What happened in this race man? Nothing that was expected!
Toni Elias took victory 0.002 secs ahead of Valentino Rossi . Dani 'Wonderboy" Pedrossa took out Nicky Hayden with him, rather than supporting him for the championship. That was what primarily worked in Rossi's favour giving him an 8 point lead in the championship.
Rossi was visibly dejected after the race (understandably). He stated he was not happy losing by 2-thousandths of a second. Rossi stated his rhythm was not really impressive and that could be seen by the fact that he could not break away from the pack though Edwards tried to slow the rest of them down.
Edwards had made really bold moves on both Pedrossa and Hayden initiallyafter they overtook him. Pedrossa then tried to go round the inside of Hayden but lost the front end and took out Hayden just the way Stoner took out Gibernau. In the last few laps Elias and KRJR both took turns at their chances at Rossi, but the world champion was always in front.
Felt really bad for Hayden though...he was almost in tears and there was no-one in the Repsol Honda paddock...This is definitely not a way to lose the championship.
Last lap, and Rossi was 3rd. However, in a do-or-die kind of battle, he took both Hondas 1-by-1 but Elias got the better of him thanks to the slipsream and the better horsepower of the Hondas...and that was that.
Bridgestones seemed to have not such a good weekend and even Carlos Checa on Dunlops ended up in front of Capirex in the end.
This race has done Elias and Edwards a lot of good. Elias now might retain his ride in Fortuna Honda next year rather than been thrown back to the 250s. Rossi, however, states that Yamaha need to focus and anyway, 8 points is not that big a lead.
MOTOGP results are going F1's way. Waiting for the last race at Valencia where Hayden just loves the left-hand turns.
Last edited by turbo_v12 : 15th October 2006 at 21:20.
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