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Round 1: Losail, Qatar

Posted by Staff
Friday, 09 March 2007
*Superb Stoner takes maiden MotoGP victory in Qatar* Casey Stoner was the worthy victor of today’s Commercialbank Grand Prix Of Qatar, taking his first ever win in the MotoGP class on his race debut for Ducati. The Australian puts himself into the history books as the first ever winner of an 800cc MotoGP race. Stoner started from second on the grid, but set the tone for the race when he pulled a cheeky manoeuvre on Valentino Rossi at the end of lap one. A three-rider pack then formed, with Stoner, Rossi and Dani Pedrosa breaking away from the rest of the field. The difference between the Ducati, Yamaha and Honda bikes was illustrated perfectly during the trio’s duel, as Rossi and Pedrosa either made up ground or overtook Stoner, before being caught on the straight courtesy of the Desmosedici GP7’s monstrous power. Rossi attempted to take a more permanent lead on lap 18, and it seemed that ‘The Doctor’ was on course for a third consecutive victory at Losail. However, Stoner showed his ever-growing maturity to bite straight back at his Italian rival and pull away over the final laps to have a cushion of nearly three seconds as he took the chequered flag. Third-placed Pedrosa bowed out of the proceedings when he ran wide on a corner, not only leaving a two-rider battle for the win but also allowing John Hopkins to provide a real podium threat. Hopkins was determination personified, refusing to take things easy despite still being far from 100% fit. The Suzuki rider was only half a second away from both Pedrosa and his debut appearance on the podium, and confirmed his status as one of the gutsiest riders in motorcycle racing. Marco Melandri and Colin Edwards rounded off the top six, with the latter having dropped down the field owing to a bad start. Behind them, Chris Vermeulen concluded a positive day for Suzuki, ahead of reigning World Champion Nicky Hayden. The 2006 title holder never really established himself during the practice sessions or the race, but will be hoping to find some sort of quick solution before Jerez as he attempts to retain his crown. Alex Barros finished ninth on his return to MotoGP, ahead of Honda debutant Shinya Nakano. There were crashes for Loris Capirossi, Carlos Checa and Randy de Puniet, without serious consequences, whilst Andrew Pitt suffered mechanical problems and had to return to the garage on the only Ilmor bike to run today. Jeremy McWilliams had chosen against riding as a result of his crash yesterday. *250cc* Jorge Lorenzo began the defence of his 250cc world title in the best possible way, taking a convincing victory in Qatar. The Spaniard was only troubled in the early stages of the race, when he had to work his way past quarter-litre debutant Thomas Luthi after the Swiss rider took an impressive holeshot. After that, Lorenzo broke away with a consistent cushion of around a second, imposing his own rhythm on the race. Alex de Angelis took second after an impressive performance, having set a series of fastest race laps at the midway point to join up with the trailing group. He then progressed past both Luthi and Barbera to cap a fine season start for the San Marino rider. For Barbera, the first race for Team Toth was a chance to prove his quality in the 250 category. Having been on the pace during practice, he stormed out of the blocks before engaging in a duel with Luthi for the final podium place. Although Barbera’s place was well deserved, few would have begrudged the Swiss rider a rostrum finish at his maiden 250cc Grand Prix appearance. He was followed by Andrea Dovizioso in fifth, the fastest Honda of the day, and Roberto Locatelli. The Metis Gilera veteran almost had a repeat performance of last year’s astonishing comeback through the field, and eventually capped off the top six. Yuki Takahashi, Julian Simon, Marco Simoncelli and Shuhei Aoyama completed the first ten past the line. Mika Kallio had to pull into the pits after suffering a mechanical problem on the final laps, ending what had been a good race for the KTM rider. His team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama was also out of luck, crashing on lap two along with reigning 125cc champ Alvaro Bautista. *125cc* Hector Faubel took victory at the first 125cc race of the season, following a masterclass in slipstreaming by the Spaniard. Carrying on from his win at the end of last year at Valencia, Faubel took the 25 points up for grabs from under the nose of team-mate Gabor Talmacsi. The two Bancaja Aspar riders were out on their own for the majority of the race, although two of their early rivals dropped off the pace with a variety of mechanical problems. Team-mate Sergio Gadea had taken the holeshot at the Losail International Circuit, but eventually had to retire. His troubles were mirrored by ex-Aspar rider Mattia Pasini, now with Polaris World, who suffered a fuel breather problem at the end of the first lap. After making up a gap of nearly a second with a series of flying laps, Talmacsi finally took the lead with six laps to go, and he and Faubel traded the top spot over the final stages. The Hungarian looked to be on course for a repeat of his last Grand Prix win at Qatar two years ago, but was followed to the line by his new team-mate and mugged of glory after an audacious slipstreaming manoeuvre from Faubel. Engaging in their own battle for a podium spot, Lukas Pesek and Raffaele de Rosa went hammer and tongs for third place. Pesek eventually came out on top, with De Rosa joined in the top six by Simone Corsi and Tomoyoshi Koyama. Pol Espargaro and Esteve Rabat continued their rivalry from the Spanish Championship in seventh and eighth respectively, with Pablo Nieto and Alexis Masbou completing the top ten. The second race of the 2007 season takes place on March 25th at Jerez. *MotoGP Results* 1 27 DUCATI Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 2 46 YAMAHA Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 2.838 3 26 HONDA Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team 8.530 4 21 SUZUKI John HOPKINS USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 5 33 HONDA Marco MELANDRI ITA Honda Gresini 6 5 YAMAHA Colin EDWARDS USA Fiat Yamaha Team 7 71 SUZUKI Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 8 1 HONDA Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team 9 4 DUCATI Alex BARROS BRA Pramac d'Antin 10 56 HONDA Shinya NAKANO JPN Konica Minolta Honda 11 66 DUCATI Alex HOFMANN GER Pramac d'Antin 12 19 KAWASAKI Olivier JACQUE FRA Kawasaki Racing Team 13 10 KR212V Kenny ROBERTS JR USA Team Roberts 14 24 HONDA Toni ELIAS SPA Honda Gresini 15 50 YAMAHA Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 16 6 YAMAHA Makoto TAMADA JPN From MotoGP

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