Marlborough Ducati rider Casey Stoner proved that his wrist injuries were not an impediment to his racing by comfortably winning the opening round of the 2009 MotoGP World Championship at Losail, Qatar from Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi on Monday after the scheduled Sunday race was delayed by heavy rain.Casey’s victory made it a hat trick for the Australian and 2007 World Champion who has been fastest at all 3 pre season tests and who also won at Losail in 2007/8. The performance effectively put paid to any rumors that his niggling wrist injury might mean he would be unable to maintain race pace for the full GP distance.
Stoner led from start to finish and Rossi had to overcome a fast starting Loris Capirossi, who showed a blazing turn of speed on the new Rizla Suzuki, and his own team mate Jorge Lorenzo to claim second place. Capirossi crashed out of 4th position and the race was mostly processional with Stoner extending his lead over Rossi to almost 8 seconds at the line. Lorenzo had a lonely race in 3rd some 8 seconds behind his team mate.
Colin Edwards overcame a poor start that saw him drop to 9th on the first lap to finish a strong 4th on his first race on Bridgestone tires that are now the control tire for the class. Dani Pedrosa impressed by running as high as 6th place despite his injuries before fading to 11th at the flag after a collision with Alex de Angelis that almost resulted in a crash. Nicky Hayden who suffered a high speed high side during qualifying, steadily improved during the race and finished 12th, passing fellow Ducati rider, injured Sete Gibernau on the last lap.
Rookie Pramac Ducati rider Mika Kallio impressed on his premier class debut finishing in 8th. Fellow rookie and team mate, Niccolo Canepa finished 17th and last.
The second round of the championship will be held at Motegi in Japan on April 26th.
MotoGP Round 1, Losail Results
1 C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 42′53.984
2 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team + 7.771
3 J. LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team + 16.244
4 C. EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 24.410
5 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team + 27.263
6 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 29.883
7 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 33.627
8 M. KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing + 34.755
9 T. ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini + 39.481
10 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 42.284
11 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team + 48.526
12 N. HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team + 48.883
13 S. GIBERNAU SPA Grupo Francisco Hernando + 52.215
14 M. MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team + 56.379
15 Y. TAKAHASHI JPN Scot Racing Team MotoGP + 1′00.286
16 J. TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 1′14.978
17 N. CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing + 1′15.028
Source: MotoGP.com
