Wet - Dry Victory for Stoner in Mugello

Mugello began as what looked like a nightmare repeat of Le Mans as the sign was held up at the flag stand declaring it a wet race. However, it seems the Kings learned their lessons two weeks ago and were much better prepared for what was to come.

Jorge Lorenzo suffered the idignity of crashing out on the sighting lap, so he began his race on his back-up bike with quite a shot to his confidence (and dirty leathers). Dani Pedrosa was riding with yet another physical compromise as he somehow managed to tear ligaments in his hip resulting in a sudden loss of feeling at one point yesterday, and a subsequent crash during the race today. He was rendered completely immobile after becoming unseated and was removed from the gravel trap on a stretcher.

The race was indeed an exciting one. The switch to dry set ups went rather smoothly (as opposed to Le Mans) however the conditions created quite an interesting mix of race leaders. We even saw Loris Capirossi lead the way after overtaking Valentino in a power-move that seemed to stop the Suzuki garage in it's tracks - it's entertaining to see a team surprise themselves. Marco Melandri was podium bound for several laps too as he made a triumphant come back from a 15th place start. Ultimately, my favorite pseudo-Saki jockey was swallowed up by the pack and remanded to 11th place by race end.

Andrea Dovizioso put on quite the show by taking the lead for several laps as well. He turned out to be quite the formidable opponent, running with the "big dogs" for enough laps to prove he meant it, and finally just missing the podium as he crossed the line a hair off Rossi's back tire - fantastic effort by the rookie!!

Jorge Lorenzo found his confidence, his pace and his way back to the podium finishing second. But it was Casey Stoner who stole the show in Italy giving Ducati their first win in the Mother Land - and making it all happen with a burned out clutch. Dammit boy!!

Feast your eyes on the results posted below and get ready for some hard core racing in Catalunya in two weeks time. Casey is back on top in the championship standings after today's win. With Rossi and Lorenzo nipping at the heels of his Alpinestars, nobody is running away with the championship so far..... which means it only gets better from here!!

1	C. Stoner	Ducati
2	J. Lorenzo	Yamaha
3	V. Rossi	Yamaha
4	A. Dovizioso	Honda
5	L. Capirossi	Suzuki
6	C. Edwards	Yamaha
7	J. Toseland	Yamaha
8	R. De Puniet	Honda
9	N. Canepa	Ducati
10	C. Vermeulen	Suzuki
11	M. Melandri	Kawasaki
12	N. Hayden	Ducati
13	M. Kallio	Ducati
14	T. Elias	Honda
15	A. de Angelis	Honda

Until next time....

Rubb'er Down

Kristen

Pedrosa snags pole at Le Mans

Dani Pedrosa will start closest to the finish line in tomorrow's Grand Prix De France. Joining him on the front row are Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo and Ducati Marlboro superstar, Casey Stoner. Where's Rossi?? Never fear, he qualified fourth and will share his second row start with Andrea Dovizioso and former teammate Colin Edwards - who by the way was brilliant in both FP rounds as well this week.

FP1 was marred by rain on Thursday and ironically cut short after being bumped back up to an hour-long session. FP2 was run for the full hour, and probably very exciting, although I missed it, so I can only report to you that Sete Gibernau suffered yet another collar bone fracture as a result of a one-for-the-books high side and is subsequently out of the race tomorrow . Here's to the fast and flawless [recovery] Gibbers - we'll miss you tomorrow!

Randy DePuniet qualified in the 10th position as a result of today's round. He is coming in strong after a fourth place finish in Motegi, and may have pushed just a little too hard amidst the cheers from his hometown crowd. He lost the front end of his Honda coming out of the finish line stretch into the fastest corner on the Le Mans circuit. They estimated he went down at nearly 160 mph. His bike was reduced to confetti, but his recovery was amazingly graceful. He never stopped his forward motion from the slide, got his feet under him, ran for the bike, abandoned the bike (after a .0005 second assesment of the damage), jumped the tire wall and made his way back to the garage where his back-up bike was waiting for him.

