Andrea Dovizioso was the surprise winner at a soaking wet Donington in the British Moto GP on the weekend, leading home an equalling surprising Colin Edwards and Randy de Puniet. Championship leader Valentino Rossi crashed out while leading as did his team-mate and series second Jorge Lorenzo, but Rossi was able to restart and finished sixth, further extending his series lead.
Dovizioso was as delighted as you’d expect from his first Moto GP win. "Once I was following Valentino it was quite easy because it’s not so difficult to follow someone in these conditions since the leader has to judge where it’s wet and where it’s dry," explained the Repsol Honda rider. "But when he fell it was clear from his crash that the tires were very cold and this was scary because now I had to set the pace."
While it didn’t actually rain during the race, the track was wet the whole time, in large part leading up to the strange finishing order. Both factory Ducatis started on wets while everyone else went to intermediates or slicks and were nowhere as a result.
Conditions were ugly enough to get this quote from Colin Edwards: "[it was] 48 minutes of complete bullshit, I wouldn’t wish that race on my worst enemy. It was mentally draining." He added that he held off de Puniet for second because "I was faster or dumber at the end."
The top 10 was filled out by Alex de Angelis, Rossi, James Toseland, Marco Melandri, Niccolo Canepa, Dani Pedrosa, and Mike Kallio.
After 10 of 17 rounds the series looks like this:
1. Valentino Rossi, Italy, Fiat Yamaha, 187 points; 2. Jorge Lorenzo, Spain, Fiat Yamaha, 162; 3. Casey Stoner, Australia, Marlboro Ducati, 150; 4. Dani Pedrosa, Spain, Repsol Honda, 115; 5. Colin Edwards, USA, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha, 103; 6. Andrea Dovizioso, Italy, Repsol Honda, 94; 7. Marco Melandri, Italy, Hayate Kawasaki, 79; 8. Randy de Puniet, France, LCR Honda, 74; 9. Chris Vermeulen, Australia, Rizla Suzuki, 67; 10. Loris Capirossi, Italy, Rizla Suzuki, 66.
The series is taking its summer break and will resume August 16 in the Czech Republic at Brno.
