Valentino Rossi Rides Again

Valentino Rossi got his season back on track Sunday in front of a crowd of 120,000 screaming motorcycle race fans at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, by earning his first victory of the MotoGP Championship season at the first race on European soil for the 2009 season.

Casey Stoner found himself 10 seconds behind Valentino Rossi at the finish

Valentino achieved his first victory of the year at the Gran Premio bwin.com de Espana by reaching the line 2.7 seconds ahead of Dani Pedros in front of a crowd of appreciative Spanish fans in Andalusia, despite the failure of their Spanish riders to win.

Pedrosa was in the lead during the first half of the competition having started with his normal strong start from second on the grid, but he wasn’t able to keep the hard charging Italian from over taking him as Rossi passed him with ten laps to go and then never looked back. This victory puts Valentino Rossi in the lead in the championship points standings by 11 points, not much of a lead, but then something tells me Rossi is just starting to warm up his bike and ability.

Casey Stoner never did challenge during the race, trailing Rossi by 10 seconds at the end, the Ducati Marlboro rider moves into seconds place in the drivers standings with his first podium finish at this Southern Spanish track.

The Spanish rider crashed when Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, failed to control his bike with three laps to go, which means he loses ground to the other racers in the championship race.

The French had something to cheer about as French racer, Randy de Puniet, finished the race in fourth position and qualified in fifth, which should give him and his fans some confidence heading to his home Grand Prix in Le Mans in two weeks time.

The Italians really had a good day as Marco Melandri managed to take home points by finishing in fifth in a tough field and on a difficult track. Marco has been a rider for both Honda and Ducati and this excellent result adds to his improving results in the world championship circuit. This weekend should give him plenty of confidence that he can run with the big boys and his Hayate Racing teammates, the confidence that they are on the right track.

Sixth place was taken by Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi, seventh by Monster Tech Yamaha’s Colin Edwards, while eighth was taken by Andrea Dovizioso in only his third ride for the factory Repsol Honda team. Tony Elias was the second Spaniard in the top ten by finishing ninth, while Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen rounded the top ten off.

“Images: Newscom”