MotoGP news

Pedrosa eases to first win of 2007

Dani Pedrosa claimed his first victory of the season on the Sachsenring at this afternoon's MotoGP German Grand Prix. Loris Capirossi finished second for Ducati with a surprise Nicky Hayden, who started from 14th, completing the podium on the second Repsol Honda.

Stoner struggled for pace in the second half of the race and ended up fifth but his championship lead only strengthened after Valentino Rossi retired early on.  Colin Edwards was fourth ahead of Stoner and Gresini's Marco Melandri. John Hopkins, Anthony West, home-boy Alex Hofmann and Michel Fabrizio made up the top ten.

Pedrosa jumped past Stoner at the start as Rossi got swallowed up in the first corner, dropping down to eighth, falling behind most notably Stoner's team-mate Capirossi. The Italian climbed up to fourth but struggled to catch the leading pack, which Melandri was pushing hard in third. Hayden had also got off to a good start from his poor grid slot - 14th - to climb to ninth.

Then on lap 5 disaster struck for Rossi as he fell - trying to get past Randy de Puniet's Kawasaki for sixth, the five-time world champion tried to cut a line that was just too tight. His bike folded underneath him and failed to get going again. His team-mate Colin Edwards took over in seventh and was closely pursued by Hayden and Anthony West.

Back at the front, Pedrosa had carved out a lead of around three seconds by the halfway mark as his race pace started to really shine. Stoner seemed happy to settle for second after seeing the news on his pit-board that his championship rival Rossi had 'KO'd'. Hayden had finally found a way past Edwards on lap 14 and slipped up to seventh before making easy work of de Puniet a couple of laps later.

By lap 20, Stoner was struggling and had fallen almost ten seconds behind the leader with Melandri close on his tail. The Gresini rider tried a move on the main straight but outbroke himself, going wide and allowing Capirossi to slide past on the inside. Capirossi then muscled past his Aussie team-mate in the same move to take second. Melandri soon collected himself to get past Stoner, who then fell victim to the charging Hayden.

It didn't stop there for the American as he then put himself in serious contention by getting past Melandri for third. It seemed that it was the Bridgestone tyres that were causing Stoner's troubles as Melandri also fell victim to Michelin-shod Edwards. Melandri fell back behind Stoner again as the Aussie extends his lead over Rossi in the championship to 32 points.

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