Le Mans

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Dovizioso & Pedrosa podium duel lights up Le Mans

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V) won a thrilling last-lap battle for third place with team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) at sun-soaked Le Mans this afternoon. Dovizioso?s attack won him his second podium finish of the year while Pedrosa crossed the line in fifth behind Nicky Hayden (Ducati) after running wide four corners from the chequered flag. The race was won by points leader Jorge Lorenzo ahead of Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi.

Pedrosa had had the best of qualifying, taking the last spot on the front row of the grid, while Dovizioso had to be happy with seventh place, just one tenth off the second row.

In the race Pedrosa held third place from the first lap to the penultimate lap, Dovizioso diving past him as they funnelled into Le Mans? first chicane for the 28th and final time. Pedrosa did everything he could to counter attack, but ran wide at Le Musee and again at Les Esses Bleu, which allowed Hayden to sneak through. Dovizioso?s late-race pace was super impressive, gradually closing the advantage that Pedrosa had held in the earlier stages of the race. Last year the opposite happened between the team-mates at Le Mans ? Pedrosa overtaking Dovizioso on the final lap!

Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) scored his best result of the year so far with an impressive if lonely ride to sixth place, seven seconds ahead of Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V) who ran off the track in the late stages. Melandri made a crucial set-up change during morning warm-up which improved his race pace.

Rookies Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) and Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda MotoGP RC212V) played their part in an enthralling five-way skirmish for eighth place which lasted for much of the race. Positions changed regularly, Simoncelli at the front of the group for much of the time until he lost two places in the last two laps to finish tenth. The former 250 World Champion wasn?t happy with that, but nevertheless it was his best MotoGP result thus far.

Aoyama had his work cut out after he decided to change his front tyre following the warm-up lap because the tyre he had fitted for the race didn?t feel right. That meant he had to take it easy during the first few laps while he scrubbed in the new tyre. In the thick of the battle for eighth place, Aoyama made a mistake braking for the Chemin aux Boeufs chicane with five laps remaining, which forced him to take to the slip-road, dropping him to the back of the group. Of course, the Japanese never gave up and he managed to pass Colin Edwards (Yamaha) with two laps remaining to secure 11th place.

Next stop on the MotoGP calendar is Mugello for the Italian GP on June 4/5/6; then the World Championship hits top gear with three races on consecutive weekends: the British GP (June 20), the Dutch TT (June 26) and Catalunya (July 4).


HONDA MotoGP RIDER QUOTES

Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda: 3rd
?I?m so happy to have made the podium here. It was very important because I wanted to confirm that the result in Qatar was not a one-off. We have improved a lot during the winter, so this is another important step forward. I wanted a good result for the team, to thank them and also because of last year when Dani came from 10 seconds behind to overtake me on the very last lap. Also, I?m very pleased to be going to Mugello third in the championship. It was a tough race. At the beginning I took a lot of risks to recover from starting on the third row. I made up some places and then I was able to match the leaders? pace in the early stages. Once I caught Dani it was hard to get past and I knew Nicky was very close behind so I had to find a way by. Dani has really good acceleration so it was difficult to make the overtake. I waited for four laps, worked out my strategy and I made my move on the last lap at the corner I?d planned. This is a good start to the season, we worked a lot during the winter and Honda keeps working hard. We are close to the leaders ? though still not close enough because our target is to fight for wins. We?ll go to Mugello with a lot of confidence as this a special race for me.?

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 5th.
?Well, of course I?m not satisfied to have finished in this way because we were able to stay near the leaders for the first part of the race and then dropped back. Losing two places on the final lap is not a good feeling. My start was okay and I could stay near the front in the first laps but later in the race I was making a lot of mistakes trying to maintain my pace. I had a bit of a rear brake issue which meant I couldn?t get the bike into the turns as I wanted and I was fighting the bike a bit. Andrea rode well and pushed very hard at the end, so congratulations to him on the podium finish. It?s an important part of the season coming up with many races in a short time, so we must work hard and do better in Mugello.?

