MotoGP German 2009:Thrilling victory for Rossi

Valentino Rossi held off Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo to win a thrilling German MotoGP for his 101st career victory.
The Italian veteran (pictured), who started in pole position, finished ahead of Spaniard Lorenzo, with Honda's Dani Pedrosa, also of Spain, taking third place.

"It's an important win at this stage of the season," said championship leader Rossi.
"It was another fantastic battle with (Casey) Stoner and then Jorge until the last lap. I knew that on this circuit it's very difficult to pass so I stayed ahead on the final lap."

The win saw Rossi extend his lead in the overall standings to 176 points after nine events, 14 ahead of Lorenzo, with Australian Casey Stoner in third on 148 and Pedrosa a further 40pts adrift in fourth.
Early on during the race, French rider Randy De Puniet suffered a dramatic tumble on the opening lap in front of 98,000 spectators when pressing in third position behind Rossi and Pedrosa, sliding off the track as his bike bucked.
Ducati rider Stoner, last season's winner here, took advantage to move swiftly past Rossi and Pedrosa to take the lead on the seventh lap.
Stoner forced the pace, with only the final podium finishers able to stick to him. By the 11th lap there were already five seconds between the Australian and fifth place occupied by Alex De Angelis of San Marino.
Rossi retook the lead on the 16th lap, with Lorenzo and then Pedrosa overtaking Stoner, who finished fourth.
The two Yamahas then edged away, with Lorenzo taking the attack to Rossi and assuming the lead with five laps to go.
In a nail-biting climax, Rossi moved back into the lead with two laps to go and held off Lorenzo as the Spaniard pretender tried one last desperate pass on the final bend.
In the 250cc race, Italy's defending champion Marco Simoncelli kept his title challenge alive with victory.
The Italian, riding a Gilera, finished ahead of Spanish duo Alex Debon and Alvaro Bautista for his second win of the season.
Simoncelli broke free from the pack early on with Debon in his shadow, although he had enough breathing space to prevent any overtaking moves.
Debon held on to second place, his first podium of the season, while Bautista got past title rival and series leader Hiroshi Aoyama with some blistering laps to cut the gap in the standings to 10 points.
The race had been restarted after an initial lap when rain fell on the Sachsenring, but during the wait between starts the track was deemed to have dried sufficiently for the majority of riders to change back to slick tyres.
In the 125cc, Spain's Julian Simon, riding an Aprilia, extended his lead atop the discipline's overall standings with a runaway win.
Simon notched up his second triumph of the season after finishing the 27 laps in 39min 57.337sec, 9.415sec ahead of Sergio Gadea, with Joan Olive a further 8sec adrift to complete an all-Spanish podium.
Simon, who had started to lap other rivals by the midway stage of the race, now stands on 129 points atop the overall standings, with Gadea in second on 104, and Briton Bradley Smith - who fell on lap six - in third at 98.5.

Source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/19072009/58/thrilling-victory-rossi.html

AFP
RACE LIVE STANDING
P. Driver Team Time
1 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Factory 41:21.769
2 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory 41:21.868
3 Daniel Pedrosa Honda HRC 41:24.668
4 Casey Stoner Ducati MotoGP 41:31.995
5 Alex De Angelis Honda Gresini 41:43.291
6 Antonio Elias Honda Gresini 41:52.621
7 Marco Melandri 川崎哈亚特 41:53.070
8 Nicky Hayden Ducati MotoGP 41:53.495
9 Colin Edwards Yamaha Tech3 41:54.634
10 James Toseland Yamaha Tech3 42:05.695
11 Loris Capirossi Suzuki MotoGP 42:19.144
12 Niccolo Canepa Ducati Pramac 42:22.308
13 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki MotoGP 42:25.414
14 Mika Kallio 杜卡迪普拉马克 42:25.924

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