Australian rider Casey Stoner took another stride towards his first world championship title by outclassing the field to claim his third consecutive MotoGP victory in Misano, Italy, on Sunday.
The Ducati rider started from pole position for the San Marino Grand Prix and left most of his rivals in his wake before coming over the finish line nearly five seconds ahead of fellow Australian Chris Vermeulen, on a Suzuki.
American John Hopkins, also on a Suzuki, finished third in what was the 13th leg of the 18-race series.
Stoner’s third win in a row, following victories in the United States and Czech Republic, and eighth of the season means he has now stretched his lead to a massive 85 points over Italian rival Valentino Rossi, in second place.
”I just taking the championship race by race, without thinking about the title,” he said. ”I put pressure on myself for this race. I stayed focused to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes.”
Rossi, whose championship winning ambitions are disappearing with every race, had another day to forget, with the seven-time world champion pulling out after dropping a lap behind the front-runners when he slid off the circuit on the fifth lap.
”Breaking down after just a few laps is frustrating and unlucky, especially because today we had good expectations and we had been fast during practice,” said a gracious Rossi. ”But when bad things like this happen you have only two choices: give up or come straight back and start working again even harder than before.
”This is what we will do at Yamaha; me, my team, the engineers — everyone involved. We still have five races left and we will keep trying to get the result we deserve.”
Spaniard Dani Pedrosa of Honda, who sits third overall in the championship, was forced to abandon due to an early tangle with the Kawasaki of Frenchman Randy de Puniet.
In the 250cc category, Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo, on an Aprilia, stretched his championship lead by winning ahead of Japan’s Hiroshi Aoyama and Spaniard Hector Barbera.
With five races to go Lorenzo, on 241 points, leads San Marino’s Alex de Angelis by 54 points with Italian Andrea Dovizioso a point further back.
Italian Mattia Pasini, meanwhile, won the 125cc category of Hungary’s Gabor Talmacsi, with Japan’s Tomoyoshi Koyama in third. Talmacsi is now the championship leader with a 10-point advantage on Hector Faubel. — Sapa-AFP