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Saturday, 25 June 2011 06:12 |
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Page 1 of 12   MotoGP quotes from the riders and team members following the race of the championship round in Holland at the Assen circuit.
Triple AMA Champion and World Superbike Champion Ben Spies has added a victory in the premier class of motorcycle road racing to his impressive curriculum vitae after dominating the Dutch TT and taking the chequered flag, on the 50th anniversary of Grand Prix racing for Yamaha, ahead of the two Repsol Hondas of Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso.
Spies was edged out of pole position by San Carlo Honda Gresini Team rider Marco Simoncelli on Friday, rode a perfect race to take the chequered flag by 7.697 seconds ahead of Stoner in second place.
A good start off the line kept the Texan out of the drama that developed on the first lap in the first left hander when pole starter Italian Simoncelli took out Spies’ team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in the third corner.
In his haste to pass the reigning world champion, the long haired Italian fell victim to a cold rear tyre, was low-sided off the bike taking the Majorcan racer off with him, ending another opportunity of reaching the podium.
Stoner, now 28 points ahead of Lorenzo in the Championship, led his Repsol team-mate Andrea Dovizioso to the finish, where the Italian claimed his third top three finish of the 2011 season and is now only nine points behind the Spaniard in the title chase.
The Ducati Team duo was lead across the finish line by Valentino Rossi in fourth and Nicky Hayden in fifth and while Lorenzo was able to rejoin the race, he remounted his red and white M1 and stormed through the field to sixth place.
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team rider Colin Edwards was seventh, in front of Dani Pedrosa’s substitute Hiroshi Aoyama, who sat in the garage after the race displaying a small banner to the injured Spaniard to return soon.
After push starting his own tattered looking RC212V, with damage to the tail section, Simoncelli too passed the slower back markers to end his race in ninth, with local rider Toni Elias of the LCR Honda completed the top ten finishers.
A front end problem saw Cal Crutchlow return to the pits, then re-entered the race to finish 14th and score some points.
Czech racer Karel Abraham ended his weekend by falling off the Cardion AB Motoracing Ducati early in the race, followed a short time later by Randy de Puniet who was again unable to complete a full race distance on the Pramac Racing Desmosedici, the fourth premature exit of the season for the Frenchman.
Pramac Racing's veteran Loris Capirossi did not take to the grid due to injuries sustained in a fall in Friday's qualifying.
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