We all expected that Casey Stoner would win the season opener in Qatar and that’s exactly what he did, but what was highly unusual is that he fooled around with his team mate Dani Pedrosa for half the race, and then with 11 laps to go, decided that it was time to really open the throttle and take off.
He immediately put in a 1’55″660 and in the following lap a 1’55″366, already leaving Pedrosa behind by 1.
307s and easily cruised to his first victory of 2011 and leaving the field to fight over the last pickings.
If we were betting on Stoner, we didn’t count on Jorge Lorenzo taking second and beating Dani Pedrosa.
The Yamaha rider came on strong in the second half of the race, duelling with the Repsol Honda rider for several laps until Pedrosa began to fade, which we later learn was due to a paralyzing and an unexpected loss of strength in his arm, a bad leftover from last year’s Motegi crash.
Fourth went to Andrea Dovizioso who battled it out for most of the race with a very aggressive Marco Simoncelli, but managed to shake him off in the last laps.
Sixth went to Ben Spies who had the race pace to stay with the front runners, but found himself trapped in eighth after a bad start, and then having to waste time picking off first Hector Barbera and then battling with Valentino Rossi and by that time it was just to late to play catch-up.
Seventh went to Valentino Rossi who despite the big gap across the finish line (16.
4s) and lingering shoulder problems was much faster than anyone expected and even saved his Ducati when he lost the front end.
Colin Edwards was eighth followed by Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama who closed out the top ten.
Only 13 riders completed the race.
Randy de Puniet had a horrific looking highside at turn 6 on the first lap trying to overtake his team mate Loris Capirossi, but managed to limp away.
Capirossi retired after 3 laps nursing his left hand that was clipped during de Puniet’s passing maneouver and Toni Elias who was running dead last also crashed, but on lap 19.
MotoGP Qatar Race Results:01- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – 22 giri in 42’38.
56902- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 3.
44003- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 5.
05104- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 5.
94205- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 7.
35806- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 10.
46807- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 16.
43108- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 26.
29309- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 16.
43110- Hiroshi Aoyama – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 28.
92011- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 34.
53912- Hector Barbera – Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 34.
82913- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 37.
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