The young man from Australia does it again. Casey Stoner takes Turkey, after a wild day. In his second win in this class (and winner of two out of three races this year), he is looking much more polished than he did last season. He ran another, almost flawless, race. Congrats to Stoner. Stoner took first after Rossi went wide and actually ran into the grass, and led the way from that point forward. When do you see Rossi make mistakes like that?
Toni Elias caused some small controversy on his way to second place on the podium, while Loris Capirossi finished third.
The day was not without some bumps and bruises. Frenchman Olivier Jacque inadvertantly created a pile up that took out contenders Dani Pedrosda and Colin Edwards. Chris Vermeulen was also in that crash, but was able to get back up and at least finish. Considering he was too far behind to win, he did ride a fantastic race thereafter when you look at his times.
Rossi, after running off the track, looked as if he was on his way back to another podium finish, but tire problems forced him down to, get this, 10th place. As I mentioned earlier, Elias caused a bit of controversy in the race, passing Rossi rather aggressively."I am angry with Elias because I think he was quite dangerous because he changed his line while passing and I nearly crashed," Rossi said. "I had high expectations for this race however my rear tire had some internal problem, between the casing and the tread and I had to slow down. It was scary."
Elias added "this is racing" and that "it was very close and Valentino’s bike made a strange move as I passed him."
World champ Nicky Hayden finished 7th.
Point standings after three:
- Casey Stoner 61
- Valentino Rossi 51
- Dani Pedrosa 36
- Toni Elias 35
- Marco Melandri 30
- Colin Edwards 26
- Alex Barros 25
- John Hopkins 23
- Chris Vermeulin 21
- Loris Capirossi 20
- Shinya Nakano 15
- Carlos Checa 14
- Alex Hoffman 12
- Randy De Puniet 11
- Olivier Jacque 4
- Makoto Tamada 4
- Kenny Roberts Jr. 3
- Sylvain Guintoli 3
Race highlights below, check out the 4 bike wreck around 26 seconds into the clip.
Shanghai is next May 6th!!
2 comments:
Loris back on the podium!! Wonderful day with racing.
Hey lorisfan! It was nice to see Loris come on strong in Turkey. After a lackluster start of the season, he rode very well. He's very strong, and I think he can finish in the top 5 if he continues that type of performance.
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