Marco Melandri washed out in the same corner on his pseudo-Kawasaki Hayate racing machine. He too got back on and finished the round, resulting in a 9th place start for tomorrow. It sucks to see man and machine hurdling off the track at triple digits - what sucks worse is the fact that Melandri and his pit crew have to salvage as many parts as possible from the downed machine in order to be able to continue racing - due to lack of factory support. I'll stop there before this gets ugly :)

Rizla Suzuki's pair, Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi made the top ten today and will start 7th and 8th respectively. Mika Kallio slapped down some very impressive times early on in the session, but was only able to finally eek out a 14th place start on the grid - still watching that kid (I'm sayin'..... mad skillz.... seriously).

Nicky Hayden is working with a new crew chief. The paddock chatter reveals that this should lead to better communication and overall improvement for Nick - aaaaand GO!

Okay - before this write-up shotguns itself any further into the depths of asshattery, here is the official starting order for tomorrow. I'm off to find some trouble to get into - cause that's what I do best!

1	D. Pedrosa	Honda
2	J. Lorenzo	Yamaha
3	C. Stoner	Ducati
4	V. Rossi	Yamaha
5	A. Dovizioso	Honda
6	C. Edwards	Yamaha
7	C. Vermeulen	Suzuki
8	L. Capirossi	Suzuki
9	M. Melandri	Kawasaki
10	R. De Puniet	Honda
11	T. Elias	Honda
12	J. Toseland	Yamaha
13	N. Hayden	Ducati
14	M. Kallio	Ducati
15	Y. Takahashi	Honda
16	N. Canepa	Ducati

Until next time....

Rubb'er Down

Kristen

Jerez qualifying results

It was an interesting finish to a wind-swept qualifying practice in Jerez. Nothing too drastic in the crash-and-burn department - no devastating agricultural excursions to speak of. I guess we can start with the absence of Valentino Rossi on the front row for tomorrow's race. He will be starting on the second row of the grid with Randy DePuniet (YAY Randy!) and MotoGP veteran Loris Capirossi bringing it home for Rizla Suzuki.

Tomorrow's battle will begin as a duel between the Spaniards Jorge Lorenzo (pole) and Dani Pedrosa - not the "best of friends" as it were. Casey Stoner and his Ducati complete the front row line up as teammate Nicky Hayden sits back in 16th position. The next fastest qualifyer for Ducati was Sete Gibernau who will start 12th - the rest of them 16th (Nick), 17th (Kallio), and 18th (Canepa) - che cosa succede Ducati???

Casey's bike did appear to be all over the place this morning, rowing violently out of the corners. He's certainly not opposed to riding a spastic machine, exciting, yes, but it does not usually bode well for winning races.

Randy DePuniet gave a smashing performance hitting the board in 5th - as Randy many times does - during QUALIFYING. When do we get to see him repeat the performance on race day? With Le Mans coming up in a couple of weeks, it would be nice to see him buff up his race-day performance for a shot at the podium at home.

Once again, we are in for an interesting race tomorrow. Hopefully by then the winds will have died down so we can see a race unchallenged by weather conditions - hell, the 125's were drilling holes in their fairings to keep from being blown off track.

Here are the full results of qualifying -

1	J. Lorenzo	Yamaha
2	D. Pedrosa	Honda
3	C. Stoner	Ducati
4	V. Rossi	Yamaha
5	R. DePuniet	Honda
6	L. Capirossi	Suzuki
7	C. Edwards	Yamaha
8	A. Dovizioso	Honda
9	T. Elias	Honda
10	C. Vermeulen	Suzuki
11	M. Melandri	Kawasaki
12	S. Gibernau	Ducati
13	Y. Takahashi	Honda
14	J. Toseland	Yamaha
15	A. de Angelis	Honda
16	N. Hayden	Ducati
17	M. Kallio	Ducati
18	N. Canepa	Ducati

Until next time....

Rubb'er Down

Kristen