R8RMR
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: +10/-0
Posts: 7523
|
 |
« on: April 01, 2008, 08:31:43 PM » |
|
After the complete domination of the first race of the season by Casey Stoner, he had a stinker of a weekend at Jerez. Poor qualifying led to poor grid position and the normally stable (for a Ducati) under Stoner looked more at home at the rodeo than a racing track. It even threw him off at one stage during practice. After two excursions into the gravel during the race he did manage to gain points for an 11th place finish.
In complete contrast, Dani Pedrosa had an excellent weekend culminating in a win every bit as dominating as Stoner in the first race. There was only one thing to spoil it for him. He has had a long standing mutual dislike of fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo who has started his rookie season extremely well. However, by royal decree, they shook hands after the race. Well the King of Spain grabbed their hands and forced the shake. Somehow I don't think that this gesture will mean anything. By the time they got onto the podium relations appeared to be back to normal.
The race itself was good to watch with enough incidents to keep interest high.
The performance of Pedrosa was outstanding but Valentino Rossi, a crowd favourite even in Spain, put on a terrific display to bring his Yamaha with the unfavoured Bridgestone tyres to a remarkable 2nd place. A feat not many would have thought possible at this track. However, Rossi is a past master at making the impossible possible. At the end of the race seeing him celebrate, you could be mistaken for thinking he had actually won the race.
It was also good to see 2 time World Superbike champion James Toseland scoring decent points in only his 2nd MotoGP race despite being severely under the weather.
Roll on Portugal!
|
