It was a bit of bad luck for my fave rider Casey Stoner at the recent 2007 Portuguese Grand Prix when he only finished in the 3rd place, a way too far than I expected. Anyway, I think it is not frustrating for Stoner and his fans (including me!) after all.
Well, FIAT Yahama rider and 7-time MotoGP champ successfully landed the victory during the race. Although Repsol Honda rider and current champ Nicky Hayden has the pole, Rossi managed to finish the race in the first place and scored his 4th win this season.
Though the MotoGP fans was full of excitement during the race, the motor sport community including Rossi, a rally car fanatic mourned World Rally (WRC) champ Colin McRae, who died in a helicopter crash the day before the race.
Rossi commented: "This is a very important victory for us in every way, it’s the fourth one of the year so the numbers are starting to look a little bit better," said Rossi, who had been shut out of the podium since his victory at TT Assen in June. "It’s a great, great emotion to win again after so long without even a podium. Today my Yamaha and my tyres worked very well. Our new engine is better and today I was able to keep in the slipstream of the Honda and the Ducati on the straight, and even to go alongside them at some points, so this is very important."
"I want to dedicate this victory to Colin McRae, who sadly died yesterday. Colin is one of my idols from when I was very young and it’s because of him that I have my passion for rally. It’s a very sad day for motorsport and I am glad that I could win for him today."
Here is the result of the 2007 MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix.
1. Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team
2. Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team
3. Casey Stoner Ducati Marlboro Team
4. Nicky Hayden Repsol Honda Team
5. Marco Melandri Honda
6. John Hopkins Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
7. Carlos Checa Honda LCR
8. Toni Elias Honda
9. Loris Capirossi Ducati Marlboro Team
10. Colin Edwards Fiat Yamaha Team
11. Shinya Nakano Konica Minolta Honda
12. Anthony West Kawasaki Racing Team
13. Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
14. Sylvain Guintoli Tech 3 Yamaha
DNF Kurtis Roberts Team Roberts
DNF Alex Hofmann Pramac D’Antin MotoGP
DNF Randy De Puniet Kawasaki Racing Team
DNF Alex Barros Pramac D’Antin MotoGP
DNF Makoto Tamada Tech 3 Yamaha
Meanwhile, Casey Stoner retains his spot in the point standings and I hope he would continue to score more points to secure his MotoGP crown. He also commented after the race:
"I’m happy with the result, but we did have higher expectations going into this race, at least to be there on the last lap, battling for the win. We thought we had a pretty good set-up, but unfortunately I started having a problem with the clutch about five laps into the race. There was no engine braking so I couldn’t try and brake as late as the other guys without running wide into the turns. It was very difficult to manage the situation and it took me quite a few laps to learn to ride around the problem. Towards the end I started to have quite a good rhythm again, I was getting faster and started to close them down. I felt like I had enough stamina to chase them but I just didn’t have the feeling with the bike and I didn’t have enough laps. I needed a few more tenths to get on to the back of them but I wasn’t to be, we lost too much time at the beginning. Anyway, I gave my all and the team has done another fantastic job all weekend. We’ve been fast, we had a little problem today, but I think we can come back again next weekend."
[source: motorsport.com]
Check out this blog for the other season ending races of MotoGP. While waiting for that, why not try to update your auto parts (like Lexus antenna) with new ones?