Casey Stoner celebrates after winning at Mugello

Australian and former World Champion Casey Stoner recorded victory at the Gran Premio d’Italia Alice in superb fashion in yet another wet-dry MotoGP race.

 

In the second start to finish race in two rounds Australian Casey Stoner ended Valentino Rossi’s Mugello winning streak with a outstanding performance to give manufacturer Ducati their first ever victory at the Italian circuit at Mugello.

 

Ultimately the race was decided on tactics, in front of a crowd of 80,000 Italian crowd, the riders once again had to start the race on wet tyres and then had to switch half way to complete the race on a different setup, with Casey Stoner this time judging things to perfection at Mugello and ending Rossi's seven year reign as champion of Mugello.

 

Casey Stoner now sits on the top of the MotoGP championship standings as he crossed the line a second in front of former championship leader Jorge Lorenzo, who also rode well after the scare of crashing on the sighting lap in the tricky slippery conditions.

 

Jorge Lorenzo of Fiat Yamaha and his colleague Valentino Rossi completed the podium in third place, with his seven year wining streak at his much loved home track coming to an end, the man affectionately known as the doctor and Italian hero crossed the line two seconds behind winner Casey Stoner and less than one tenth in front of Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso.

 

Andrea Dovizioso was so close to a podium finish but yet again missed out on the rostrum on the last lap once again, Dovizioso had held the race lead early on, when the racing was on wet tyres. Also worth a mention was fellow Italian Loris Capirossi was leading at one stage, but he later fell away in the final laps to finish fifth.

 

A surprise was James Toseland who made a brave decision to come in first and change bikes when running towards the back of the field, the implementation of this tactic saw him just miss out on equaling his best ever MotoGP result of sixth as he was beaten to the post by his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mate Colin Edwards on the final lap, having also dueled with LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet who came across the line in eighth place.

 

Italian Niccolò Canepa from Pramac Racing will also be delighted to have achieved his best result in the championship so far as the second highest Ducati rider as he crossed the line in ninth at his home race in Mugello with Austrlian Chris Vermeulen rounding out the top ten.

 

Spaniard Dani Pedrosa suffered a heavy crash as he hit the deck and crashed out on lap 14, Pedrosa who already damaged his hip earlier in the weekend had to be taken off the track on a strecher. Dani Pedrosa will now face an anxious wait to see if he will be able to ride in his home race at Barcelona in two weeks time.