Donington Park MotoGP: Casey Stoner wins; James Toseland crashes

Casey Stoner cruised to his third race win of the season at Donington Park this afternoon.

It was the second win on the bounce for the reigning MotoGP Champion, and was the icing on the cake for a weekend well done.

Stoner dominated with the fastest times in all but on of the MotoGP sessions all weekend, and failed to disappoint in the race with a runaway win.
James Toseland wasn’t quite so lucky however.

The Brit already had an uphill struggle starting from 16th on the grid, but a high-side at the first corner put him totally out of contention.

The plucky reigning World Superbike Champion did finish the race riding without a right footpeg or rear brake, but circulated in last position and was lapped by many of the front-runners by the end of the race.

The only other non-fisher of the day was John Hopkins who retired for the third weekend out of four with a mechanical failure.

And despite crashing on lap two at Melbourne Loop Alex De Angelis managed to pick himself up and finish ahead of the ever-struggling Marco Melandri.

At the front, Stoner had the perfect start that gave him a two bike-length lead over Valentino Rossi into Redgate.

It didn’t take long for the Australian to check out, leaving a battle for second between Rossi and Dani Pedrosa.

On lap 15 Pedrosa made a move up the inside of Rossi at Redgate, but the seven-time world champion re-took the second spot at the Old Hairpin on the same lap.

Next time around Pedrosa made a carbon-copy manoeuvre on Rossi at Redgate, but ran wide at Foggy Esses allowing the Italian back through.

Pedrosa could do nothing about Rossi from there on.

Edwards came through to finish as the second Yamaha ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, who had put in a good showing up front in the opening stages of the 30-lap race.

A battle behind Dovizioso presumed in the closing stages with Nicky Hayden and Chris Vermeulen battling for the final top six spot.

But a late surging Jorge Lorenzo barged through from 17th on the grid and breezed passed the battling Repsol Honda and Rizla Suzuki.

Donington Park MotoGP race result

1. C. STONER Ducati Marlboro Team 44’44.982
2. V. ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team + 5.789
3. D. PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team + 8.347
4. C. EDWARDS Tech 3 Yamaha + 12.678
5. A. DOVIZIOSO JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 14.801
6. J. LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team + 15.690
7. N. HAYDEN Repsol Honda Team + 18.196
8. C. VERMEULEN Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 21.666
9. S. NAKANO San Carlo Honda Gresini + 29.354
10. A. WEST Kawasaki Racing Team + 41.030
11. T. ELIAS Alice Team + 44.426
12. R. DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP + 46.199
13. S. GUINTOLI Alice Team + 48.731
14. B. SPIES Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 49.591
15. A. DE ANGELIS San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1’22.186
16. M. MELANDRI Ducati Marlboro Team + 1’30.021
17. J. TOSELAND Tech 3 Yamaha 1 Lap

DNF
J. HOPKINS Kawasaki Racing Team 14 Lap