2007 FIM MotoGP World Championship Sepang, Malaysia October 21, 2007 Race Results: 1. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 21 laps, 43:04.405 2. Marco MELANDRI (Honda), Bridgestone, -1.701 seconds 3. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, -2.326 4. Randy DE PUNIET (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, -3.765 5. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Michelin, -4.773 6. Toni ELIAS (Honda), Bridgestone, -17.667 7. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, -20.950 8. John HOPKINS (Suzuki), Bridgestone, -22.198 9. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, -22.450 10. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, -29.746 11. Loris CAPIROSSI (Ducati), Bridgestone, -34.923 12. Alex BARROS (Ducati), Bridgestone, -35.667 13. Nobuatsu AOKI (Suzuki), Bridgestone, -44.113 14. Carlos CHECA (Honda), Michelin, -44.486 15. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, -49.658, jump start/ride-through penalty 16. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Michelin, -51.726 17. Chaz DAVIES (Ducati), Bridgestone, -58.905 18. Makoto TAMADA (Yamaha), Dunlop, -59.596 19. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Yamaha), Dunlop, -83.119 20. Kurtis ROBERTS (KR-Honda), Michelin, -110.960 2007 MotoGP World Championship Point Standings (after 17 of 18 races): 1. Stoner, 347 points 2. Rossi, 241 3. Pedrosa, 217 4. Melandri, 174 5. Hopkins, 173 6. Vermeulen, 169 7. Capirossi, 155 8. Edwards, 121 9. Nicky Hayden, 119 10. Barros, 106 11. De Puniet, 101 12. Elias, 98 13. Alex Hofmann, 65 14. Checa, 61 15. West, 59 16. TIE, Guintoli/Nakano, 45 18. Tamada, 37 19. Kurtis Roberts, 10 20. TIE, Roger Hayden/Michel Fabrizio, 9 22. Fonsi Nieto, 5 23. Olivier Jacque/Kenny Rodriquez, 4 25. Aoki, 3 26. Shinichi Ito, 1 More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: In what has become his trademark over the course of the season, 2007 MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner took a comfortable victory at today’s Polini Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Starting strong with the holeshot at the Sepang circuit, the factory Ducati rider knew how to hold off his challengers with knowledge gained over his title-winning year. The Australian had an answer for every challenge to his lead, clocking fast laps as and when his rivals came close. Stoner crossed the line with a 1.7 second advantage over Marco Melandri, having set a new circuit record in the latter stages of the race. All three riders to start from the front row finished the race in the rostrum places, with important consequences for the trio. Stoner’s tenth victory of the year makes him the first rider to win in all three classes in Malaysia, whilst Melandri broke his duck at one of only two tracks where he had never been on the podium. Most importantly for the World Championship, third placed Dani Pedrosa cut the gap between himself and Valentino Rossi for the runner-up spot to 24 points. The Spaniard now has to hope that his rival finishes out of the points at Valencia and that he wins his home race, something that he has yet to do in five attempts in MotoGP. Melandri’s second place puts him above John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen in the battle for fourth in the classification, with the three separated by just five points. Randy de Puniet had a solid ride for fourth place at Sepang, unable to catch the top three but able to create a gap between himself and Rossi, who rode a solitary race onboard the Yamaha M1. Toni Elias completed the top six to keep himself fresh in the minds of those looking for an occupant for the three remaining MotoGP seats. Vermeulen and Hopkins had an interesting inter-team battle, with the Suzuki riders dicing for points and bragging rights in front of 37,453 fans watching on from the grandstands. 2006 MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden came back from an excursion into the gravel on lap 12 to finish in the top ten, which was rounded off by Yamaha’s Colin Edwards. All 20 riders to start the race made it to the chequered flag, although De Puniet did not make it much further than that after running out of fuel on his slowdown lap. His team-mate Anthony West was penalised for starting from the wrong grid position with a ride-through penalty, which dropped him down the field after he had stuck with the top five riders early on. The MotoGP World Championship returns to action in two weeks time for the final round of the 2007 season, the Gran Premio bwin.com de la Comunitat Valenciana. 250cc Jorge Lorenzo retained his 250cc world title at Malaysia with third place in a fantastic quarter litre race, eventually won by poleman Hiroshi Aoyama on his KTM machine. The Spaniard had a 45 point advantage over nearest rival Andrea Dovizioso at the start of the race, and it was his Italian challenger who took the early initiative by moving away from the pack. Reined in by lap nine, a breathtaking duel between Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Aoyama and Mika Kallio developed after a Lorenzo wobble allowed the KTM duo to close the gap, and the scene was set for a fight for personal pride. A mistake from Kallio with just a lap and a half to go took Dovizioso out of the equation, in another heartbreaking twist to the Honda rider’s season. Aoyama used the collision to power into first, taking his second win of the 2007 season and becoming the first KTM rider to finish a race at the Sepang circuit. Content to step onto the podium as 250cc World Champion, Lorenzo avoided any rash move on second placed Hector Barbera, and stepped onto the rostrum in third place after a Rocky-inspired celebration in pit lane. An apologetic Kallio finished in fourth, ahead of fellow 250cc rookie Thomas Luthi and Julian Simon. In one of his best performances of the season, Roberto Locatelli came in seventh, trailed by team-mate Marco Simoncelli, Yuki Takahashi and Aleix Espargaro. Dovizioso picked up his bike to cross the line in eleventh, although Lorenzo’s position would nonetheless have seen the Spaniard take the title even if the Kopron Team Scot man had have been victorious. A mass celebration is expected at Lorenzo’s home race in Valencia at the final round of the 250cc World Championship, where the factory Aprilia rider will make his final appearance in the category before his move to MotoGP with Yamaha. 125cc Having headed into the penultimate round of the 125cc World Championship with just a single point separating himself and team-mate Hector Faubel, Gabor Talmacsi now has a little more space after a runaway victory at Sepang. The Hungarian rider was untouchable after taking the lead on lap two, having started one place behind poleman Faubel. Talmacsi took advantage of a furious battle for second place to break away from the pack. Never looking back en route to the chequered flag, he now holds a ten second cushion in the classification. Faubel eventually salvaged the situation with another podium finish, and rode a measured race as he aimed to avoid collisions with some of the hungrier members of the 125cc field. After several near-misses in a chaotic final few laps, the Spaniard managed to put himself up into third and, more importantly, avoided the DNF that would have gifted the title to Talmacsi. The title will now be decided at Valencia, Faubel’s home race and the scene of his season-concluding victory last year. Splitting up the Aspar team duo, Tomoyoshi Koyama continued his charge for third place in the championship. The Japanese rider took second place for the third time this season, and is 15 points ahead of Lukas Pesek in the classification after the Czech rider could only manage sixth place. Joan Olive and Sergio Gadea also claimed top six finishes, and behind them the riders leapfrogged a place after a final lap crash by Sandro Cortese. The remainder of the top ten was comprised of Simone Corsi, Mattia Pasini, Bradley Smith and Alexis Masbou More, from a press release issued by Team Roberts: MORE KNOWLEDGE BUT NO POINTS FOR TEAM ROBERTS Sole Team Roberts rider Kurtis Roberts finished 20th in today’s Malaysian GP, pressing on and experimenting with settings after losing any chance of points when he ran off the track after six of 21 laps of the 5.548-km Sepang circuit outside Kuala Lumpur. The gravel-trap excursion came after yet another of the front-wheel slides that have plagued his weekend. He managed to rejoin, although way out of touch. The 28-year-old second son of racing legend Kenny Roberts used the rest of the afternoon to continue gaining knowledge and experience with a bike he only rode for the first time after the start of the season, when he replaced his elder brother Kenny Junior. Fiddling especially with electronic settings, Kurtis managed to do his fastest lap of the whole weekend more than halfway through the race … after switching the anti-wheelspin traction control right off! Kurtis had qualified 20th for the race, the second-last in the 18-round season, troubled throughout practice with front-wheel slides. With the electronics disabled, he was able to use the power and wheelspin of the Honda-powered England-built Team Roberts hybrid to reduce the problem. The race brought a tenth victory of the year to newly crowned World Champion Casey Stoner (Ducati), with Honda-mounted Marco Melandri and Dani Pedrosa second and third. KURTIS ROBERTS – 20th Position I ran off the track after the first six or seven laps, and when you’re already at the back then you lose that much time, then you’re about a minute behind. It kinda sucks as far as that goes. But I just tried to stay in there and get more used to the bike, changing settings, and figuring out what to do for Valencia to make it better. Maybe we can reward everyone’s work. The mechanics and crew guys have all worked really hard, so like to give them something to cheer about. I started changing the traction control settings, and I found what worked. I took it all the way off, then I could turn the bike better, and it improved the lap time. This is my first year of riding with traction control. I’ve never liked it, but you can find a way to ride round the problems and maybe get rid of it, get the set-up better and maybe go faster. The fastest lap I did all weekend was with it off. CHUCK AKSLAND – Team Manager Kurtis tried different settings to help understand what the bike is doing overall. We played around with that at the beginning of the year, with Kenny Junior, and you learn something every time you switch a button and try something new. He said it did do some positive things. We’ll go to Valencia and start with similar settings, and see if it works positively there. If not, we’ll work again to try and find what suits that circuit. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: HARD FOUGHT FOURTH FOR DE PUNIET AT SEPANG Randy de Puniet gave his team something to celebrate today when he rode to a spectacular fourth position in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang. However, in an unfortunate turn of events, Anthony West made an error on the starting grid that cost him a potential MotoGP career-best result. Frenchman de Puniet shot off from fourth on the line as the race began, showing brilliant progress in an area which has vexed him in the past, and clinched third place from Marco Melandri in turn one. A leading group of Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, de Puniet and Melandri quickly formed, with the Kawasaki number 14 pilot maintaining third until the Italian overtook him on lap five. But he never let up throughout the race and, whilst riding his 800cc Ninja ZX-RR to the maximum, held his position, eventually landing himself 13 championship points and taking 11th position in the current standings. A delighted de Puniet came home to an uproarious reception from his crew after a weekend which has seen him relentlessly topping the timesheets and consistently displaying both talent and courage on the 4.55km circuit. Bike, rider and Bridgestones shone for the entire, 21-lap race. Fortune did not smile, however, on Anthony West. Upon lining up for the start, the 26-year-old Australian placed himself on a 250cc grid position, marked on the track adjacent to the MotoGP spot. This was officially flagged as a jump start and he was given a ride-through penalty, which he fulfilled at the end of lap five, surrendering a very-promising fifth place in the process. It was a heartbreaking turn of events for West, after he had clocked spectacular times throughout the weekend and qualified in a personal best fifth position on the grid. He re-joined the race in 20th place but, in typical West fashion, other riders were overtaken and he finally finished 15th, miraculously maintaining his run of scoring points at every round since he began racing in MotoGP in June. The team now leave Malaysia and head back for Europe, where the final round of the MotoGP World Championship will take place at Valencia in two weeks’ time. Randy De Puniet #14 – 4th position “I’m very happy, it was a good race. For the first time in 17 rounds, I managed a good start and then I took Melandri by the first corner, holding third for a few laps. After that he passed me and I tried to stay with the leading group. I did make some small mistakes during the race but the gap between me and the others didn’t change and towards the end I got within less than a second of Pedrosa. But then I had a few problems with stability under braking and decided to hold my place rather than push too hard and take any risks. The bike worked very well today and I’m so happy with this result.” Anthony West #13 – 15th position “When I saw the ride through penalty on my pit board, I didn’t know what it was for as I knew I hadn’t jumped the start. I didn’t know exactly what was wrong until I came back in at the end of the race. I made up a few places, even though I felt pretty flat after the ride through. I was really frustrated but then I saw I was catching up with some guys and kept on fighting although, to be honest, I didn’t feel completely motivated and I’m sure that’ll be reflected in my lap times. The weekend had been so fantastic before this so I’m gutted. I’ll have to come back and take my revenge on Sepang next year.” Michael Bartholemy Kawasaki Competition Manager “This weekend has been amazing. We’ve had some great results over all three days, which is particularly pleasing because we had many problems when we debuted the 800cc machine during testing here at Sepang just 12 months ago. Somehow, this weekend has been pay back for us. We’ve seen the real potential of the bike, we’ve been in the top five all weekend, Randy finished in the top five and yes, Anthony made a mistake but, if that hadn’t happened, I’m sure he could have finished sixth at least. Ultimately, the team and riders have shown what a competitive package we have now at Kawasaki.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: PEDROSA ON THE PODIUM IN THE HEAT OF SEPANG Dani Pedrosa guided his Repsol Honda RC212V to third place in a tightly-fought Malaysian Grand Prix held in sweltering conditions at Sepang on Sunday. Starting from his third pole position in as many races Pedrosa was second into the first corner behind Casey Stoner and immediately began to apply relentless pressure to the Australian. Lap after lap Pedrosa was quicker on the approach to the final hairpin corner, often coming alongside Stoner but never quite being able to pull off the pass. On lap nine Marco Melandri on the Gresini Honda was able to pass Pedrosa and with temperatures reaching 32 degrees and the track temperature hitting 40 degrees, Pedrosa was expecting the heat to take its toll on the performance of his tyres as the race progressed. But his Michelins were equal to the job, allowing the 22-year-old Spaniard to set his fastest time on lap 17 and cross the line right behind Melandri and just 2.326s behind race-winner Stoner. It was Pedrosa’s seventh podium finish of the season and closes the gap to Valentino Rossi in second place in the world championship to 24 points with one race remaining. Nicky Hayden had an eventful race. The 2006 World Champion made a sluggish start from sixth on the grid and slipped to eleventh on the first lap before staging a spirited comeback. Hayden had front-running pace today but while passing Toni Elias on the Gresini Honda for sixth place, Hayden ran off track and dropped back to tenth. The 26-year-old American refused to give up and held the fastest lap of the race for a time as he caught and passed Colin Edwards, bringing his RC212V home in ninth. The MotoGP paddock now jets back to Europe and the scene of Hayden’s dramatic 2006 World Championship victory. The Valencia circuit in Spain hosts the final round of the season in two week’s time on November 4, and the Repsol Honda Team will once again be going all out for victory. Dani Pedrosa Position: 3rd Fastest lap: 2m 02.487s World Championship position 3rd 217 pts Front tyre: 16.0″ Medium Michelin slick Rear tyre: 16.5″ Medium Michelin slick “I pushed very hard at the beginning because from what we’d seen in practice I was expecting the grip level from the tyres to fall away towards the end of the race. My plan was to make a gap if possible and handle the grip situation as well as I could. For the first few laps I was quite consistent behind Casey but when I started to brake later with a full tank of fuel I was losing the front end, so I dropped back a little and that’s when Marco passed me. At that stage I was trying to maintain my rhythm and, as the race went on and the fuel load came down, I began to get a better feeling at the front of the machine under braking. I was really surprised about the high pace in the final part of the race because we didn’t expect to maintain these lap times based on what we’d seen in practice. So I must say thank you to Michelin because we were able to get on the podium today thanks to the consistency of the tyre performance. Now I’m looking forward to Valencia because it’s a home race and I’d like to get good result for the fans. I hope we can take another step forward and get even closer to taking the win.” Nicky Hayden Position: 9th – Best lap: 2m.02.349s World Championship position 9th 119 pts Front tyre: 16.0″ Medium Michelin slick Rear tyre: 16.0” Medium Michelin slick “The team did a really good job this weekend and the bike was working very well in the race. Unfortunately I didn’t get a great start and on the first lap or two I got boxed in everywhere and I always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That cost me a lot of