2008 MotoGP Championship - Catalunya, Italy

Text and Photos Courtesy MotoGP, Ducati Corse, Kawasaki, Suzuki Racing, Yamaha Racing and World Superbike.  Edited by webBikeWorld.com staff.

More:  Qualifying (Below)  |  Race Preview (Below)

Race Results
Dani Pedrosa took off on his Honda and sailed to first place in Round 7 of the 2008 MotoGP Championship at the famed Circuit de Catalunya race course.

The excitement came watching Valentino Rossi put yesterday's poor qualifying behind him with a characteristic charge through the field from ninth on the grid to take second in the race.

Andrea Dovizioso also finished with an excellent fourth place, proving that he is one to watch during the rest of the season.

By the time Rossi made it through the pack, the race-winner Dani Pedrosa was already 6 seconds in front, but Rossi had a lively battle with Casey Stoner over the last few laps, a replay of last year's race but with the Italian prevailing this time to take second place on the podium.

Yamaha Team Report
After some hard work by his team and engineers overnight, it was clear from this morning's warm-up that Rossi was in better shape and the Italian began his race with the podium as his target. 

Starting from ninth, he gained one place on the first lap when he passed James Toseland and then made his way steadily through the field, out-braking several riders into turn one on consecutive laps and eventually passing first Andrea Dovizioso and then Stoner to take second on lap nine.

Rossi tried to leave Stoner behind but the Australian remained in touch and passed him back on lap 17, sparking an entertaining battle for second spot over the closing stages of the race.  Rossi eventually made the decisive move at the start of the penultimate lap and held on to cross the line just over half a second ahead of his rival, with Pedrosa 2.806 seconds in front.

An important 20-point haul sees Rossi hang on to his championship lead, seven points ahead of Pedrosa, whilst Lorenzo is still just ahead of Stoner in third despite having to miss today's race while he recovers from Friday's crash.  It was another double top-six finish for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team meanwhile, with Colin Edwards and James Toseland finishing in their grid spots of fifth and sixth.

Valentino Rossi 2nd +2.806:  "I think that this was quite a good race!  It's a long time since we've had a good fight for the top positions like that and today it was like last year with Stoner, but for second instead of first place!  I was able to come out on top this year and I am honestly very happy with today's result.

After three almost perfect races, yesterday was a very hard day for us but last night we had a very good meeting and today we were able to be much more competitive.  My target was the podium so to come second is excellent.  I want to watch the race on TV now because I had a lot of fun today and made some good overtakes, with my M1 and my Bridgestone tires working very well to the end. 

Once I passed Stoner I tried to go away from him but it wasn't possible, so then I knew it would be a great battle to the end.  Pedrosa was incredibly strong today and I think it's impossible to say whether or not I could have gone with him even if I had started from the front.

As it was we were penalized by our grid position and, with Pedrosa as fast as this, from the third row it was impossible.  In these circumstances I am very happy that we only lost five points to him, we're still leading the championship and I had a great race, so I am content! 

Tomorrow we will have a test and I think it will be quite interesting to see what we can find out about what happened this weekend and how we can improve for Donington.  Thanks to all my team and congratulations to Dani."

Jorge Lorenzo on the Mend
Two days after the accident that forced him to miss today's Catalan Grand Prix at Montmelo, Jorge Lorenzo's recovery is progressing well at the Institut Dexues in Barcelona.  The 21-year-old sustained head trauma and damage to his right hand in Friday's crash but is improving, although Dr. Xavier Mir confirmed tonight that he will need a small skin graft to replace the skin he has lost on his hand.

"After further observation we are pleased to say that the cranial trauma that Jorge suffered on Friday has improved without any further complications," commented the Doctor.  "This still needs to be verified with another CAT scan, however, and for this reason we have moved Jorge to another part of the hospital this afternoon.  Regarding other injuries, we have evaluated the abrasion on his right hand and we can confirm that he has more than two centimeters of skin missing from his fourth finger.  For this reason we have decided that it will be necessary to make a skin graft, which will probably take place tomorrow morning."

Colin Edwards and James Toseland
Colin Edwards and James Toseland handed the Tech 3 Yamaha squad a well deserved second successive double top six finish in the Catalunya MotoGP race.

A fantastic start thrust Edwards right into the heat of the battle for second in the early laps as he pursued reigning world champion Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso.  He managed to hold off Valentino Rossi until lap eight, and proving he is one of the most consistent performers in 2008, he comfortably scored a third successive top five finish. Fifth place equaled his previous best result at the Montmeló circuit as the Texan maintained his best start to a season in his MotoGP career.

