Stoner Defended His World Champion Title in Portugal
It has only been one week since the race in Jerez, Spain and the excitement continues on the Iberian peninsula. The Estoril Circuit in Portugal presented the third round of the 2012 MotoGP series.
Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda) qualified for pole position in Sunday’s race, followed by Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) and Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) with Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) leading second row in fourth place.
In the first two turns of the race, Stoner battled Pedrosa for pole position and after a great passing maneuver by the Australian and Lorenzo, Pedrosa moved back to third position.
Stoner quickly built up an over one second lead and remained in pole position until he crossed the finish line at the end of the 28th lap. Half way through the race, Lorenzo briefly reduced the gap to Stoner, but remained in second place until the end. In lap three, the Spaniard set a new circuit record lap at 1’36.909.
Pedrosa finished third, and he stuck with the two leading riders for the entirety of the race.
Further back, the saga of the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 battle continues, though this time Andrea Dovizioso (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) beats team mate Crutchlow for fourth place. Shortly behind them, Álvaro Bautista (San Carlo Honda Gresini) finished sixth.
Valentino Rossi (Ducati) seems to get used to the new twin-spar aluminum frame of his bike, or the technicians have worked out some of the kinks that made Rossi’s performance suffer in the past two races. Probably some of both, as the Italian finished at a season’s best in seventh position.
Ben Spies (Yamaha) had a great race with a back and forth with Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP). However, when the German went wide in a turn with only two laps to go, Spies secured the eighth place in a great passing maneuver.
The next race in France will not be until two weeks from now. This means this coming weekend we’ll all be out riding in search for exciting and scenic roads.
Estoril, Sunday, May 06, 2012
| Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | 1 | Casey STONER | AUS | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 154.0 | 45’37.513 |
| 2 | 20 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 153.9 | +1.421 |
| 3 | 16 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 153.8 | +3.621 |
| 4 | 13 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 153.2 | +13.846 |
| 5 | 11 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 153.1 | +16.690 |
| 6 | 10 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 152.8 | +21.884 |
| 7 | 9 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 152.5 | +26.797 |
| 8 | 8 | 11 | Ben SPIES | USA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 152.1 | +33.262 |
| 9 | 7 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | GER | LCR Honda MotoGP | Honda | 152.0 | +35.867 |
| 10 | 6 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Pramac Racing Team | Ducati | 151.0 | +53.363 |
| 11 | 5 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | USA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 150.5 | +1’02.630 |
| 12 | 4 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | 149.6 | +1’20.736 |
| 13 | 3 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | FRA | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | 149.4 | +1’23.483 |
| 14 | 2 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | ITA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | FTR | 148.7 | +1’37.905 |
| 15 | 1 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | ITA | Came IodaRacing Project | Ioda | 147.2 | 1 Lap |
| Not Classified | ||||||||
| 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | CZE | Cardion AB Motoracing | Ducati | 144.7 | 5 Laps | ||
| 77 | James ELLISON | GBR | Paul Bird Motorsport | ART | 146.4 | 10 Laps | ||
| 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | COL | Avintia Blusens | BQR | 148.7 | 12 Laps | ||
| 54 | Mattia PASINI | ITA | Speed Master | ART | 148.8 | 17 Laps | ||
| 22 | Ivan SILVA | SPA | Avintia Blusens | BQR | 144.0 | 17 Laps | ||
Photograph source: www.motogp.com
