MotoGP: Stoner and Ducati wake up at Aragon

A new track on the MotoGP tour produced an unfamiliar outcome. Casey Stoner  (Ducati Team) won the World Championship in 2007 and as such he is an accomplished MotoGP rider. But for myriad reasons, he has not been able to reproduce that championship winning form.

On Sunday, the Casey Stoner of yesteryear resurfaced. Starting from pole, Stoner got the launch required, took the preferred line into turn 1, exited in the lead and it basically remained that way.

As the race unfolded, Stoner solidified his grip on the lead but, in hot pursuit were Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha), Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) and rookie Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3).

Stoner

It was evident that Stoner was flying, but we were always expecting Pedrosa to spring a surprise. Pedrosa came very close to Stoner’s rear wheel but it was Stoner’s moment and a gap which was at a low of less than a second, exploded to 3 seconds, with a handful of laps remaining. Pedrosa was broken and a Stoner victory became inevitable.

When a gap becomes a chasm, the cameras tend to migrate. Two hot battles remained -3rd and 5th. Lorenzo was in third, but he was being close marked by Hayden who was desperate to put his Ducati on the podium. The statistics favored Lorenzo, but Hayden was not perturbed. Hayden flung his Ducati after Lorenzo’s Yamaha, passed Lorenzo on the last lap and gained his first podium of 2010.

Spies is hands down the revelation of the 2010 season and Dovizioso learnt why. Dovizioso was outclassed by Spies. He mounted a challenge but Spies was as resilient as a maroon. Unfortunately, the roof caved in for Dovizioso who left the track on his leathers on the last lap.

Stoner celebrated his win with a standing wheelie ahead of Pedrosa, Hayden, Lorenzo and Spies. Why wasn’t he riding like this all season?

Cecil Munroe Gleaner On-Line Writer