The Repsol Honda had pretty mixed results today at Jerez, Dani Pedrosa managed to grab the second place, Andrea Dovizioso was only 12th a one lap down and Casey Stoner DNF’d due to Valentino Rossi and lost his lead in the championship to Jorge LorenzoWhile Stoner was hopping mad at the incident (check out this photo on Motosprint) at the moment and later in his garage gave Rossi a few pointy barbs, but having time to cool off the Australian said it was a ‘racing incident’ and was more frustrated by the marshals not helping him.
Talking to Autosport.
com said he believed he could have re-joined the fray because his Honda wasn’t damaged, only if he had more help.
Stoner also criticized the marshals believing that they help certain riders based on a popularity factor.
The Australian also had some very choice words for the Safety Commission.
Dani Pedrosa – 2nd:“It’s been a very difficult race.
At the start, many riders overtook me and I thought that’s it.
Anyway, I knew there were 27 laps and the situation was difficult for the tyres.
I was a little nervous after my bad start, but when I realised that in the first lap I was faster than in the warm-up, I calmed down and started toimprove.
I took a good pace and had to ride at maximum concentration in order not to not makeany mistakes; it was very easy to crash.
Some riders started falling down and it was a matter of resisting.
I tried to catch Lorenzo when I saw that his gap was about a second, but at ten laps to go the tyres were almost finished; I couldn’t even open the throttle on the straight because the track was very slippery.
When Spies crashed, my gap with Nicky was big enough to keep the second place and I crossed the finish line very, very happy.
It’s been a tough weekend for the arm injury, today I also had numbness and lack of strength, but to ride in the wet helped me because it’s not as aggressive as in dry conditions.
To leave Jerez with a second place finish, after the third place in Qatar, is amazing.
We are nine points behind the Championship leader and it’s a good gap to resume the Championship again in Estoril.
On Friday we considered whether it was worth racing here or better to pull out thinking about the operation.
So this second place is amazing.
We’ve been doing great, but now comes the hard time, the surgery.
Nobody likes to undergo surgery, but this time I almost wish for it because I want to end the pain and problems and start competing fully fit.
” Andrea Dovizioso – 12th“I am very disappointed with what happened today.
We have to understand exactly the reason why, butI felt the rear tyre was not working properly, moreover the set-up of the traction control was not perfect for today’s situation and this made things worse.
The traction control was too low the bike was spinning a lot and the tyresoverheated.
With ten laps to go I felt it was dangerous to go ahead so I entered the pit lane to change tyre and finish the race to get some points.
It was a real pity because we have always been competitive in the wet and today it could have been a good occasion to achieve a goodresult.
In the warm up everything was fine and I had no issues.
”Casey Stoner – DNF“We made a good start to the race and the bike felt good for the first few laps, then the tyres seemed to move a little so we tried to conserve them in case it rained again.
I really wanted the chance to fight the Spanish riders here in a dry race, so it was disappointing for me that that itwas wet.
However, we were competitive here inthe wet and dry and this is very important for us – at a track that hasn’t been that great for mein the past.
After so much hard work, I hate to have a race like this because the team did a great job all weekend and now we go home empty handed.
With the accident, I heard Valentino arriving and I wasn’t worried about anyone passing me at that point in the race so I gave him plenty of room.
It was a racing incident and there’s not much we can do, what is more frustrating is the reaction of the stewards and their assistance for Valentino and not for me, it was unbelievable.
I want to just get to the next race now in Estoril, where I’m sure we can be competitive again.
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