World Champion Casey Stoner has won round seven of the MotoGP Championships in the Netherlands and moved up to share the championship lead.

The Australian turned one of his toughest weekends as a factory Honda rider into race victory and the joint MotoGP Championship lead at Assen on Saturday.

The reigning champion – beaten by Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo at the three previous rounds – had again struggled with chatter in practice and suffered one of the most painful accidents of his career when he was caught out by a rain shower on Friday morning.

A surprise pole position followed, after further rain spots in qualifying, but Stoner openly admitted he had race pace concerns.

Lorenzo meanwhile had been consistently fast throughout the weekend and looked tough to beat – until he was taken out by fellow Spaniard Alvaro Bautista at turn one of the race.

Stoner and team-mate Dani Pedrosa got through the corner just before the incident, with Dani Pedrosa leading until lap 17 of 26, when Stoner calmly moved ahead and rode to a five-second victory.

In doing so, Stoner bridged Lorenzo’s 25-point lead in a single move.

“To take pole position and now the win is really incredible, a big thanks to my whole team who never gave up,” said Stoner.

“My plan was to get a better start than I actually did, take some advantage and use the energy I had to try and make a gap and try to hold on to the end.

“We also knew that whichever position we were in, we had to preserve the rear tyre. Choosing the softer tyre, there was a big chance that we would destroy it and have nothing left for the end of the race.

“When I saw Dani was running at a reasonable pace and we were pulling away from the others, I decided to stay there and watch him to save the tyres and my energy as much as I could.

“With a few laps remaining, I knew we wouldn’t suffer a big drop in tyre performance, I still felt good so I decided to pass him and see if I could pull a gap.

“It was a tough race, I had a lot of arm pump as I had to compensate for my injuries from the crash yesterday, but my fitness was good and the bike was working well in general.

“I’m sorry for Jorge, nobody wants to take points over a competitor in this manner, but as we can see, one race can change everything”.

Stoner has now won three races this season and Lorenzo the other four. Lorenzo is the only rider in the championship top four to have suffered a DNF so far.

Round eight of 18 takes place at the Sachsenring in Germany next weekend.

RESULT from Assen:

1. Casey Stoner AUS Repsol Honda (RC213V) 41m 19.855s
2. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda (RC213V) 41m 24.820s
3. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 41m 31.849s
4. Ben Spies USA Yamaha Factory Racing (YZR-M1) 41m 34.630s
5. Cal Crutchlow GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 41m 41.929s
6. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Team (GP12) 41m 51.515s
7. Hector Barbera ESP Pramac Racing (GP12) 42m 18.962s
8. Randy De Puniet FRA Power Electronics Aspar (ART CRT) 42m 24.296s
9. Michele Pirro ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini (FTR-Honda CRT) 42m 26.835s
10. Mattia Pasini ITA Speed Master (ART CRT) 42m 44.942s
11. Danilo Petrucci ITA Came IodaRacing (Ioda-Aprilia CRT) 42m 51.958s
12. Ivan Silva ESP Avintia Blusens (FTR-Kawasaki CRT) 42m 53.652s
13. Valentino Rossi ITA Ducati Team (GP12) +1 lap
14. James Ellison GBR Paul Bird Motorsport (ART CRT) +1 lap

DNF
Aleix Espargaro ESP Power Electronics Aspar (ART CRT)
Colin Edwards USA NGM Forward Racing (Suter-BMW CRT)
Yonny Hernandez COL Avintia Blusens (FTR-Kawasaki CRT)
Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP (RC213V)
Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory Racing (YZR-M1)
Alvaro Bautista ESP San Carlo Honda Gresini (RC213V)

 

Championship standings after round seven of 18:

1       Jorge Lorenzo      Yamaha      140

2       Casey Stoner      Honda        140

3       Dani Pedrosa       Honda        121

4       Cal Crutchlow      Yamaha      77

5       Andrea Dovizioso Yamaha      76

6       Valentino Rossi    Ducati        61

7       Nicky Hayden      Ducati        59

8       Álvaro Bautista    Honda        58

9       Stefan Bradl        Honda        51

10     Ben Spies   Yamaha               48

11     Héctor Barberá    Ducati        46

12     Aleix Espargaró   ART            20

13     Randy de Puniet  ART            19

14     Michele Pirro       FTR            16

15     Mattia Pasini       ART            12

 

Photo courtesy MotoGP