Repsol Honda riders Casey Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso conquer podium at Brno event – MotoGP news
Repsol Honda riders Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso scored first and second places respectively on the podium at the Cardion AB Grand Prix held at Brno.
Their third teammate Dani Pedrosa crashed in the second lap of the race.
Stoner said, “We knew we could make a strong podium challenge today, but we didn't really expect the race win. As soon as the race got underway I was having a good battle with Andrea, but this cost me a little time and I was afraid that Jorge and Dani would stretch away from me.”
After he made his move over Dovizioso, the Aussie had enough potential to challenge Lorenzo and Pedrosa. In the pursuit, Stoner hunted Lorenzo and chased his teammate to take the lead. Unfortunately, Pedrosa crashed out of lead and retired from the race.
After being in lead, Stoner only had the pressure of staying far ahead of Lorenzo. He tried to push hard and open the time gap from his Spaniard competitor. Stoner also claimed that if Dani had not crashed he would have been hard to beat at Brno.
Dovizioso said, “I’m really happy to be back on the podium, it’s a good result after a difficult weekend and second position is so important for the Championship. I made a very good start from seventh position and in the first laps I was riding cautiously to save the tyres.”
The Italian Repsol rider also added that after Dani’s crash, he tried to hang on Stoner’s tail. However, he made a mistake at turn 13 and lost his position while running wide.
After a marvellous fight with Jorge Lorenzo and Marco Simoncelli, Dovizioso was able to keep up with his teammate in the lead across the finish line.
As the race came close to end, Dovizioso pushed even harder to open the gap from Marco Simoncelli who was riding at third place in the race. He was cautious about tangling up with Simoncelli in the final corners.
On the other side, Dani Pedrosa was extremely annoyed from the crash. He had been strong throughout the whole weekend. His hard work earned him the pole seat for the Czech GP. Unfortunately, the Spanish rider crashed out of the lead when he lost his front end, ending up in gravel.
Tags: