Like Jorge Lorenzo said at the parc ferme when it was all over, it was one crazy race.
Just like LeMans two weeks before starting wet and then drying and again strategy would decide the winner.
Let’s start with Jorge Lorenzo crashing on his way to the starting grid, his spare bike brought to the pole position and a fast clean up of leathers and helmet and when the red lights go off Lorenzo smoked his tire and had a late start and at the end of the first lap saw Chris Vermeulen at the head of the race followed by Casey Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa.
On lap two Casey Stoner overtook Vermeulen on the straight, almost tearing off the Suzuki logos as he went by.
On the fourth lap Dovizioso took the lead from Stoner with Valentino Rossi hot on Vermeulen’s tail and Lorenzo right behind him while Casey Stoner began falling back.
Rossi took the lead on lap eight and Melandri then overtook Dovizioso and the the Hayate rider made his move on Valentino on lap 10 and took the lead.
At the end of lap 10 with their rain tires exhausted and seeing on their boards that James Toseland who pitted his bike on lap four was the fastest man on track with slicks, the four leading riders, Melandri, Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner headed to their garages to change their bikes, Dovizioso who pitted his bike one lap before had already warmed up his tires when Melandri headed out of the pit lane and Dovi took first place with Stoner almost 3 seconds behind him.
Stoner by the end of the lap was second with Melandri third, Lorenzo fourth, Loris Capirossi fifth and Rossi sixth.
It took Stoner 3 laps to take the lead and keep it till the flag, but it was an amazing Loris Capirossi who stole the show when he took second place from Dovizioso and it wasn’t until the 22nd lap that Lorenzo passed Dovizioso and Capirex, and seemed to be heading for Stoner but just couldn’t keep up with him and had to settle for 2nd.
Rossi passed Capirossi and Dovizioso.
The ex king of Mugello would finish 3rd, but Dovizioso was just behind at 0.
053s while Loris Capirossi was 5th.
Dani Pedrosa who had an excellent start in the wet, despite carrying injuries from yesterday’s highside, after pitting his bike crashed out on lap 13 while he was eleventh.
Colin Edwards stole Toseland’s sixth place on the very last lap, leaving the Englishman seventh, while Randy DePuniet was 8th and the second best placed Honda on the grid, because Yuki Takahashi crashed out and could not rejoin the race while Alex DeAngelis who also crashed was able to restart but could not finish better than last and Toni Elias who has a semi-official Honda was 14th.
Niccolo Canepa was ninth showing that running a million miles on Ducati’s test track does help, but only when it’s dry.
Chris Vermeulen, the wet weather specialist, on the dry Mugello track finished tenth.
Melandri crossed the line eleventh proving that the Hayate still has to find the perfect dry set-up.
Nicky Hayden was 12th, ahead of rookie Mika Kallio, who could not find the right set-up in the dry, but neither in the wet.
MotoGP Mugello Results:1 C.
STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 45′41.
8942 J.
LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team + 1.
0013 V.
ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team + 2.
0764 A.
DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team + 2.
1295 L.
CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 3.
2746 C.
EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 24.
4517 J.
TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 25.
6218 R.
DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 26.
0469 N.
CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing + 31.
81510 C.
VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 34.
81411 M.
MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team + 35.
09012 N.
HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team + 39.
12213 M.
KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing + 52.
46214 T.
ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini + 52.
47815 A.
DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda GresiniDNF: D.
PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Y.
TAKAHASHI JPN Scot Racing Team MotoGP
Leave a Reply