Marco Melandri, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 6th.
?I was pretty sure we?d have a better pace today than we did in practice and that proved to be the case. We made a small change in the warm-up based on an idea that the team came up with and it worked well. Unfortunately it was quite windy today and I struggled in a few corners where we didn?t have a perfect setting for the engine braking. I?m happy though because we were able to match the speed of the front guys at the start until I made a small mistake when Hayden stepped up the pace. I tried to catch him again but I couldn?t do it and decided that was a good time to ?pull the oars in? and bring home an important result after such a tough start to the year. It was a good race for us and I?m happy for myself and the team.?

Randy de Puniet, LCR Honda: 7th.
?It was a special and tough GP for me because I wanted to get a good result especially for my fans. This is my best result on this track in the premier class but I am a bit disappointed. I got a bad start and dropped from the second row to the back of the group but after that I set good lap times catching the 8th place. After Stoner?s crash I was 7th but could not close any further because my front tyre started to slip and almost crashed 10 times. So I had to slow down but seventh is not so bad. I am still 6th in the world standing and we are the best private team at the moment.?

Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini:10th.
?I gave my maximum and wasn?t too far off today but it was a tough race because I was struggling more with the bike than yesterday. I?m a little disappointed that I allowed Barbera and Espargaro to pass me in the last couple of laps because it would have been nice to finish eighth but it didn?t happen. It is important at this stage for me to finish races and I managed that today even though I wasn?t as fast as I?d hoped so that?s a positive thing. Now we?ll assess things and try to do better at Mugello. ?

Hiroshi Aoyama, Interwetten Honda MotoGP: 11th.
?We found a much better set-up today and I was able to stay with the other riders. We were competitive today and I think we grew up. I think we can take a lot with us after this race and I hope we can keep improving. Of course I am not really happy with the result as I lost two positions because of a small mistake I did. I could have been further in front. I was able to attack the eighth position, but I think that this target was too big and I had to step back again not to risk anything. I think we gave our best here and I will try that again in the next race.?

Pole position : 1m33.408s (161.292Km/h) Valentino Rossi, Yamaha
Fastest lap : Lap 15 - 1m34.545s (159.352Km/h) Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha
Circuit record lap : 1m34.215s (159.910Km/h) Valentino Rossi (Yamaha, 2008)
Circuit Best Lap : 1m32.647s (162.617 Km/h) Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2008)
Event results - Round 3 - Race 1
1 Jorge Lorenzo 44m29.114s SPA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team
2 Valentino Rossi +5.672s ITA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team
3 Andrea Dovizioso +7.872s ITA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Nicky Hayden +9.346s USA DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team
5 Dani Pedrosa +12.613s SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
6 Marco Melandri +21.918s ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
7 Randy De Puniet +29.288s FRA HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
8 Hector Barbera +33.128s SPA DUCATI Aspar Ducati
9 Aleix Espargaro +33.493s SPA DUCATI Pramac Racing
10 Marco Simoncelli +33.805s ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
11 Hiroshi Aoyama +34.346s JPN HONDA Interwetten Honda MotoGP
12 Colin Edwards +37.123s USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha
13 Mika Kallio +55.061s FIN DUCATI Pramac Racing
16 Loris Capirossi NC - 22 Laps ITA SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
17 Ben Spies NC - 22 Laps USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha
18 Casey Stoner NC - 26 Laps AUS DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team
Championship standings
1 Jorge Lorenzo 70 pts SPA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team
2 Valentino Rossi 61 pts ITA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team
3 Andrea Dovizioso 42 pts ITA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Dani Pedrosa 40 pts SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
5 Nicky Hayden 39 pts USA DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team
6 Randy De Puniet 26 pts FRA HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
7 Marco Melandri 21 pts ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
8 Marco Simoncelli 16 pts ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
9 Colin Edwards 16 pts USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha
10 Hector Barbera 15 pts SPA DUCATI Aspar Ducati
11 Hiroshi Aoyama 13 pts JPN HONDA Interwetten Honda MotoGP
12 Mika Kallio 12 pts FIN DUCATI Pramac Racing
13 Casey Stoner 11 pts AUS DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team
14 Ben Spies 11 pts USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha
15 Aleix Espargaro 8 pts SPA DUCATI Pramac Racing
16 Loris Capirossi 7 pts ITA SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
17 Alvaro Bautista 6 pts SPA SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

 

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First Top 10 and best Rookie for Barbera

Posted by stv21 on May 23rd, 2010 and filed under Hector Barbera, MotoGP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

The MotoGP World Championship moved to the historic French circuit of Le Mans for round three this weekend, but it was the Spanish national anthem that provided the soundtrack to Sunday?s podium ceremonies. The track saw a similar feat in 2003, with victors from Spain in all three categories. The premier class was the headline act, and it was Jorge Lorenzo who kept up national pride with his second consecutive victory. The Fiat Yamaha rider escaped from Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa -his colleagues on the front row for the race- at the midway point, but the battle behind him between the newcomers to the category provided the excitement.

