English
Ðóññêèé
Russian motorcycle news
Brands Persons Miscellaneous

Ducati podium double as Stoner wins at Aragon, Hayden third...

The Ducati Team celebrated victory and a podium double today as Casey Stoner took his first win and Nicky Hayden his first rostrum of the 2010 season. Stoner's victory came from pole position and was hard earned after overcoming an early battle with Jorge Lorenzo on the first lap and pressure from Dani Pedrosa over the remainder of the race. The Australian was able to manage a gap of around one second throughout over the Spaniard, who finally gave best over the closing laps and crossed the line over five seconds adrift.

Nicky Hayden gave chase to the leaders over the opening laps and stuck doggedly to the tail of Lorenzo to set up a thrilling finale. A perfectly timed pass onto the back straight gave the Spaniard little opportunity to respond as they charged to the final corner, sealing Hayden's first top-three finish since Indianapolis last year and the team's first podium double since 2007. After both making crucial changes to their Desmosedici GP10 machines this weekend, Stoner and Hayden are hopeful they can carry this form through to the final five races of the season.

CASEY STONER (Ducati Team) 1st
“This win is a big relief, to be honest! We had the first race in Qatar wrapped up until I made a mistake and their have been other opportunities to win this year that I have missed out on through my own errors. We have had a lot of problems trying to find the final two or three tenths to run with Dani and Jorge this season but we changed the bike completely this weekend to adjust my position on it and got it working almost how we want it to. I had a little slip off in warm-up this morning which was a worry going into the race. I was staying away from every white line that I could over the first few laps but we were able to pick up the pace when we needed to and bring home a win. I want to thank the team, the factory and everybody who has stuck by me – I'm just sorry it took so long!â€

DANI PEDROSA (Repsol Honda Team) 2nd
“I’m pretty happy with second place today even though of course I wanted to win in front of the Spanish fans. In the first corner I had a slide which lost me a couple of places and then over the next few laps I had to make up some positions before getting behind Casey. By this point he was quite a way in front and our pace was similar at this stage so I tried really hard to catch him and managed to close the gap. But then I started to have some rear-wheel slides and it wasn’t possible for me stay with him so I thought: ‘Ok, this is my place today.’ Our bike here was struggling more with tyre wear than some of the others, but anyway, second place is not bad and the championship is still alive, even though it will be very difficult to catch Lorenzo. I’d like to say thanks to my team who are working really hard, and I want to maintain this momentum because recently we have been fast at every race. I’m looking forward to Honda’s home event at Motegi.â€

NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Team) 3rd
“It feels great to be back on the podium and I really enjoyed myself today. The bike has been working really well all weekend and in the race I was able to get a good start and stay with Jorge. There wasn't really anywhere I could get a wheel in and over the last couple of laps he pushed hard to get away but I decided that fourth wasn't good enough for me today. I did a bit of a backyard move in the chicane over there and managed to hold him off to the line. It's nice to be on the podium, it has been a really good weekend for us and for the team, the sponsors and the supporters I'm glad we could be up here today. We'll try to do it again a few more times before the season's over!â€

Add your comment

Name: Code:
 
 
Rambler's Top100