Written by:
SPEED Staff
SPEEDtv.com
06/14/2009
Barcelona (ESP)
Fiat Yamaha Team's Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi (Photo: Yamaha Racing)
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An amazing head-to-head battle between Yamaha teammates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo saw the Italian take his 99th Grand Prix victory by a 0.095s margin at Barcelona.
In front of nearly 90,000 fans the reigning World Champion battled with the young pretender to his crown throughout the 25-lap MotoGP race, securing the win on the last corner.
Despite some slight cloud cover close to the Mediterranean coast, air temperatures of 40°C meant that it was a draining experience for the premier class riders. Rossi and Lorenzo threw everything into their duel, with ‘The Doctor’ executing a superb move right at the death to take maximum points.
Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro) was on the podium again, to maintain his World Championship challenge, with the result leaving Rossi, Lorenzo and the Australian all tied on 106 points at the head of the standings – the Italian on top as the possessor of the most recent victory.
Stoner was absolutely exhausted after the race having worked extremely hard to fend off a strong challenge from Andrea Dovizioso. The Repsol Honda rider produced another consistent display to finish in fourth place for the third round in succession, having started in fourth on the grid -this time missing the podium by 0.052s.
Meanwhile, an excellent battle between Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) for fifth place eventually saw an Italian emerge in front of a Spaniard again, Capirossi crossing the line just over two seconds ahead.
With two-way fights for positions going on throughout the order, Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) used all his experience to overcome Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) for seventh.
New MotoGP arrival Gabor Talmacsi finished his very first premier class race, whilst Scot Racing teammate Yuki Takahashi crashed out on the first lap. San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Toni Elías meanwhile was also unable to finish as his miserable home record continued.