The best rookie on this occasion went to H?ctor Barber?. The P?ginas Amarillas Aspar rider started from the penultimate grid spot for the French GP, and didn?t have the best of getaways from the line. However, he soon found himself moving up places and latching onto the top ten group. A racing incident with Hiroshi Aoyama halted his progress, but did not dampen his determination. The Spaniard decided to take matters into his own hands and chase down those in front, eventually bringing his Ducati satellite bike home in eighth place and collecting his best finish to date on an 800cc bike.

8th H?ctor Barber?: ?I am very happy and think that the post-Grand Prix test that we did at Jerez was very important for us. We found a few adjustments that have really worked out. The team worked very well this weekend; despite us losing our way a little, they prepared a very good bike for the race. I was second-to-last on the grid, and my thinking was that only one rider could overtake me and I had nothing to lose. With this idea in mind, the goal was to enjoy the race -something that I hadn?t yet been able to do. I discovered early on that the left-handers were difficult for me, as the tyres didn?t have a chance to get up to temperature on that side. I started to get more confident as the laps progressed, although when I had a light coming together with Aoyama I lost a few positions. Then I made another fightback and got up to eighth. I am highly satisfied, because the front end feeling was finally good for me. I am aware that my over-exuberance in the first two races stopped me from doing well, but the goal for this race was to not lose touch of the group ahead. I achieved this and for that reason I can be happy.?

 

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MELANDRI MAKES TOP SIX RETURN AT LE MANS, TOP TEN FOR SIMONCELLI
Sun, 23 May 2010

Marco Melandri returned to the sharp end of the MotoGP field with a hard-earned sixth place at Le Mans today. Despite some difficulties in qualifying yesterday his crew came up with some solutions in this morning?s warm-up that allowed the Team San Carlo Honda Gresini rider to seal an encouraging result. There were mixed feelings for his team-mate Marco Simoncelli, who battled hard in the mid-pack throughout the race only to lose two places on the final two laps.


Marco Melandri (6th) ?I was pretty sure we?d have a better pace today than we did in practice and that proved to be the case. We made a small change in the warm-up based on an idea that the team came up with and it worked well. Unfortunately it was quite windy today and I struggled in a few corners where we didn?t have a perfect setting for the engine braking. I?m happy though because we were able to match the speed of the front guys at the start until I made a small mistake when Hayden stepped up the pace. I tried to catch him again but I couldn?t do it and decided that was a good time to ?pull the oars in? and bring home an important result after such a tough start to the year. It was a good race for us and I?m happy for myself and the team.?

Marco Simoncelli (10th) ?I gave my maximum and wasn?t too far off today but it was a tough race because I was struggling more with the bike than yesterday. I?m a little disappointed that I allowed Barbera and Espargaro to pass me on the last couple of laps because it would have been nice to finish eighth but it didn?t happen. It is important at this stage for me to finish races and I managed that today even though I wasn?t as fast as I?d hoped so that?s a positive thing. Now we?ll assess things and try to do better at Mugello. ?


Fausto Gresini ?It was a good day for us as a team because we?ve seen Melandri back on the pace with a good sixth place and Simoncelli finishing tenth after lapping in eighth for much of the race. It was a shame that he lost two positions in the final stages but once again he demonstrated the progress he is making. Melandri was consistent and he set a strong pace at the start, chasing the leaders, before securing an important result that moves him up the championship. We obviously have to keep working to take another step forward and try to be more competitive. There is certainly no shortage of motivation amongst the team and we are desperate to pay back Honda and San Carlo for the belief they have shown in us with some good results. ?