positions but once things settled down I started moving forward and was going well. Then, passing Elias at the end of the back straight, I got in too hot and it was a silly mistake which I’m not happy about. I was in the draft and just got into the corner a little too fast. After that I got back on the track, put my head down and I’m actually proud of the way we recovered and started setting some really quick laps. First I caught Colin and lost a little time getting by him. Then I was able to catch Hopkins and Vermeulen on the last lap but we ran out of time to pass them. Still, I think I had the fastest lap of the race for a while which is encouraging considering how things were going earlier this weekend. Our speed and rhythm was way better than 9th place today and that’s encouraging, but it was rider error that cost us a better result today. We’ve got one more chance to get the job done in Valencia in two weeks.” Makoto Tanaka Repsol Honda Team Manager “Dani rode at the absolute maximum today and I’d like to thank him for this. However, we couldn’t quite close the performance gap to our rivals and so the end result is of course a little disappointing for us after another pole position. Nicky did not have the best start and was forced to attack very hard early on. Unfortunately he ran off track trying to pass Elias and lost many positions. Still, like Dani, his pace was also very good towards the end of the race and the potential of the package was higher than ninth today. We’ll keep working for a good result at the final race of the season at Valencia.” More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Vermeulen just edges out Hopkins in Rizla Suzuki’s private battle Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins had a race-long battle during today’s Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, with Vermeulen just beating his team-mate to the line. Both riders got good starts and moved up through the field in the early stages of the 21-lap race. By lap-four they were neck-and-neck and continued to trade positions for the next few laps as they passed each other many times. Hopkins made an attempt to pass Vermeulen on the last lap for seventh place, but the Australian held him off to claim the extra point and close the gap in championship on his Suzuki rival to just four points with one race remaining. Team Test Rider Nobuatsu Aoki rode a great race on the prototype 2008 version of the GSV-R. Starting from 19th on the grid he got a good start and was up to 15th at the end of the first lap. He chased down Grand Prix regulars in front of him on proven race machines and passed them, before bringing his bike home in 13th for valuable points in the teams’ championship. Today’s race was watched by 37,435 fans in sunny conditions of over 30°C, and they witnessed Casey Stoner win his 10th Grand Prix of the season on his Bridgestone-shod Ducati. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will stay in Sepang for a day’s testing tomorrow, when all three riders will be joined by recently crowned AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies, who will be having his first outing on a Grand Prix bike. The final round of the 2007 MotoGP season is in two week’s time at Valencia in Spain on Sunday 4th November. Chris Vermeulen: “It was a tough race and I am totally exhausted! I got in a little battle with a few guys at the start, but John and myself both made little mistakes and we dropped back a couple of spots. I also had a bit of a vibration issue with the bike under acceleration and it took me a while to figure out how to ride fast with that. I just got my head down and pushed as hard as I could and then I saw on my pit-board that it was plus-zero with John and it stayed that way for the whole race! We passed each other a number of times and I eventually got in front and held him off. It was good to beat him as it closes the gap in the championship, but we weren’t near the podium and we still have a lot of work to do. We are here tomorrow for a further test and I am sure we can work out a lot of stuff.” John Hopkins: “Going in to today’s race we had pretty high hopes with the way the bike and tyres were working this weekend, but it just didn’t really happen for us. I got off the line pretty well and through turn one and then I made a few mistakes in the first few laps and even ran off the track at one time. From then on it was just a Rizla Suzuki battle with me and Chris going back-and-forth. It was good to race with him and it was a bit of fun, but I wish we had been fighting for one-and-two or two-and-three, but it was not to be! I have got to say hats off to all my mechanics this weekend they have been working really hard and sweating their butts off! We now have to go to Valencia and claw our way back into fourth place in the championship at the last race of the year.” Nobuatsu Aoki: “First of all I would like to say thanks to all of my guys for their help this weekend, but especially thanks to Mr Oonishi who decided to bring the prototype machine here for me to ride and I am very honoured and grateful to him for that. Until yesterday we had many small problems with the bike but the mechanics and engineers worked so hard last night and today the bike performed perfect! For a shakedown race this was a good start and in two weeks time we will hand the bike over to the Grand Prix team, but until then we will try to improve it a little bit more. We will also keep working on it in the winter tests so it will be right when next season comes. Once again I would like to show my appreciation to everybody involved this weekend.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “These were the same positions for the team this weekend as they were at Phillip Island last Sunday, but whilst the Australian result was quite positive this was a little disappointing. We felt coming here that the whole package was capable of a podium finish and even going into race-day today that was very much our target, but it didn’t quite work out like that. It was not as if we were terrible, but we just seemed to lack that extra half to three-quarters-of-a-second a lap that we needed to run the pace of the fastest riders. “Nobu san did a great job on the prototype bike, beating quite a few of the MotoGP regulars and scoring decent points. I would like to thank him for his efforts over the course of the weekend. “It is a now three-way fight for fourth in the championship between, John, Chris and Melandri and we’ll go to the final race in Valencia hoping that one of our guys can achieve that.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: FIGHTING FIFTH FOR ROSSI IN MALAYSIA Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino rounded off a difficult weekend with a strong ride in today’s Malaysian Grand Prix, bringing his Yamaha M1 home in fifth position from ninth on the grid. His team-mate Colin Edwards, who started from 13th, finished 11th. The usual hot and steamy Sepang conditions ensured that the 21-lap race would be a test of stamina for all 20 riders on the grid and, after being hampered by grip issues throughout practice, the Yamaha pair were not expecting an easy race. However some last-minute alterations worked wonders and Rossi especially was able to lap consistently at the same pace as the leaders throughout, recording the second fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap. The Italian dropped two places at the start but quickly found his rhythm and pegged back Nicky Hayden, marking the start of a spirited ride which saw him pass four riders in as many laps. Soon finding himself in fifth with a gap of more than three seconds to Randy de Puniet, Rossi put his head down and kept pushing, trying to close the gap to the Frenchman. Despite steadily gaining ground on him to the flag, it was not quite enough and he had to settle for fifth. Edwards too made up some places early on and looked to have ninth place secure with two laps to go. However Hayden, who had earlier dropped behind Edwards when running off the track, passed him in the closing stages and Texan was relegated to tenth place. Today’s race was won by Casey Stoner, with Marco Melandri and Dani Pedrosa taking second and third. Rossi now lies 24 points clear of Pedrosa in the championship standings, meaning he has to take just a single point during the final race to secure second place, whilst Edwards’ six-point haul sees him hold on to eighth position. The final Grand Prix of the season takes place in Valencia, Spain, in a fortnight’s time. Valentino Rossi Position: 5th Time: +4.733 “Of course I’m disappointed with fifth place, but I am very happy with my race today. It’s a pity because we had great potential this afternoon and, if we had been able to start from the front row, I think we could have fought for the victory. We made some modifications today and luckily everything worked much better during the race than it had during practice. We were fast this afternoon, we had a great rhythm but unfortunately we really lost the race yesterday in qualifying! I took some time to find my rhythm at the start of the race but once I did I realised I had a great pace and that my bike and tyres were working very well. I tried to catch de Puniet but, even though I was a tiny bit faster than him, the difference was only