|
Ducati Marlboro Team rider Casey Stoner
scorched to his tenth victory of the year in
faultless style at Sepang today, leading
every one of the 21 laps and setting the new
record on lap 15. |
|
|
|
Ducati
Marlboro Team rider Casey Stoner scorched to his tenth
victory of the year in faultless style at Sepang today,
leading every one of the 21 laps and setting the new
record on lap 15. His team-mate Loris Capirossi came
home in 11th place.
Stoner got the holeshot from the front row of the grid
and masterfully controlled the entire race, holding a
slender lead over his pursuers Marco Melandri and Dani
Pedrosa until he upped the pace and stretched his
advantage. At one point he led by two seconds, finally
crossing the line 1.7 seconds ahead. It was another
remarkable performance from the World Champion who
showed his mettle in sweltering hot and humid
conditions.
Stoner's tenth success aboard his Desmosedici GP7 came
one week after his home win in Australia which added the
constructors' and teams' titles to the riders' title he
secured in Japan last month. The Australian is also the
only man to have scored in all 17 races so far.
Capirossi started from the fourth row of the grid and
knew the race was going to be a tough challenge. He
spent the closing stages battling with Alex Barros, just
beating the Brazilian.
CASEY STONER, race
winner, World Champion on 347 points
"The bike, the tyres and everything were performing
really well but it was a very, very difficult race. The
biggest battle I had was being out front by myself and
not having anyone to focus on. I've been fine with it
all year but this track seems to take it out of you a
little bit more. Sometime after half-distance I had a
couple of front-end loses, so I had to change my style a
little bit, the way I was going into corners, to make
sure I didn't lose the front any more. That took up a
lot more of my energy and concentration, so it was quite
hard to keep it up at the end. The reason the gap was
going up and down so much was because I was trying to
get a break for one lap, just to recover a little bit.
Unfortunately I'd let them catch too much, so then I'd
have to really concentrate for another lap which would
take more of my energy away, so I think I'm very lucky
and very happy to come out on top. Marco and Dani were
fast right to the end, they were putting a lot of
pressure on me and they never let me go. After I crossed
the line I started to feel a bit dizzy, so it was
definitely a hard race."
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 11th
place, 7th in World Championship on 155 points
"I don't really know what happened today. It was a very
tough race for me, and it's a shame because this is one
of my favourite tracks and I came into this weekend from
two very good races. Unfortunately our package didn't
work as well today as it did in the previous races, we
had some difficulties, so I was fighting with Barros for
11th place, which isn't the kind of result I was hoping
for here. I hope things go better at Valencia."
LIVIO SUPPO, Ducati
MotoGP project manager
"Casey was simply unbelievable once again, he rode a
perfect race. He didn't push too hard at the beginning
because he was using a medium rear while the other top
Bridgestone guys had hard rears. He really used his
head, the way he managed the race was incredible, the
bike and the tyres worked well but for sure he is a
genius. Loris had an up and down race and a good fight
with Barros. That's 11 wins in 17 races from our team, a
fantastic performance, so our thanks as always to our
technical partners Bridgestone and Shell V-Power."
|