Rossi praises Yamaha's race pace

By Matt Beer

Sunday, May 3rd 2009, 13:31 GMT

Valentino Rossi declared himself delighted with this Yamaha's race set-up after charging from behind to take victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.

The world champion had predicted that he would be unable to fight for the win having struggled in qualifying, but his Yamaha was more competitive in race conditions and he came through from fourth to beat Dani Pedrosa to first place - taking the points lead in the process.

"It was a great race, very fun, but also physical," said Rossi.

"My bike worked very well today, I'm so fast with a sliding tyre, and I was able to arrive with Dani, and overtake. There was another nine or ten laps to the end, so I stayed concentrated because I knew it was possible to get the victory.

"Winning here in Jerez is fantastic. It's always a great pleasure."

He admitted that he had remained sceptical about his chances of victory in the early stages, as he ran a quiet fourth at first, behind Pedrosa, Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo.

"From the beginning, in the first few laps, I was quite far behind, especially from Dani and Casey (Stoner)," Rossi said. "After that I came back and had a great fight with Casey.

"When I was able to arrive in second place, Dani was already a little bit more than one second ahead.

"I know that in that situation Dani is always very difficult to catch. So I tried to push hard and stay concentrated. There was one part of the race where I didn't gain a lot, but lap by lap I was able to improve my pace and stay very consistent."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/75036

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Rossi takes first win of 2009 in Spain

By Matt Beer

Sunday, May 3rd 2009, 12:48 GMT

World champion Valentino Rossi hunted down and passed Dani Pedrosa to secure his first win of 2009 in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.

Casey Stoner took his first ever Jerez podium in third, with Jorge Lorenzo losing the points lead to Rossi thanks to a late crash.

After only qualifying fourth, Rossi had declared that it would be "impossible" to win today's race, but changes made overnight allowed him to top the warm-up and then march forward when the grand prix commenced.

The Italian overtook his Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo, who had made a slow start from pole, on the second lap, and then quickly caught Stoner, getting around the Ducati on lap seven after a tough battle.

Pedrosa had grabbed the lead off the line and edged away, so took longer for Rossi to catch, but by half-distance the Honda had the Yamaha on its tail. A pass at the back hairpin on lap 16 saw Rossi take the lead, and once ahead there was no stopping him.

As Rossi pulled away to win by three seconds, Stoner drifted away from Pedrosa and came under pressure from Lorenzo - until the Spaniard's race ended with a low-side crash just four laps from home.

Randy de Puniet rode an excellent race to take fourth for LCR Honda - his best result since joining the team from Kawasaki at the end of 2007. The Frenchman held his own from the start and had a lonely run once Honda's Andrea Dovizioso had slid off the road while racing him early on.

Marco Melandri continued Hayate Kawasaki's fine form by taking fifth following a massive battle with Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) and Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha). The recovering Dovizioso carved through from 16th to join this group by the end.

Gresini Honda's Toni Elias and Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen completed the top ten, with Yuki Takahashi running strongly for Scot Honda at first before drifting back to 12th behind Sete Gibernau (Hernando Ducati).

Gibernau was the second-best Ducati at the flag, as works rider Nicky Hayden had an unhappy run to 16th and Mika Kallio retired his Pramac version with brake problems.

Pos  Rider             Bike             Time
1.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha           45m18.557s
2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda            +   2.700s
3.  Casey Stoner      Ducati           +  10.507s
4.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda        +  31.893s
5.  Marco Melandri    Hayate Kawasaki  +  33.128s
6.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha    +  34.128s
7.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki           +  34.421s
8.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda            +  34.625s
9.  Toni Elias        Gresini Honda    +  42.689s
10.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki           +  45.183s
11.  Sete Gibernau     Hernando Ducati  +  48.192s
12.  Yuki Takahashi    Scot Honda       +  51.875s
13.  James Toseland    Tech 3 Yamaha    +  53.683s
14.  Alex de Angelis   Gresini Honda    +  53.941s
15.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati           +1m01.237s
16.  Niccolo Canepa    Pramac Ducati    +1m10.896s

Retirements:

    Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha           23 laps
    Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati    12 laps

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/75034

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Q and A with Bradley Smith

By Simon Strang

Sunday, May 3rd 2009, 11:48 GMT

It has been a long time coming, but in his 50th grand prix start, Bradley Smith finally became a 125cc winner at Jerez today.

Afterwards he told AUTOSPORT how much it meant to him - and how it has transformed his world championship hopes.

Q: How do you feel?

Bradley Smith: I can't even explain it at the moment. It's just crazy. You watch these races before in years gone by when people win by 15-20 seconds and you wonder how it's possible. So for me to do it today, to keep on seeing those seconds go up on the pit board, words can't describe it because the bike was working so well and I was just keeping my head down lap after lap.

It was a freaky race really. The wind started to get worse and worse towards the end so I was thankful to have such a big gap. Also the fifth gear problem I had with a couple of laps to go played in as well. I guess it was just meant to be my day today. I'll take that one, thank you very much, and go in into the rest of the season now with my confidence pretty high.

Q: What happened with fifth gear?

BS: I just couldn't use it. It just wasn't working.

Q: And you nearly crashed?

BS: I went into corner number four and the bike almost switched off and then back on, and I went pretty sideways. So I was pretty lucky to stay on. It was a lucky race for me.

Q: So did you have to go from fourth to sixth then?

BS: Yes. Fourth... fifth-sixth... just like that. It wasn't easy.

Q: Have you cracked this business now?

BS: It's not a given. Hopefully the 1/50 ratio will soon dwindle down. That's the plan anyway. It's just one of those races where everything went my way. Right from the start I was able to ride my own lines and my own race. This is a huge confidence booster. I always knew I could do it. It was just a question of actually getting over the line first, and always something seemed to be in my way. Now I've done it and I couldn't be happier.

Q: It's an amazing transformation from two weeks ago?

BS: The thing is there were three dry days, and when you have that at a circuit where you've done so many laps in testing, you can be on it from the word go. We went under the lap record today so the pace me and my team-mate were able to set at the beginning was very fast. If it hadn't been for the problem with the bike I think it would have continued right to the end.

I think the extra 20 minutes in the session at Le Mans will help us a lot in terms of set-up time and more time on the bike. It was all good and I had no problems at all until the final seven laps of that race. I just thought 'please, not today.' And we got the job done.

Q: Is the title on?

BS: After Japan I was disappointed. It took something quite special to pick me up. To be 26 points behind after only two races, I know it's a long season, but you have a lot of work to do. This just shows you how quickly everything can turn around. I'm only one point behind now and the chase is certainly on.

Q: And the last few laps?

BS: When you've been in the zone for over 40 minutes, the final two laps don't make a difference. You think about every possible scenario you might have anyway. With the problem with the bike I had to concentrate really hard on everything else, so I didn't really have time to think about anything else.

Q: So it probably did you a favour then?

BS: In some ways, yes. In others, not at all.

Q: Will you have a different attitude now?

BS: No. Because I've been searching for, and fighting for this victory for the last year now, and the will and the desire was always there, it was just a case of doing it. So now it's not a case of chasing the victory, it's a case of chasing the second one.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/75032

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