Rossi Claims 7th MotoGP Crown
Stoner Wins Battle Whilst Rossi Wins War
Valentino Rossi made yet another case for the claim that he is the Greatest Roadracer of all time (GOAT) by taking his 9th World Champion title and 7th Premier class crown today after finishing 3rd at the penultimate round of the 2009 MotoGP Championship in Sepang, Malaysia. Marlboro Ducati’s Casey Stoner dominated the wet race from start to finish winning by almost 15 seconds ahead of Dani Pedrosa.
Rossi blasted off from pole but ran wide in the first turn dropping back to an uncharacteristic 10th in the the rain delayed race. However teammate, Jorge Lorenzo, did little better and the pair gradually climbed up the order until Rossi made a pass and chased down the leaders.
Stoner streaked off into the distance putting on a masterful display in the wet conditions. Pedrosa put in a valiant effort in 2nd and looked in danger of being passed by his teammate Andrea Dovizioso before he crashed out at 2/3rds distance.
Nicky Hayden raced well to 5th and Mika Kallio took 10th just ahead of another impressive display from Aleix Espargaro who will be a fulltime teammate at Pramac Ducati next year replacing Nicolo Canepa who was still injured following his practice crash last week at Phillip Island.
Valentino Rossi 2009 MotoGP Champion:- “It’s a great achievement, and for me it’s the ninth championship, the seventh in MotoGP. I have to thank all the guys from Yamaha, who are great, and all the Fiat Yamaha team, from Jeremy (Burgess, chief mechanic) and all the mechanics to all the guys that work for me, and all my friends. All the people that helped me with this great achievement.”
link: MotoGP.com
Casey Stoner 1st:- “I slotted into fourth place coming out of turn two though and then when I got into the lead I thought I’ll just test the track condition for a few laps and I never expected to pull out the gap that I did. After that I just decided to keep going hard for at least half race distance and once I got a gap I was happy with I started to back off the pace.”
link: MotoGP.com
Malaysian MotoGP Results
1. Casey Stoner (Ducati), 21 laps, 47:24.834
2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda), -14.666 seconds
3. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), -19.385
4. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), -25.850
5. Nicky Hayden (Ducati), -38.705
6. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), -41.061
7. Toni Elias (Honda), -48.555
8. Marco Melandri (Kawasaki), -55.557
9. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki), -60.303
10. Mika Kallio (Ducati), -60.440
11. Aleix Espargago (Ducati), -61.655
12. Alex de Angelis (Honda), -61.847
13. Colin Edwards (Yamaha), -70.778
14. Gabor Talmacsi (Honda), -75.851
15. James Toseland (Yamaha), -110.672
16. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda), -7 laps, DNF, crash
17. Randy de Puniet (Honda), -20 laps, DNF, crash
The final round will be held at Valencia, Spain on November 8th.
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