Print

Mail

wiki links

Stoner chalks up another win at Malaysian MotoGP

Australia's Casey Stoner notched his 10th win of the season yesterday in a start-to-finish victory at the Malaysian MotoGP.

Starting from second on the grid, the recently crowned MotoGP world champion captured the lead in the first lap and kept his composure to complete the 21-lap race with a time of 43 minutes, 4.405 seconds -- nearly two seconds ahead of Marco Melandri of Italy and Dani Pedrosa of Spain.

"It was hard being in front the whole day long but I kept a similar pace to avoid making mistakes and getting into trouble," Stoner said.

"I enjoyed the race a lot today where at the end, I backed off a little to make sure of the win," he said.

Pole sitter Pedrosa lost second spot to Melandri on lap 10.

Former champion Valentino Rossi finished fifth at Sepang ahead of the final race of the season in Valencia, Spain, next month.

"We have been struggling with the tires all weekend," Pedrosa said. "I pushed hard at the start so that when the tires drop down afterwards, I would have more grip which I did. But then I had some problem with the braking."

Meanwhile, Spain's Jorge Lorenzo captured the 250cc world title yesterday.

Hiroshi Aoyama of Japan, who started on pole, won the 250cc race in a time of 43:09.316, 2.2 seconds ahead of second place Hector Barbera of Spain, with Lorenzo a further seven tenths of a second away in third.

Lorenzo celebrated the result by wearing a boxer's robe and gloves with a world championship belt.

"The win of the world crown is a combination of hard work, where three years ago, my family and I and the team started on this project," said Lorenzo, who clinched his triumph with 303 points.
This story has been viewed 1395 times.