Stoner wins as Pedrosa and Simoncelli miss out

Casey Stoner won the French MotoGP in Le Mans yesterday in a fourth leg of the championship that proved costly for his Honda team-mates Dani Pedrosa and Marco Simoncelli.

Pedrosa had produced a flying start off the second row on the grid watched by a record 88,000-crowd to grab the lead from pole setter Stoner. But Stoner wasted no time in reclaiming the advantage with world champion Jorge Lorenzo on his Yamaha tracking this duo in third.

Simoncelli then made a forward move, surging past Lorenzo to sit third.

By the midway point Stoner, winner of the season opener in Qatar, had pulled over two seconds clear of Pedrosa, the Spaniard who had shrugged off shoulder surgery to win in Estoril last time out.

Pedrosa’s race then ended spectacularly with 11 laps remaining after a high speed crash as he duelled with Simoncelli, who had nipped past him only for Pedrosa’s front wheel to then clip the Italian’s bike.

Pedrosa was reported by organisers to have broken his right collarbone.

Simoncelli did not escape from the spat scot free as he incurred a ride-through penalty for what race stewards considered an illegal manoeuvre on Pedrosa, which resulted in him dropping down from second to sixth.

Valentino Rossi has had a quiet start to the season but the Ducati star was the main beneficiary of Simoncelli’s punishment, the multiple former champion inheriting second place.

Rossi eventually came in third for his first podium for his new team with Italian Andrea Dovizioso chasing Stoner across the line, 14 seconds adrift.

Stoner was adding this to his opening success in Qatar and the Aussie moved up to second place in the overall standings on 66 points, 12 behind Lorenzo, with Pedrosa third on 61.

After his 25th grand prix success Stoner told the BBC: “It’s been a fantastic weekend, it’s rare that a weekend goes so smoothly. In the race it looked like Dani was going to stay with me, then I pulled clear.”

French hopes of glory in their home grand prix were carried by Ducati’s Randy de Puniet, who started from 11th but only made it as far as the second lap before being forced to retire.

Britain’s Cal Crutchow also bowed out prematurely after a spill on his Yamaha.