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Casey Stoner took his second victory of the
season and the 40th podium of his career today with a dominant display at
Donington Park. As a result the reigning MotoGP World Champion moved up a place
to third in the championship, closing the gap by five points to series leader
Valentino Rossi and by nine to Dani Pedrosa, who finished in second and third
place respectively. Yesterday's rain gave way to high winds today but the dry
conditions suited Stoner perfectly and the youngster produced a faultless
display from the first lap.
Things were much trickier for Melandri, who
was unable to rediscover his positive feeling from the first day and ended up
down in sixteenth place.
CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1st
"This has been a great weekend for us and it's
brilliant to know that we're in a position to fight that little bit harder. The
last three races have gone quite well for us in general but we've taken a big
step forward with the new electronic system, which worked so well at the
Catalunya test and then here. After a disappointing start to the season since
the opening round at Qatar it's nice to feel as though we're back on track and
this weekend went well from the start. We kicked off in free practice with some
good lap times and it's just got better and better since then, in wet and dry
conditions. Today the bike was perfect, even at the end of the race we had
really good traction and I want to thank all my team - Filippo, Vitto and all
the people at Ducati - for the hard work they are doing. Now we just hope that
this new electronic system will work as well at the rest of the tracks as it has
done at Catalunya and Donington Park."
MARCO MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team)
16th
"I am so, so disappointed with this and I'm sorry for the
team. Probably the only thing we can do right now is put this Grand Prix behind
us and try to think about the next race. In such a difficult situation as this,
to not even have two consecutive days with the same weather conditions is a huge
obstacle because we just haven't got time to find the right way forward. Today I
didn't even get the feeling back that I had on Friday in the dry, which wasn't
amazing but definitely better than today. Now we have to reset and start again
from zero on Thursday."
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