one or two tenths and so it wasn’t enough to be able to make up three seconds. My Michelin tyre worked very well to the end today so this is encouraging for Valencia, where we will be trying one more time to win before the end of the season. Colin Edwards Position: 10th Time: +29.746 “I got a bad start and had a bad few corners, but once I’d got settled I managed to get past a couple of guys and push on a bit. After a while I got Vermeulen and Hopkins in my sights and I was trying pretty hard to close the gap to them, but I couldn’t get closer than about 0.8 seconds. Towards the end I started to feel pretty light-headed I was feeling the remnants of when I was sick earlier in the week and everything was really a bit of a blur for the last few laps. I had a terrible headache and in this heat it’s hard to concentrate if you’re not at 100%, and unfortunately I couldn’t hold Hayden off at the end. It’s been another tough weekend for us but once again it could have been worse and I want to say thanks again to everyone for working so hard and keeping morale going during a difficult couple of races.” Davide Brivio Fiat Yamaha Team Director “Valentino ran a great race today but unfortunately he was penalised by his starting position and the first lap, when he had to take some time to find his rhythm. We saw today that the pace he had could have allowed him to fight at the front, but we lost a lot of ground during practice and qualifying and this afternoon we suffered for that. Colin also made some big improvements today but at the end of the day he, too, could only do the best he could from a bad grid position. Today everything worked well, especially for Valentino, and it’s a great pity we weren’t in a position to make the most of it. We will try once more in Valencia and let’s hope we can finish the season on a high note.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Stoner and Melandri take Bridgestone 1-2 in Sepang Round 17 Malaysia – Race Sepang International Circuit – Sunday 21 October 2007 Casey Stoner rode his Ducati superbly to victory in this afternoon’s Malaysian Grand Prix to register his tenth win of the season, the twelfth in total by a rider on Bridgestone tyres in 2007. Stoner also claimed the fastest lap of the race, a 2m02.108s, which represented a slight increase over the existing record set by Loris Capirossi in 2006, while the total race time, 43m04.405s, was three seconds quicker than last year’s 990cc race. Marco Melandri scored an equally impressive second position, just 1.7s adrift of Stoner’s race-winning time, to take his fourth podium position of the season and the sixth in total for the Honda Gresini team in their debut season using Bridgestone tyres. It was a strong afternoon for Bridgestone-equipped riders around the recently resurfaced Sepang track in an extremely competitive race with several team, bike and tyre manufacturer combinations on potential podium pace over the 21 laps. Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet has been on tremendous form all weekend and a fourth place finish is just reward for a spirited ride today, just 1.5s from a second podium of 2007. Melandri’s team-mate Toni Elias took a hard-fought sixth place ahead of the Suzuki duo of Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins who rounded out the top eight. Stoner and Melandri’s Sepang success makes Malaysia the eighth race of the year where Bridgestone-shod riders have claimed a 1-2 and the third race in a row after Japan and Australia. Stoner extends his championship-winning season tally to 347 points, while Melandri leap frogs the Suzuki riders for fourth spot with just five separating him from Hopkins in fifth and Vermeulen in sixth. De Puniet’s fourth place takes his points total over the 100 mark for the first time in his MotoGP career. Hiroshi Yamada Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Sport Unit “Congratulations to Casey and Ducati for another hard fought win in very competitive circumstances this afternoon. The field was very evenly matched this afternoon, so everyone should be commended for excellent work at this resurfaced Sepang track. Marco and Honda Gresini also performed exceptionally well today and it is great to see them score another podium with Marco getting his best ‘dry’ result of the season on our tyres. Kawasaki, too, have enjoyed a strong weekend and Randy was unfortunate to miss out on the podium, even if fourth place is still a great result. It has been a busy and demanding two weekends in a row, so thanks to all the Bridgestone team for usual high standard of work, and we will continue to push our hardest to prepare for the Valencia GP in two weeks which will be our 100th MotoGP participation.” Tohru Ubukata Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorsport Race Tyre Development “This afternoon’s race was held with the hottest track temperatures we have faced this weekend and I think that our range of tyres worked quite well. The grip and consistency provided by the front and rear tyres over the full race distance was pleasing, but I was surprised by how close and competitive everybody was in the race. Many riders set their fastest laps in the last third of the race, which is quite incredible in these conditions. The new track surface has given all tyre manufacturers a big challenge here in Sepang, so I am pleased we can see Casey win again with Marco so close behind. I must admit that our rivals appeared very strong again today, so we have to push hard to keep up our rate of development to end the season on a high note.” Casey Stoner Ducati Corse Race Winner and 2007 Moto GP World Champion (347 points) “The bike, tyres and everything were performing really well but it was a very difficult race. The biggest battle I had was being in front by myself and not really having anything to focus on. I’ve been fine with it all year, but this track seems to just take it out of you a little bit more. Probably until halfway through the race everything was performing very well, then I had a couple of front end losses. So then I just tried to back it off and keep a similar pace but with some different lines and different riding techniques. Some laps when I decided just to back off a little bit, I backed off too much and gave Marco and Dani a bit of an advantage so I had to increase the pace again. I’m very lucky and very happy to have come out on top.” Bridgestone Race Results Front Rear P1 Casey Stoner Ducati 43m04.405s Winner Slick Hard Slick Medium P2 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini 43m06.106s +1.701s Slick Hard Slick Hard P4 Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 43m08.170s +3.765s Slick Hard Slick Hard P6 Toni Elias Honda Gresini 43m22.072s +17.667s Slick Hard Slick Medium P7 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 43m25.355s +20.950s Slick Hard Slick Medium P8 John Hopkins Suzuki 43m26.603s +22.198s Slick Hard Slick Hard P11 Loris Capirossi Ducati 43m39.328s +34.923s Slick Medium Slick Hard P12 Alex Barros Pramac d’Antin 43m40.072s +35.667s Slick Hard Slick Hard P13 Nobuatsu Aoki Suzuki 43m48.518s +44.113s Slick Hard Slick Medium P15 Anthony West Kawasaki 43m54.063s +49.658s Slick Hard Slick Hard (16”) P17 Chaz Davies Pramac d’Antin 44m03.310s +58.905s Slick Hard Slick Hard Weather: Dry. Air 32°C, Track 38°C, Humidity 51% More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: AWESOME STONER SCORES HIS TENTH WIN FOR DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM, CAPIROSSI 11TH Ducati Marlboro Team rider Casey Stoner scorched to his tenth victory of the year in faultless style at Sepang today, leading every one of the 21 laps and setting the new record on lap 15. His team-mate Loris Capirossi came home in 11th place. Stoner got the holeshot from the front row of the grid and masterfully controlled the entire race, holding a slender lead over his pursuers Marco Melandri and Dani Pedrosa until he upped the pace and stretched his advantage. At one point he led by two seconds, finally crossing the line 1.7 seconds ahead. It was another remarkable performance from the World Champion who showed his mettle in sweltering hot and humid conditions. Stoner’s tenth success aboard his Desmosedici GP7 came one week after his home win in Australia which added the constructors’ and teams’ titles to the riders’ title he secured in Japan last month. The Australian is also the only man to have scored in all 17 races so far. Capirossi started from the fourth row of the grid and knew the race was going to be a tough challenge. He spent the closing stages battling with Alex Barros, just beating the Brazilian. CASEY STONER, race winner, World Champion on 347 points “The bike, the tyres and everything were performing really well but it was a very, very difficult race. The biggest battle I had was being out front by myself and not having anyone to focus on. I’ve been fine with it all year but this track seems to take it out of you a little bit more. Sometime after half-distance I had a couple of front-end loses, so I had to change my style a little bit, the way I was going into corners, to make sure I didn’t lose the front any more. That took up a lot more of my energy and concentration, so it was quite hard to keep it up at the end. The reason the gap was going up and down so much was