It didn’t take a genius to know that Casey Stoner was unstoppable after dominating all weekend at Aragon, infact the Repsol Honda rider took less than lap to catch Ben Spies and team mate Dani Pedrosa and then literally cruise to his 8th victory of the season.
Debuting the David Delfin livery to celebrate Repsol’s 100th partecipation in MotoGP, saw Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa take the second spot on the podium, while title rival Jorge Lorenzo salvaged a third place after a very tough weekend, and now he’s down 44 points from Stoner and catching the Australian is now becoming Mission Impossible with just four races left in the season.
Marco Simoncelli managed to take fourth after riding as high as third, but an error on lap 10 dropped him back fifth and he had to play catch-up again while Ben Spies began fading badly.
The Gresini rider took several laps to catch him and once he did passed him easily and sped away, leaving the Texan behind by more than 7 seconds at the finish line.
Alvaro Bautista took sixth for Rizla Suzuki after battling it with Nicky Hayden and Hector Barbera.
These last two touched several times, but Hayden prevailed over the Ducati satellite riding Spaniard, who showed why he had a certain reputation when he was in 250cc.
Ninth went to Cal Crutchlow who got the best of Valentino Rossi in the final stages of the race when Rossi’s tires went off.
The factory Ducati rider started the race from the pitlane and 10 seconds after the rest of the field (after taking his 7th engine) and had to fend off Hiroshi Aoyama for the 10th spot.
The race lost two riders on the opening lap.
Karel Abraham crashed out at turn 2, that sent Randy de Puniet off track, but the French Pramac rider was able return to finish in 12th and Andrea Dovizioso also binned it when he lost the front of his RC212V.
While another crash occured with 7 laps to go and it Loris Capirossi who clipped Toni Elias in what seemed like badly calculated overtaking pass, sending both riders tumbling into the gravel trap.
Capirossi ended up holding his already injured right shoulder, while Elias was unhurt, which left the race with just 13 finishers.
MotoGP Aragon race results01- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – 23 laps in 42’17.
42702- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 8.
16203- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 14.
20904- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 20.
64605- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 27.
73906- Alvaro Bautista – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 30.
37307- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11.
1 – + 34.
28808- Hector Barbera – Mapfre Aspar Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 37.
30509- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 39.
65210- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11.
1 – + 39.
83211- Hiroshi Aoyama – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 39.
99712- Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 54.
71713- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 58.
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