Pedrosa Dominates, Schumi Rides For Fun

Spanish fever griped Jerez as Dani Pedrosa won in front of the home crowd. The Repsol Honda rider comfortably beat the Yamaha’s of Rossi and fellow Spaniard Lorenzo.

World Champion Casey Stoner had a nightmare of a race. After a poor qualifying the Aussie looked anything but comfortable on the Ducati, getting out of shape at the top of the hill before out-breaking himself at the end of the long straight. He would, after a determined ride, get up on the back of the top ten before out-breaking himself once more at the same corner, finishing 11^th. The problems were not all down to Stoner, with the rest of the Ducati’s struggling to make an impact, all finishing behind the champion.

Pedrosa was off like a rocket and after taking the lead never looked back, leaving Lorenzo and Rossi to duck it out for second. Nicky Hayden had a much improved day on the second Respol Honda, coming home fourth.

The main interest of racing came from the end of the 250cc race. Just caught the end of it after staying up late for the IRL. The race saw Marco Simoncelli and Alvaro Bautista battle for the win. Simoncelli looked to be toying with Bautista before smacking him in the rear going through the corner on the final lap, knocking both out. While it appeared Simoncelli was to blame he would later go on to say that Bautista had an engine problem, which caused him to be slow through the corner. Still, I would leave some blame with Simoncelli. He shouldn’t have bothered toying with his rival. Just get out in front and go. If he had done that he would’ve won.

Speaking of bikes, Michael Schumacher took part in his first official competitive bike race at Misano. The German Formula One legend qualified third and eventually finished third, only five seconds off the lead. When you add the factors that they are all the same bikes and he fell down to fourteenth in the opening stages as he took it easy, it really puts his achievement in focus.
Despite how well he’s adapted to two wheels, the seven-time world champion has said this isn’t the start of a new career. It must be great to be able to go out and track and drive truly for fun. Schumi must be loving it.