because I was trying to get a break for one lap, just to recover a little bit. Unfortunately I’d let them catch too much, so then I’d have to really concentrate for another lap which would take more of my energy away, so I think I’m very lucky and very happy to come out on top. Marco and Dani were fast right to the end, they were putting a lot of pressure on me and they never let me go. After I crossed the line I started to feel a bit dizzy, so it was definitely a hard race.” LORIS CAPIROSSI, 11th place, 7th in World Championship on 155 points “I don’t really know what happened today. It was a very tough race for me, and it’s a shame because this is one of my favourite tracks and I came into this weekend from two very good races. Unfortunately our package didn’t work as well today as it did in the previous races, we had some difficulties, so I was fighting with Barros for 11th place, which isn’t the kind of result I was hoping for here. I hope things go better at Valencia.” LIVIO SUPPO, Ducati MotoGP project manager “Casey was simply unbelievable once again, he rode a perfect race. He didn’t push too hard at the beginning because he was using a medium rear while the other top Bridgestone guys had hard rears. He really used his head, the way he managed the race was incredible, the bike and the tyres worked well but for sure he is a genius. Loris had an up and down race and a good fight with Barros. That’s 11 wins in 17 races from our team, a fantastic performance, so our thanks as always to our technical partners Bridgestone and Shell V-Power.” More, from a press release issued by Gresini Honda: SECOND PLACE FEELS LIKE A WIN FOR MELANDRI The Italian is back on the podium at Sepang as Elias battles to sixth Marco Melandri produced yet another heroic performance to add to his collection this season, this time at Sepang, putting his Gresini Honda back on the podium after taking second place in extremely demanding conditions. Melandri fought the heat and humidity from the first lap to stay with the lead group, forcing his way up to second place after passing Randy De Puniet and Dani Pedrosa. Marco, empowered by a strong bike-tyre combination this weekend, even gave chase to race leader and World Champion Casey Stoner but his charge was foiled by a mid-race mistake. Nevertheless, a superb podium finish has propelled Marco to fourth in the riders’ championship on 174 points. MARCO MELANDRI (2nd in the race, 4th in the championship): “This podium feels like a victory to us. I was never on the podium here at Sepang and I don’t think it is a circuit that suits my riding style or our bike. Anyway, today proved that when you have a great package of bike and tyres, as I did today, you can be fast anywhere. After a good warm-up this morning I was confident for the race. I was nervous before the start because I tried to move a little bit the valve for the drink but I made a mistake and pulled it out! The water was continually coming out so I tried to disconnect the tube but for the first two laps every time I was braking the water that still was in the tube was coming out inside the visor so it was difficult and I was a bit nervous. But after that I took my rhythm and I was pretty fast. I caught Dani, I tried to catch Casey but I had a big moment with the front end and I lost almost one second in one lap. After I tried to catch him back and i pushed a lot. Then, at 2 laps to go, when it was not possible to catch him, I thought it was really very good for me to be second so I just want to say thanks to Fausto and my team for these 3 years we have raced together”. TONI ELIAS (6th in the race, 12th in the championship): “I’m happy with this result. Everything was working well in the warm-up and we expected a good race. In the afternoon, when temperatures increased, we struggled a litle bit more. I had some good battles out there as I came through the pack. Once the tyres went off, I just focused on hanging on for a top result. Compared to Phillip Island, we’ve made a big step forward here and I’m now looking forward to the last race at Valencia, in Spain, in front of my fans.” More, from a press release issued by Honda: MELANDRI TAKES HARD FOUGHT SECOND, DANI THIRD In searing heat under tropical sun Casey Stoner (Ducati) recorded his tenth win of the season, hounded all the way by Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda RC212V) who finished a brave second with Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) third. These 21-laps of this 5.548km Sepang track were extremely hard work for riders and despite the tough conditions no one fell, although Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) had to take to the run-off when he overcooked his entry to the final turn on lap 12. Stoner made a rapid getaway from the lights and led Dani into turn one, these two closely followed by Marco Melandri and Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki). Both Stoner and Pedrosa made errors at the final turn on the opening lap, but the pair stayed on and stayed at the head of the pack. As the field settled down, the top four were covered by just one second by lap seven and this looked as if it might be a very tight race so it proved to be, Melandri making strenuous efforts to get on terms with Dani as he kept the pressure on Stoner. Stoner was doing everything he could to shed his pursuers and on lap nine he recorded an early fastest lap of the race with a 2m 02.309s effort. Rossi was holding fifth but he was 3.2 seconds adrift of the leading four-rider group. As mid-race distance drew close Stoner had carved out a 1.5 second lead as Melandri successfully challenged Dani for second. Nicky meanwhile had survived his off-track moment but had dropped from seventh to tenth place. Stoner kept a rapid pace at the front recording another fastest lap of the race at 2m 02.108s as De Puniet closed on Pedrosa for third place. The Aussie Ducati man confessed to making a few errors in this race but he never let his lead slip to more than a second, and his 1.7 second margin at the flag was comfortable enough. Toni Elias (Gresini Honda RC212V) finished in sixth place but he was more than 17 seconds off the winner’s pace, while Nicky brought his RC212V home in ninth spot. Carlos Checa (LCR Honda RC212V) was 14th, Shinya Nakano (Konica Minolta Honda RC212V) 16th and Kurtis Roberts (Roberts KR212V) 20th. Marco said: “We had a very good warm-up this morning and I was very confident for the race. I was strong in the twisty part of the track but Dani had incredible acceleration better than the Ducati. I tried to pass him as quick as possible to try and pass Casey (Stoner) and I made a mistake and lost a second. But I pushed to catch him and was at one second with six laps to go. But I couldn’t do it so with two to go I concentrated on preserving my position. We had a very good bike and tyre package today.” Dani said: “I pushed very hard at the beginning because from what we’d seen in practice I was expecting the grip level from the tyres to fall away towards the end of the race. My plan was to make a gap if possible and handle the grip situation as well as I could. For the first laps I was quite consistent behind Casey but when I started to brake later with a full tank of fuel I was losing the front-end, so I dropped back a little and that’s when Marco passed me. At that stage I was trying to maintain my rhythm and, as the race went on and the fuel load came down, I began to get a better feeling at the front of the machine under braking. I was really surprised about the high pace in the final part of the race because we didn’t expect to maintain these lap times based on what we’d seen in practice.” Elias said: “I’m happy with this result. Everything was working well in the warm-up and things improved even further with the higher temperatures in the afternoon. I had some good battles out there as I came through the pack. Once the tyres went off, I just focused on hanging on for a result. Compared to Phillip Island, we’ve made a big step forward here and I’m now looking forward to the last race at Valencia, in Spain, in front of my fans.” Nicky said: “The team did a really good job this weekend and the bike was working very well in the race. Unfortunately I didn’t get a great start and on the first lap or two I got boxed in everywhere and I always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That cost me a lot of positions but once things settled down I started moving forward and was going well. Then, passing Elias at the end of the back straight, I got in too hot and it was a silly mistake which I’m not happy about. I was in the draft and just got into the corner a little too fast. After that I got back on the track, put my head down and I’m actually proud of the way we recovered.” Checa said: “I knew this was going to be a difficult race but it was better than I expected and I did the maximum. During practice and qualifying I never found a good feeling with the bike and set-up for this track. But it was a little better in the race and I was able to run consistent lap times. The best was 2m 04.1s and our target was to get into high 2’03s so that was a little disappointing. Now I’m just looking ahead to the final race of the season in Valencia in Spain.” Nakano said: “Today has been very difficult for the team and