 11th lap it left the Australian racer in a lonely and comfortable fifth. Capirossi was heavily involved in what was the battle of the race, and slotted his bike in tenth in the final results tally.

The MotoGP paddock now heads directly to California and Laguna Seca for round eight in less than a week’s time.