Once again for the 5th time, Australian rider Casey Stoner landed his victory at the 2007 British GP for the 2007 season of MotoGP, despite of the slippery and dangerous race track at Donington Park. Stoner rode his No. 27 Ducati Desmosedici GP7 to the finish and earned the 1st place, while Colin Edwards (FIAT Yamaha) and Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) followed him in the podium.
Casey Stoner commented:
"This proves to people that the Ducati doesn’t just have power. We’ve been improving the bike and now it doesn’t have any particular weak points, we just need to improve it as a complete package. Obviously today it was the best bike out there. I got a perfect jump at the start, a perfect clutch release, but then I must’ve hit a white line and it spun up straight away. I was panicking a little bit because everybody was zooming past and I thought I’d be last into the first corner. We still got in there in a reasonable position and we were able to pick our way through. Colin seemed to be nice and smooth, but I knew I could go quicker. Then I saw the track getting drier and drier."
"I was worried about destroying the rear tyre, so I started going over all the wet patches. When we got to the last five laps the tyre still had a pretty good feeling and it looked pretty good at the end of the race, considering it was our softest option. I’m not looking at the championship yet, I’m just enjoying all these races whether I win or don’t finish on the podium. It’s just nice to be out there, I’ve got the confidence in myself and in the bike to really get involved in the race and really enjoy it."
Check out the other podium finishers said after the race.
Colin Edwards (2nd): "We had good race! I had a great start, better than any of my practice ones during the weekend, and then I just got my head down and kept pushing lap after lap. My bike was feeling good in the wet but then it started to dry out. I started braking a bit harder and feeling more confident, but then the front locked once into the chicane which gave me a bit of a scare. Then at the next corner, down at the hairpin, I locked it again, ran wide and Casey came through. After that I tried everything but I couldn’t stay with him and it was clear that I didn’t have the grip he had."
Chris Vermeulen (3rd): "It was very wet to start with and then dried out later on and that made the conditions very difficult. But my team and Bridgestone deserve full marks for picking the best tyres for today — they certainly knew what they were doing! I also want give my crew an extra special thank-you because for the second day running I crashed heavily in the morning and they again managed to get the bike rebuilt in time, so thanks guys! As far as the race went, I felt comfortable early on, but then had some trouble seeing through my visor. A couple of riders came past me and I ran off the track, I was struggling to see so much that I could have hit a wall or a spectator or anything and not have known! When the rain stopped I was able to lift my visor up a bit and that cleared the misting and I was able to push harder again."
Meanwhile, check out the complete results of the 2007 Nickel & Dime British Grand Prix.
1. Casey Stoner Ducati Marlboro Team
2. Colin Edwards Fiat Yamaha Team
3. Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
4. Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team
5. John Hopkins Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
6. Randy De Puniet Kawasaki Racing Team
7. Alex Barros Pramac D’Antin MotoGP
8. Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team
9. Alex Hofmann Pramac D’Antin MotoGP
10. Marco Melandri Gresini Honda
11. Anthony West Kawasaki Racing Team
12. Toni Elias Gresini Honda
13. Kurtis Roberts Team Roberts
14. Shinya Nakano Konica Minolta Honda
15. Makoto Tamada Tech 3 Yamaha
16. Sylvain Guintoli Tech 3 Yamaha
17. Nicky Hayden Repsol Honda Team
DNF Loris Capirossi Ducati Marlboro Team
DNF Carlos Checa Honda LCR
As a fan of Dani Pedrosa, I think he could perform better in the next race aboard his 800 cc Honda RC212V equipped with Honda headlight and Honda exhaust system.