myself and I am very disappointed with the result as Sepang is one of my favourite tracks. This morning we improved some settings on the front of the bike and it did feel better than before. I was fighting with Carlos Checa and Nobuatsu Aoki but I couldn’t follow them so finally I just tried to keep my lap times consistent and hold position to get that last point. In the last couple of laps Anthony West passed me for the last point.” Roberts said: “I ran off track after the first six or seven laps, and when you’re already at the back and you lose that much time, then you’re about a minute behind. It sucks as far as that goes. But I just tried to stay in there and get more used to the bike, changing settings, and figuring out what to do for Valencia to make it better. Maybe we can reward everyone’s work there. The mechanics and crew guys have all worked really hard, so they need something to cheer about.” Hiro Aoyama (KTM) won a thrillingly hard-fought 250cc race by 2.251 seconds from Hector Barbera, with Jorge Lorenzo (both Aprilia) finishing third and doing enough to clinch his second successive World Championship in the class. His only possible rival to the crown was the dogged Andrea Dovizioso (Scot Honda RS250RW) who could only manage 11th place here after leading and then becoming the victim of a Mika Kallio (KTM) mistake. Julian Simon (Repsol Honda RS250RW), however, was sixth, and Dovi’s team-mate Yuki Takahashi (Scot Honda RS250RW) ninth. The Thai rider Ratthapark Wilairot (Stop And Go Racing Honda RS250RW) finished 16th at what amounts to his ‘home’ race. Lorenzo now has 303 points and Dovi on 247 cannot catch him with just one race remaining in Valencia next month. Dovi said: “I’m really sorry because even if I knew that Lorenzo was going to win the World Championship, today I wanted the victory so I’m more disappointed for the race rather than for the title. Things happen in a race but the fact that it was today and on this circuit really hurts a lot. We have been unlucky as it happened at other times this year and we have to accept it even if it isn’t easy.” Simon said: “My start was not bad but Simoncelli was too aggressive and pushed me wide and I lost ground. I passed him and tried to catch the top group. I got on to the back of them but my engine was not fast today and I had to make up for a lack of speed with hard braking. The chassis and suspension helped me but with ten laps to go my arm started to pump up and I had to relax for a lap before I could push hard again. The back tyre was very good but the front was turning in a little. I gave it my best.” Gabor Talmacsi won the 125cc race with his title rival Hector Faubel (both Aprilia) third. Tommy Koyama (KTM) was second. The Hungarian Talmacsi now has a ten-point lead over Faubel with just one race left to run. Talmacsi took the lead on lap two and then worked his advantage into a comfortable 6.57 second lead at the flag. British rider Bradley Smith (Repsol Honda RS125R) finished ninth while Alex Masbou (FFM Racing Honda RS125R) was tenth. Smith said: “I was really fast off the start and it’s a long way to the first corner and I had already made up my mind that I would run a wide line to get into the second corner in the best place. Obviously I would lose out on the straights to the fast bikes in the group and they could pass me but the Front-end of my bike was good today and I could out-brake them into the corners We raised the centre of gravity and put in slightly stiffer springs for the race and it worked. I was in the top ten for the first time since Misano and that’s better than fighting for 15th or 16th.” Masbou said: “Everything turned out well throughout the week-end. We started off with a good basic set-up and fine-tuned the Honda’s settings session after session, right up until the race. I had a good start but got pushed around slightly in the first corner, then I stayed with the same group to close in on the faster guys little by little. My lap times were good throughout the race despite the difficulty of those long straights. I think I had a good fight and never stopped pushing and fighting with Smith.” Honda rider quotes GP Malaysia, race October 21, 2007. MotoGP. Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 2nd “We had a very good warm up this morning and I was very confident for the race. I made a stupid mistake on the warm up lap trying to adjust the valve on the water feed into my helmet, I pushed it too hard and broke it every time I braked the water came into my helmet. I was very nervous on the start line and didn’t make a good start but after a few laps I said to myself; ‘Concentrate’ I found a good rhythm but it was difficult to pass Dani (Pedrosa). I was strong in the twisty part of the track but Dani had incredible acceleration better than Ducati. I tried to pass him as quick as possible to try and pass Casey (Stoner) and I made a mistake and lost one second. But I pushed to catch him and was at one second with six laps to go. But I couldn’t do it so with two to go I concentrated on preserving my position. That got me fourth place in the championship. We had a very good package of bike and tyres today and I’m happy with this first podium at this track. When we came here I felt that this would not be a good track for us but this race proves that if you have a good bike and tyres you can go fast at every track. This is like a win for me. I’m happy and want to thank Fausto and the team for their great cooperation. The asphalt is very bumpy but it had good grip.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 3rd “I pushed very hard at the beginning because from what we’d seen in practice I was expecting the grip level from the tyres to fall away towards the end of the race. My plan was to make a gap if possible and handle the grip situation as well as I could. For the first laps I was quite consistent behind Casey but when I started to brake later with a full tank of fuel I was losing the front end, so I dropped back a little and that’s when Marco passed me. At that stage I was trying to maintain my rhythm and, as the race went on and the fuel load came down, I began to get a better feeling at the front of the machine under braking. I was really surprised about the high pace in the final part of the race because we didn’t expect to maintain these lap times based on what we’d seen in practice. So I must say thank you to Michelin because we were able to get on the podium today thanks to the consistency of the tyre performance. Now I’m looking forward to Valencia because it’s a home race and I’d like to get good result for the fans. I hope we can take another step forward and get even closer to taking the win.” Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: 6th “I’m happy with this result. Everything was working well in the warm-up and improved even further with the higher temperatures in the afternoon. I had some good battles out there as I came through the pack Once the tyres went off, I just focused on hanging on for a top result. Compared to Phillip Island, we’ve made a big step forward here and I’m now looking forward to the last race at Valencia, in Spain, in front of my fans.” Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 9th “The team did a really good job this weekend and the bike was working very well in the race. Unfortunately I didn’t get a great start and on the first lap or two I got boxed in everywhere and I always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That cost me a lot of positions but once things settled down I started moving forward and was going well. Then, passing Elias at the end of the back straight, I got in too hot and it was a silly mistake which I’m not happy about. I was in the draft and just got into the corner a little too fast. After that I got back on the track, put my head down and I’m actually proud of the way we recovered and started setting some really quick laps. First I caught Colin and lost a little time getting by him. Then I was able to catch Hopkins and Vermeulen on the last lap but we ran out of time to pass them. Still, I think I had the fastest lap of the race for a while which is encouraging considering how things were going earlier this weekend. Our speed and rhythm was way better than 9th place today and that’s encouraging, but it was rider error that cost us a better result today. We’ve got one more chance to get the job done in Valencia in two weeks.” Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: 14th “I knew this was going o be a difficult race but it was better than I expected and I did the maximum. During practice and qualifying I never found a good feeling with bike and set-up for this track but it was little better in the race and I was able to constant lap times. The best was 2’04.1 and our target was to get into high 2’03s so that was a little disappointing. Now I’m just looking ahead to the final race of the season in Valencia in Spain.” Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 16th “Today has been very difficult for the team and myself and I am very disappointed with the result as Sepang is one of my favourite tracks. This morning we improved some settings on the front of the bike and it did feel better than before. I was fighting with Carlos Checa and Nobuatsu Aoki but I couldn’t follow them so finally I just tried to keep my lap times consistent and hold position to get that last point. In the last couple of laps Anthony West passed me for the last point. During the race we once more had chattering problems from the front-end of the bike and the machine hasn’t turned as well as I would have wanted. As a result my corner speed has been slow and we’ve struggled a lot. We will all work hard to turn this into a positive result for the last race at Valencia.” Kurtis Roberts, KR212V: 20th “I ran off the track after the first six or seven laps, and when you’re already at the back then you lose that much time, then you’re about a minute behind. It kind of sucks as far as that goes. But I just tried to stay in there and get more used to the bike, changing settings, and figuring out what to do for Valencia to make it better. Maybe we can reward everyone’s work. The mechanics and crew guys have all worked really hard, so like to give them something to cheer about. I started changing the traction control settings, and I found what worked. I took it all the way off, then I could turn the bike better, and it improved the lap time. This is my first year of riding with traction control. I’ve never liked it, but you can find a way to ride round the problems and maybe get rid of it, get the set-up better and maybe go faster. The fastest lap I did all weekend was with it off.” Chuck Aksland: Team Manager – Team Roberts. “Kurtis tried different settings to help understand what the bike is doing overall. We played around with that at the beginning of the year, with Kenny Junior, and you learn something every time you switch a button and try something new. He said it did do some positive things. We’ll go to Valencia and start with similar settings, and see if it works positively there. If not, we’ll work again to try and find what suits that circuit.” 250cc: Julian Simon, Repsol Honda: 6th “My start was not so bad but Simoncelli was too aggressive and pushed me wide and I lost ground. I passed him and tried to catch the top group. I got on to the back of them but my engine was not fast today and I had to make up for lack of speed with hard braking. The cassis and suspension helped me but with ten lap to go my arm started to pump up and I had to relax for a lap before I could push hard again. The back tyre was very good but the front was turning in a little. I gave my best.” Yukio Takahashi, Kopron Scot Honda: 9th “There is not much I can say about my race. The bike was good and the tyres also. But I could not find a good rhythm I was running wide in the corners loosing time. The problem for me started on the first lap when I clashed with Alex de Angelis and I lost my concentration and a big gap developed between me and group ahead.” Andrea Dovizioso, Kopron Scot Honda: 11th “I’m really sorry because even if I knew that Lorenzo was going to win the World Championship, today I wanted the victory so I’m more disappointed for the race rather than for the title. Things happen in a race but the fact that it was today and on this circuit really hurts a lot. We have been unlucky as it happened at other times this year and we have to accept it even if it isn’t easy.” Shuhei Aoyama, Repsol Honda: 13th “The bike was better than in qualifying because we softened up the front suspension a little for the race. My start was not so bad and I passed a few riders and was following the second group. Then after ten laps I started to eel pain in my right knee and it was difficult to make the bike change direction. I just couldn’t run the pace and as I had no feeling in my foot so I had to do everything with the handle bars it was hard and my hands have many blisters on the palms. This result is so bad “ Eugene Laverty, LCR Honda: 17th “I made good start and was up to 12th on lap one but I was having problems on the brakes with full fuel tanks and ran wide. Against the factory bikes it was impossible to hold the slipstream, but I’m happy with the result, I just did not have the pace to catch Wilairot at the end.” 125cc. Bradley Smith, Repsol Honda: 9th “I was really fast off the start and it’s a long way to the first corner and I had already made up my mind that I would run a wide line to get into the second corner in the best place. Obviously I would lose out on the straights to the fast bikes in the group and they could pass me but the front end of my bike was good today and I could out-brake them into the corners We had raised the centre of gravity and put in slightly stiffer springs for the race and it worked the bike was better in the fast corners, I had some chatter but I could handle it. I was in the top ten for the first time since Misano and that’s better than fighting for 15th or 16th.” Alexis Masbou, FFM Honda: 10th “Everything turned out well throughout the week-end. We started of with a good basic set-up and fine tuned the Honda’s settings session after session, right up until the race. I had a good start and got pushed around slightly in the first corner, but stayed with the same group to close on the faster guys little by little. My lap times were good throughout the race despite the difficulty of those long straight lines. I think I had a good fight and never stopped pushing and fighting with Smith, De Rosa, Terol and Nieto. Before Valencia we will be working hard again to make the most of the season¹s last race in Spain.” Tito Rabat, Repsol Honda: 15th “My start was normal but on the second lap a rider crashed in front of me and I had to brake too hard and that made it impossible for me to catch the group I started in. Then on thefifth lap my quick shifter started to miss gears and I lost my rhythm. I pushed so hard off the corners and my rear tyre was sliding everywhere. But the biggest problem was the rider I did not ride well when I had problems.” Mike Di Meglio, Kopron Scot Honda: 14th “My start was OK but at turn 11 Bradl pushed m wide and that made it hard for me to get back to the group I had been with. I had some engine problems not pulling as well as it should it was running a little hot and was not as fast as in qualifying. My real difficulty was braking braking at the end of the straights, the front wheel was chattering. But the chassis and tyres were good and I had no slides today. It was a lot of hard work for the two points I scored.” Danny Webb, Molenaar Honda: 22nd “My start was bad and I was near the back at the first turn. I quickly made up positions but had lost the chance to get into a fast group ahead of me. Two laps from the end Muresan made a mistake and I lost time on Tamburini. At the last corner I repassed Muresan and beat him to the flag by 0.008s.” Joey Litjens, Molenaar Honda: 24th Not my weekend here in Malaysia. We ad a lot of problems all weekend and I never got to put ten laps together before the race. In the warm up the engine did not have enough power. The team worked well for the race but with losing so much time. I didn’t get the good start II needed and I took a long time get into the group Danny (Webb) was in because I could not get passed Cyril Carrillo, I just lost too much time in the battle with him.”. Cyril Carrillo, FFM Honda: 25th “A Grand Prix is extremely difficult, I’d never experienced something like that before! The pace is very fast, the race is long and on top of that it was extremely hot! Things weren’t easy but I’m satisfied because I improved my lap times by two tenths compared to practice and because I fought with other riders from the beginning to the end. My integration within the team went well, I’ve known them for a while now since I am part of the federal road racing outfit. Furthermore, they regularly welcome me within their team when I attend the Grand Prix to race in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Media Service: THE REPSOL RIDER DANI PEDROSA, THIRD IN THE MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX His teammate Nicky Hayden, ninth after going off the track when fighting for sixth position with Toni Elías Dani Pedrosa got his seventh podium finish of the season in the Malaysian GP after finishing third in what was expected to be a complicated race for him. In spite of getting the pole Pedrosa and his team have had many problems with the tyres over the whole weekend. The race strategy was to maintain a fast pace from the start so as to get away from the rest of the riders and then to stay at the front until the end of the race. At the end of the first lap Dani Pedrosa was second behind Stoner. These two had got away from the rest of the field together with De Puniet and Melandri. The Repsol Honda Team rider tried to keep up with Stoner´s pace but little by little the Australian opened up a gap of about a second, meanwhile Dani was overtaken by Melandri. Pedrosa stayed in third position for the rest of the race, with De Puniet just behind him but trying to get closer to Melandri on each lap, something that in the end he was not able to do, and he had to make do with third position. The American rider Nicky Hayden did not have an easy race today in Malaysia. He started in 6th position, but Hayden was in tenth place at the end of the first lap. After overtaking a few riders Hayden was fighting for sixth position with Toni Elías, but on lap 12 when he braked on the final curve before the home straight he was not able to take it