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Casey Stoner took second place in the US Grand
Prix today after an incredible battle with Valentino Rossi. With Ducati
Desmosedici RR owner Tom Cruise watching from pit wall, Stoner launched from
pole position and was immediately pursued by the Italian, with the pair swapping
positions as they left the rest of the field trailing.
The stage was set
for a big-screen finale but a rare mistake from the Australian in the final
turn, just eight laps from the end, saw him run wide into the dirt and drop his
Ducati as the front end dipped into the deep gravel. A huge gap of more than 20
seconds over third-placed Chris Vermeulen allowed Stoner to return to the race
in second place, but there weren't enough laps left for him to hunt down
Rossi.
Marco Melandri carried some excellent progress with the set-up of
his bike into today's race, moving up from 15th on the grid to ninth place by
lap ten, only for his charge to be halted by an unfortunate crash in turn one.
The MotoGP World Championship now takes its traditional summer break before
action resumes at Brno in the Czech Republic on August 17th.
CASEY STONER (Ducati MotoGP Team) 2nd
"At
the end of the day I'm not happy because I've made a mistake and it has cost me
the chance to win this race, but I also think that even if he rode a great race,
some of Valentino's moves early in the race were too aggressive. Anyway, we
can't do anything about that now - the important thing is that we've come away
from here with 20 valuable points and after being written off in some quarters
four races ago we now go on our summer holiday with a fighting chance of winning
the title again. We're 25 points behind, which is a big gap, but there are seven
races left and a lot can happen. We can take a lot of positives out of this
weekend - mainly the fact that all the hard work by everybody at Ducati and
Bridgestone has paid off again."
MARCO
MELANDRI (Ducati MotoGP Team) 16th
"I hit a marker or something going
into turn one and my hand came off the handlebar, so I couldn't get the bike
turned. I took a heavy blow to my hand in the crash and needed a couple of laps
to get back into the race because I wasn't sure how bad the injury was. The pain
started to subside eventually but I was way back, lapping alone. I'm
disappointed because after the first two or three laps I had a good pace
together. It's a shame because it's another potentially good result ruined. I'm
particularly sorry for the team because they have made a fantastic job and they
deserved a good result".
LIVIO SUPPO
(Ducati MotoGP Project Leader)
"It was a very tight race, spectacular
to watch and evidence that it is not only the electronics that make the
difference in this sport, but two riders who are one step above everybody else
at the moment. Dani is also a part of that small club but unfortunately he
wasn't here today. After three straight victories for Casey, today was
Valentino's turn, that's fair enough. For sure if Casey had not shown a
tremendous coolness and maturity, there would have been at least a few occasions
in which they both could have crashed as a result of manoeuvres which, in our
opinion, were a bit over the limit on Vale's part. Unfortunately Casey made a
mistake that cost him dearly, but this can happen in the heat of the battle and,
in any case, we've ended this period of the season in positive style.
Unfortunately Marco was really unlucky. It's a shame because he was setting a
good pace."
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