James Toseland treated a record crowd of 113,150 to another stunning exhibition of overtaking after he dropped to 11th on lap eight.  Once he'd got comfortable with a revised front-end setting, Toseland passed Chris Vermeulen, Nicky Hayden, Alex de Angelis and Loris Capirossi.  Only Valentino Rossi made more passes in the 25-lap encounter, and Toseland's fourth top six finish in just seven races drew special praise from the seven-times world champion, who has been impressed with the British rider's rapid progress in his rookie campaign.

Colin Edwards 5th +16.426:  "I got a fantastic start and thought 'brilliant - here we go.'  But from the second corner I had a problem and to be honest we are scratching our heads a little bit.  I struggled because early on I was doing low 43s but then I just couldn't maintain that pace.  I'd throw the bike in on the brakes but it would be sideways and I found myself having to change my style like I did in Mugello to help.  I'd stop it hard on the brakes, turn it into the corner and then pick it up to accelerate, but in some places where I would normally use second gear I was using third to baby it out of the corners.

I did everything I could possibly do too hang in with the group but Andrea just seemed to have a bit more grip than me on the rear.  He was able to pull away a little bit on every lap.  I could catch him on the brakes but then I'd lose that crucial bit of time on the exit.  What we ran in the warm-up was going to be too soft for the race with the temperature but I'm still happy with fifth.

It's one of the best results I've had here and now we go to Donington and Assen.  They are two tracks I love and I'm sure I'm going to be fighting for the podium again.  We kept third in the team championship, which is great for the Tech 3 team, Yamaha and Michelin.

James Toseland 6th +21.482:  "I'm a little bit mad with myself because like in Mugello, I believe there was a fourth here.  I got an okay start and was about seventh but Valentino came by in the first corner.  It was a clean move but he left it late, so we were side-by-side going in and there was no way I could turn in because he was there.  There was nothing wrong with the pass but I had to go straight on and that lost me the gap.

Whether you are doing the same times as the rest of them or not, you can only pull back small amounts of time.  We changed the bike this morning and it took a couple of laps to get used to the feel of it.  I'd been running soft tires most of the weekend doing good lap times but going a bit harder for the race, I just didn't have as much grip at the start and it took me a couple of laps to get used to it and I didn't push it hard enough.

At this point I'm content with where I am but I'm getting impatient because I feel I can do better, so that's why I'm a bit disappointed with sixth.

If I finish sixth and know I couldn't do anymore I'm happy, but now I feel there is more in the bag.  But we have really got this new setting working well and it will be a really good package at Donington where I can't wait to go.  It's my first home Grand Prix and it feels a long time since I've been to a track I know.  I'm getting regular top six finishes but the target at Donington will be to finish much higher and I'm confident with Tech 3, Yamaha and Michelin I can do it."

QUALIFYING
Ducati Team Report
Casey Stoner picked up his first pole position of the season at Barcelona with a perfect lap on his third and final qualifying tire.

The Australian had shown good form on his first two Bridgestone qualifiers before an outstanding demonstration of skill and determination saw him smash the previous pole record by over six tenths of a second.

Stoner is expecting a close and combative race tomorrow, which could be affected by the weather.  After a mixed bag so far this weekend uncertain forecasts make for an unpredictable race day, but the current World Champion is confident of his chances after finding a different set-up on each of his Desmosedici GP8 machines, both of which proved competitive today.

It was a much more difficult day for Marco Melandri, who crashed at the end of the afternoon qualifying practice when pushing to improve his grid position.  Thankfully the Italian escaped any major injury.

Casey Stoner, Pole Position: 1'41.186:  "If I'm honest I really didn't expect to be on pole today, it's a big surprise!  Practice has been going well and we've been getting gradually better on race tires.  The guys have worked really hard and come up with two different set-ups that I'm happy with on two different machines.

At the moment we're torn between which one we're going to use in the race but that's a nice problem to have!  When we put the final qualifying tire in I thought we were going to be lucky to be on the front row but I was able to keep it smooth - the lap itself didn't actually feel all that fast but the time was great and in general we couldn't have asked for more from the session.

Over the past four races we've been able to iron some things out, work out why we weren't as fast as we perhaps could have been at the start of the season and things are getting continually better.  This pole position shows that we're going in the right direction so hopefully that trend can continue through to the race tomorrow."

Yamaha Team Report
Valentino Rossi is faced with an uphill task in tomorrow's Catalan Grand Prix, after struggling with set-up issues throughout today's practices and qualifying in ninth position.  Today's session was in stark contrast to this time last year, when the Fiat Yamaha Team rider put his M1 on pole position for this same race.

The Italian and his crew have been working at the maximum throughout all four sessions so far in order to find the right set-up for their Bridgestone-Yamaha package, but Rossi is still lacking speed on the entrance to the corners.

