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Australia’s Casey Stoner earned his second victory of the season at a dramatic French MotoGP which saw Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa fracture his collarbone in a high-speed crash.
Stoner climbed to second place in the overall standings with the win, and is now just 12 points behind defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo of Spain.
Italian Andrea Dovizioso finished second, 14.214 seconds behind Stoner, with multiple world champion Valentino Rossi coming in third to earn his first podium of the season.
Pedrosa had the better of polesitter Stoner from the start, but the Australian retook the lead on the second lap before Pedrosa’s crash in a battle for second place.
Stoner opened up a gap of 2.20 seconds on Pedrosa at the halfway stage to pull away and cruise to victory, the Spaniard’s race ending on lap 18 after a collision with Italian Marco Simoncelli.
Simoncelli attempted an audacious move by passing Pedrosa on the outside of a curve, but he clipped his rival’s front wheel.
Simoncelli was given a ride-through penalty but managed to finish fifth, Lorenzo coming home in fourth to retain the overall lead.
Stoner, the 2007 world champion, was also fined $5,000 for punching French rider Randy De Puniet in the shoulder during the morning warm-up.
In the Moto2 class, Marc Marquez of Spain scored his first points of the season by clinching victory, 1.982 seconds ahead of Japanese rider Yuki Takahashi.
The Suter rider, a 125cc world champion, took the lead just before a few drops of rain landed on the track with five laps to go.
Pole-sitter Stefan Bradl of Germany finished third but still leads the championship, 28 points clear of Julian Simon of Spain. Andrea Iannone of Italy crashed out on the first lap to slip to third place, one point behind Simon.
In the 125cc class, 16-year-old prodigy Maverick Vinales of Spain won his first race in just his fourth career start to end compatriot Nicolas Terol’s perfect start to the season.
Vinales overtook Terol in the last curve of the last lap to stand on his Aprilia motorbike and clench his fists as he crossed the finish line. Despite finishing second, Terol extended his overall lead over Sandro Cortese of Germany to 36 points.
The next race will be held on June 5 in Barcelona, Spain.
AP sj
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