Stoner starts from Pole position and dominates Assen

By Cindy Ferguson

The world champion Casey Stoner is having a great MotoGP season this year. Setting a new lap record last Friday June 27th in the Dutch TT qualifying round last weekend he earned to start from Pole position in the main race and managed to get the most out of this privilege taking the title with him.

Just a week after his dominant performance in the British Grand Prix, the Australian rider began the ninth round of the MotoGP season with the right foot. After his two closest rivals Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi lowered their times in the qualifying round, he had to strive harder and with his best lap of 1:35:520 he recorded the fastest lap yet by a motorcycle at Assen, exceeding for nearly a second the record imposed by Nicky Hayden in 2006 and winning the pole position.

On Saturday June 28th, Valentino Rossi started the race at the top of the overall positions; however he crashed on the first lap and even though he was able to get back to the race, he finished in the 11 position. Ducati rider Casey Stoner took the lead with Dani Pedrosa behind him and finished in the first place 11 seconds away from the Spanish rider.

With this victory, Stoner added 25 more points to his ranking getting a total of 142 points in the overall classification and remains in the third position 25 points away from the second Valentino Rossi who added just 5 points in the DutchTT and lost the first position to Dani Pedrosa, who finished second in the race, adding 20 points and finished with a total of 171 points.

Stoner’s team, Ducati, is also in the third position on the overall team standings, whit 174 points. "It seems fortune is favoring us. I've really got to take my hat off to my team," said Stoner after the race. "They've been doing such a good job over the past few races to get us back on the pace again."

Australian 23 year old Casey Stoner has had a very successful career which began very early since he started competing at the age of four and won his first race when he was just nine years old. Later, he moved to England with his family at age 14 and a year later he won the English 125cc Aprilia Championship.

He started competing in 125cc in 2003 and moved to 250cc in 2005, still working with Aprilia team. Afterwards in 2006 he began competing in the MotoGP category and has been with the Ducati team riding an 800cc Ducati GP7 since 2007, year in which he won his first GP championship. Stoner has a contract to remain with the Ducati team for the at least until season 2009, with the Italian Marco Melandri as his team partner.

This has been the first time Stoner conquers the TT Circuit Assen, considered “The Cathedral” of motorcycling by the fans. The Dutch TT is the classic MotoGP race par excellence since it is held in the only circuit in the world championship calendar that has been present in the series since they first started in 1949.

About the Author:

Cindy Ferguson is a high-ranking writer on the MotoGP World Championship for the sports betting industry. You can also find more of her work at Instant Action Sports UK.
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