cleanly and went off the track into the sand. He got back on the track without any problems but in the end the Repsol rider was 9th. Tomorrow Monday 22nd the two Repsol Honda Team riders will be out on this same track to do some tests and to prepare the final race of the season, the Comunidad Valenciana Grand Prix in two weeks. In 250cc, the Repsol rider Julián Simón finished in a deserving 6th position, just a little over 8 seconds behind the winner Hiroshi Aoyama, from Japan. Simón, who started on the second row with the eighth best time started in sixth place but dropped down to ninth at the end of the first lap after a having few frights. Later he grazed Simoncelli`s bike and this made him lose touch with the leading group, although bit by bit Alberto Puig`s pupil cut the gap on and caught up with De Angelis, Barberá, Hiroshi Aoyama and Kallio who were fighting for third position. Dovizioso was in the lead and trying to get away from Lorenzo who was following him closely. As the race progressed the chasing group got closer to the leaders. But De Angelis fell in front of Simón and made him lose contact with the group and so he was out of the running for the victory and podium. His teammate Shuhei Aoyama finished in 13th position to round off a depressing weekend for the Japanese Repsol Honda Team 250cc rider. In 125cc Bradley Smith and Esteve Rabat had a tough race and finished 9th and 15th respectively. At the start the British Repsol Honda Team 125 rider moved up to eighth whilst Esteve Rabat crossed the finishing line for the first time in sixteenth place. From then on the Repsol riders tried hard to improve their positions, but Smith was overtaken by all the riders in the chasing group and had to join the chasing group, riding in thirteenth position. But at the end of the race he was the leader of the second group, in 9th position. Esteve Rabat on the other hand had to make do with just a single point after moving up a couple of places towards the end of the race. Quotes MotoGP Nicky Hayden >> 9th at 22.540 secs. “The team did a really good job this weekend and the bike was working very well in the race. Unfortunately I didn’t get a great start and on the first lap or two I got boxed in everywhere and I always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That cost me a lot of positions but once things settled down I started moving forward and was going well. Then, passing Elias at the end of the back straight, I got in too hot and it was a silly mistake which I’m not happy about. I was in the draft and just got into the corner a little too fast. After that I got back on the track, put my head down and I’m actually proud of the way we recovered and started setting some really quick laps. First I caught Colin and lost a little time getting by him. Then I was able to catch Hopkins and Vermeulen on the last lap but we ran out of time to pass them. Still, I think I had the fastest lap of the race for a while which is encouraging considering how things were going earlier this weekend. Our speed and rhythm was way better than 9th place today and that’s encouraging, but it was rider error that cost us a better result today. We’ve got one more chance to get the job done in Valencia in two weeks.” Dani Pedrosa >> 3rd at 2.326 secs. “I pushed very hard at the beginning because from what we’d seen in practice I was expecting the grip level from the tyres to fall away towards the end of the race. My plan was to make a gap if possible and handle the grip situation as well as I could. For the first laps I was quite consistent behind Casey but when I started to brake later with a full tank of fuel I was losing the front end, so I dropped back a little and that’s when Marco passed me. At that stage I was trying to maintain my rhythm and, as the race went on and the fuel load came down, I began to get a better feeling at the front of the machine under braking. I was really surprised about the high pace in the final part of the race because we didn’t expect to maintain these lap times based on what we’d seen in practice. So I must say thank you to Michelin because we were able to get on the podium today thanks to the consistency of the tyre performance. Now I’m looking forward to Valencia because it’s a home race and I’d like to get good result for the fans. I hope we can take another step forward and get even closer to taking the win.” 250cc Julián Simón >> 6th at 8.747 secs. “We rode constantly in this race and were able to maintain a good pace. I gave it my best shot because on the first few laps I grazed Simoncelli`s bike and that made me lose time regarding the leading group. When I found myself at a certain distance I had two options, speed up or maintain my rhythm. I rode as fast as I could and I joined the leaders and did a few laps with them. Afterwards De Angelis fell and that stopped me from catching them again. There was another small gap then, but I could not close the gap on the leaders because my arm started to hurt again. I had some difficulties on some curves with the tyres but I did my best and I am satisfied with 6th position. On the last few laps I was hoping to catch Luthi bit by bit, and I tried, but it was not to be. But I am satisfied and looking forward to Valencia as I am dying to get a podium finish there, something that has not been possible this season.” Shuhei Aoyama >> 13th at 48.020 secs. “I started well and I was up with the leading riders, but after that I was not able to keep up with them. At the beginning I was able to maintain the pace that I had at the start of the race. But after ten laps my knee began to hurt and I was not able to maintain the same pace and times. At the end of the race my leg was hurting and it was very difficult to continue. This has been quite a bad weekend.” 125cc Bradley Smith >> 9th at 23.426 secs. “This was not really a bad end to a weekend that has not gone too well. Finishing in the top ten is a big improvement compared to the results in the last two weeks, when we have been struggling to get on the right track and for me trying to recover my confidence. Being able to fight for tenth place makes me feel pleased. The only problem I had was with the engine, as always. Especially at this circuit with its three long straights. If you did not get in the slipstream the others got away from you, by about half a second, and in the end you cannot catch them. In spite of everything I am pleased and I am dying for the final race to come around.” Esteve Rabat >> 15th at 31.011 secs. “I made a bad start and did not pass anybody. On the second curve a rider fell just in front of me. On the fifth curve another rider fell in front of me and I had to brake again. After that Pesek almost fell in front of me and I had to brake again, this meant that the leaders got well away from me. Then I was riding alone and at this circuit being alone is very difficult. But I have no excuses, the truth is that the bike did not go very fast but the biggest problem was me. At the end my performance dropped off and I made a lot of mistakes. I misjudged three curves. This is simply what happened and helps me to gain experience. I can`t wait for Cheste so I can get rid of the bad taste of this race.” More, from a press release issued by Michelin: PEDROSA TAKES A CLOSE-RUN THIRD AT SEPANG Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) played a major part in today’s thrilling Malaysian Grand Prix, running in the leading group throughout and eventually finishing third, just 2.3 seconds behind winner Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici). It was an impressive performance from the young Spaniard who spent the early stages of the race in second place. Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) also impressed today, charging through the pack to finish fifth after a slow getaway had left him tenth after the first lap. The Italian was the fastest man on track in the closing stages and ended the race just 4.7 seconds behind the winner. Both men used Michelin’s latest construction 16.5-inch rear slick in medium compound. Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) also promised much as he too moved forward, from 11th on lap one, to battle for sixth place before running off the track mid-race and then recovering to finish ninth. The American used Michelin’s new 16-inch rear tire for the second race running. “We knew this would be a tough race but it was a good race and a fast race,” said Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin’s director of motorcycle racing. “Dani knew that front-tire performance would be very important here and he told us that his front tire stayed consistent until the end. It was a shame that Valentino got such a bad start because he also rode a fantastic race, with an amazing pace at the end. Nicky also rode well, using the 16-inch rear, but sadly he ran off the track, otherwise his result would have been much better.” Pedrosa said: “I pushed very hard. I was quite confident behind Casey, then I struggled a bit while braking in a straight line, so Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda RC212V) passed me. After that I tried to keep my rhythm, then as the race went on I got a better feeling from the front and I was really surprised by the pace, it was very fast, so I must say thank you to Michelin.”