He was unable to improve much this afternoon even when using a qualifying tire and will have to launch his attack tomorrow from the outside of the third row, whilst his championship rivals Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa fill the front two spots.  The team will now look to make further changes overnight and then use tomorrow's warm-up session to maximum effect in order to try to find a setting which can enable Rossi to fight his way through the pack and play a part in tomorrow's 25-lap race.

In contrast to the busy scenes on the number 46 side of the garage, the opposite side of the box was completely quiet today following Jorge Lorenzo's accident yesterday, which has forced the 21-year-old to spend the remainder of his home Grand Prix weekend resting in hospital.  It was a more positive day in the Tech 3 Yamaha box however, as Colin Edwards and James Toseland qualified fifth and sixth respectively.

Valentino Rossi 9th 1'42.420:  "This was quite a bad qualifying session for us!  We had a lot of problems and now, unfortunately, we will have to start from the third row, our worst qualifying result so far this season.  Tomorrow for sure will be a very hard race for us.  We've tried to improve the setting but we haven't been able to fix our problems, the main one of which is that we are not fast enough on the entry to the corners.  Now we need to work all afternoon to try to find a solution and then see what we can do tomorrow.

25 laps is going to be quite difficult but we will try to come up with a plan and then I will try to recover as many positions as possible at the start and through the first few corners.  If we can make a few small improvements and improve the feeling then we can try to do something tomorrow, we'll just have to wait and see."

Race Preview
Valentino Rossi chases his fourth consecutive victory this weekend as the MotoGP World Championship sets sail across the Mediterranean to Barcelona, following the Italian's epic seventh Mugello win on Sunday.

The Circuit de Catalunya is another happy hunting ground for Rossi, who has graced the top step of the podium there on no fewer than eight occasions in all classes, whilst fellow Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo will hope for plenty of local backing as he targets a return to podium form in the seventh round of the season.

Rossi's magical home victory has extended his series lead to 12 points over Spain's Dani Pedrosa and, as the Bridgestone rider senses a serious opportunity to recover his crown, the five-time former MotoGP World Champion will look to consolidate that cushion at a circuit where he remains the only rider to have taken victory in all three Grand Prix classes.

Rossi went from a record-setting pole position to second place at Catalunya last year but is determined to return to the form he showed there when dominating for the previous three seasons.

Michelin-shod Jorge Lorenzo, who lived in Barcelona for much of his early career and hails from Mallorca - just a short ferry ride from the city - also started from pole there last year with a new lap record in the 250cc class, when he qualified over a second clear of his nearest rival.

The 21-year-old took the fifth victory of his second title-winning season in that race and after escaping further injury when he crashed out at Mugello on Sunday he would like nothing more than to consolidate his MotoGP progress with a podium revisit.

Like Mugello, the Circuit de Catalunya features a main straight that is amongst the longest in the world. The rest of the track is characterized by long radius, medium and high-speed sweepers, with two tight left-hand hairpins thrown into the mix. This variation combined with regular changes in camber makes the circuit particularly demanding on chassis balance and means that front-end feel is a key concern for every rider.

Valentino Rossi:  "Like I said on Sunday, I really needed to go to sleep for some days after my win in Mugello, but instead we have to keep going to Barcelona!  Honestly I would prefer that these two races weren't back to back because they are two of my favorite tracks and I would prefer to be able to focus on them both separately, but anyway our motivation is high and I am sure we will have all recovered by Friday morning.

Mugello was a fantastic victory and it's a great feeling to have won three races in a row this season, only one less than we won in the whole of last season!  Last year I had a great fight with Stoner at Catalunya but I couldn't quite beat him, however this year our bike and tires are working brilliantly and so I am confident that we will be able to fight be very motivated and hard to beat.  Anyway I love racing in Spain and I always have a lot of fans there so I am looking forward to another good weekend."

Jorge Lorenzo:  "I'm quite lucky because after the crash at Mugello there's no time to dwell on it.  We're straight back to business this week and on Friday I'll be back on the bike.  I'm also going there in good spirits because it's my home Grand Prix and I'm looking forward to making my MotoGP debut there.  Finally yesterday we found what the problem had been over the past two races and now it's just a case of working to solve it.  Montmeló is a circuit I like, for its corners and its long straight, as well as for all the fans who fill the grandstands year after year."

Record Lap Montmeló:  N. Hayden (Honda) 2006, 1'43.048
Best Lap Montmeló:  V. Rossi (Yamaha) 2007, 1'41.840

Grand Prix Results: Montmeló 2007
1. C.Stoner (Ducati) 43'16.907
2. V.Rossi (Yamaha) +00.069
3. D.Pedrosa (Honda) +00.390

Jorge Lorenzo Result: Montmeló 2007
1. J. Lorenzo (SPA) Aprilia 40'51.620 (250cc)