Dani Pedrosa took his second MotoGP victory of the 2008 season - and maintained his perfect home Spanish record - by slaughtering his rivals during the Catalan Grand Prix. A classic Pedrosa victory saw the Repsol Honda rider snatch the lead at turn one, then set off like a rocket to build a two second lead over pole sitter Casey Stoner by lap two of 25. Whilst his rivals squabbled, Pedrosa simply disappeared into the distance.
Pedrosa primo, Rossi secondo. Questa, la classifica del GP di Catalunya. A parti invertite, la situazione nel mondiale, con 7 punti a dividerli. Ci sono buoni motivi per tutti, o quasi, dunque, per sorridere.
Lewis Hamilton battled to a podium finish at the Spanish Grand Prix as Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa secured a Ferrari one-two. Raikkonen’s 17th grand prix win - from pole position - left the Finn with 29 points, nine clear of closest rival Hamilton, and catapulted Ferrari back in front of BMW Sauber in the constructors’ standings. Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who started on the front row for Renault, retired on lap 35 with a blown engine but he had already fallen down the field after being the first driver to refuel. Massa, winner in Bahrain, had got past double world champion Alonso at the start while Hamilton slotted into fourth place after muscling past BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica from fifth.
Dominio Ferrari nel Gran Premio di Spagna. A vincere è Kimi Raikkonen che precede sul traguardo Felipe Massa, per la casa di Maranello è la seconda doppietta consecutiva, per Raikkonen il secondo successo stagionale e il diciassettesimo in carriera, per Massa è la definitiva conferma dopo le prime due deludenti gare. Partito dalla pole position, Raikkonen ha anche fatto segnare il giro più veloce completando un dominio che è stato totale durante quasi tutto il weekend. Al terzo posto il pilota della McLaren Lewis Hamilton.
Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team rider Noriyuki Haga could not have had two bigger contrasts in his raceday at Valencia, taking a superb win in the second 23-lap contest, but crashing out of the opener at high speed.
His team-mate Troy Corser was rewarded for a consistent first race ride with a podium finish in third, and then went on to score a fighting fifth in race two.
Corser’s podium came in a race where 20 riders finished and there were many high profile incidents. Corser was a lonely third eventually, some seven seconds from the win. Haga crashed out of race one, losing the front at the first corner on lap four as he tried to make up for qualifying 10th in Superpole.
In race two Haga led for the second half of the race, and his margin of victory over championship leader Troy Bayliss was 1.551 seconds. Corser, who had been pushing hard throughout and got tangled up with Ruben Xaus for some time, found it impossible to keep his early pace and finished eight seconds from his team-mate.
Il pilota italiano Lorenzo Lanzi si e’ imposto in gara-1 del Gran Premio di Valencia, terza prova stagionale del Mondiale Superbike. Il pilota azzurro, in sella alla Ducati 1098 RS 08, ha approfittato dello scontro che ha visto protagonisti all’ultima curva il tedesco Max Neukirchner e lo spagnolo Carlos Checa: i due piloti hanno dato vita ad un ultimo giro ricco di emozioni, prima della caduta avvenuta a pochi metri dalla bandiera a scacchi. Lanzi ha preceduto al traguardo gli australiani Troy Bayliss e Troy Corser. Solo 16esimo Max Biaggi.
Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha YZF-R1) ha vinto gara 2 a Valencia nel terzo appuntamento del Mondiale di Superbike. Haga ha preceduto di 1”551 l’australiano Troy Bayliss (Ducati F08) e di 2”903 lo spagnolo Carlos Checa. Nono posto per Max Biaggi (Ducati RS08). Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati RS08), che aveva vinto gara-1, ha chiuso invece dodicesimo. Race 1:
Spain’s Dani Pedrosa grabbed the world championship lead with a dominant display in Sunday’s Spanish MotoGP. The Repsol Honda rider set a cracking pace after starting from second on the grid, serving notice of his intentions by setting a new lap record on the second lap. He quickly left his rivals in his wake, leading all the way to notch up his 28th career win and fifth in MotoGP. Italian Valentino Rossi finished second at 2.883sec with Pedrosa’s Spanish teammate Jorge Lorenzo third at 4.339.
Per Dani Pedrosa è la quinta vittoria in MotoGP in carriera. Ed ha un sapore speciale, perché conquistata davanti ai suoi 130mila tifosi e con un margine ampio su tutti gli altri (2″883 su Rossi, 4″339 su Lorenzo). Per Valentino, al podio numero 100 in carriera (il primo con gomme Bridgestone) il secondo posto è un buon segnale sulla strada verso il Mondiale, mentre il vecchio re, Casey Stoner, mastica amaro.
