James Toseland dedicated his brilliant sixth place in the bwin.com Grand Prix of Spain due to a bowl of his Mum’s porridge and the work of the Clinica Mobile at the Jerez circuit. The tough Yorkshire man was suffering from an energy sapping chest infection but fought his way to sixth place on a last bend showdown with three other riders that had the 134,000 crowd on their feet.
“I’ve been really rough all weekend but my Mum prepared me a bowl of porridge this morning that gave me extra strength while the Clinica Mobile have really looked after me,” explained the 27 year old Yorkshire man who now holds sixth place in his debut MotoGP season after finishing sixth at the opening two rounds. “It was a really tough race but somehow I found the energy for that last bend battle with Loris Capirossi, John Hopkins and Andrea Dovizioso.”
It was rough and tough stuff with veteran former World Champion Capirossi grabbing fifth place on the race to the line. The 27 lap race was won by Spaniard Dani Pedrosa who had quite a day riding the Repsol Honda. The 22 year old secured his first MotoGP win at Jerez, took over the lead in the World Championship and received the winner’s trophy from the King Juan Carlos.
He was in a class of his own and was a comfortable winner over the Fiat Yamaha pair of seven times Jerez winner Valentino Rossi and pole setter Jorge Lorenzo with former World Champion Nicky Hayden in fourth place.
It was a disastrous day for World Champion Casey Stoner. The Australian twice ran the Marlboro Ducati off the track at the end of the back straight and finally limped home in 11th and slipped to fourth place in the Championship, 11 points down on Pedrosa.
Smith Takes Podium Finish Seventeen year old Bradley Smith scored his first 125 cc Championship points of the season with a brilliant third place in the 23 lap race round the 2.748 mile Jerez circuit. Fifteen year old Scott Redding continued his sensational form with a seventh place in just his second grand prix but Kent-based Danny Webb crashed out of the race when well placed.
Smith started from pole riding the Polaris World Aprilia and led in the early stages but was having problems and was soon passed by the race winner Italian Simone Corsi and second placed Spanish teenager Nicolas Terol. Smith fought back and held off the considerable challenge of the in-form German teenager Stefan Bradl for a podium finish.
“That was a great result for me and the team because despite starting in pole we’d had our problems during practice,” said Smith after securing his second podium finish. “Once the tyres started going off I had to concentrate to hold onto third place and keep in front of Stefan. After the disappointment in Qatar it’s great to start scoring points and I’m really looking forward to the next round in Portugal.”
Redding fought a tremendous battle with Swiss teenager Dominique Aegerter and his team-mate Frenchman Mike Di Meglio to grab seventh place riding the Blusens Aprilia.
Ulsterman Eugene Laverty’s run of bad luck continued in the 250cc class when he retired from the race won by Mika Kallio with a seized engine.
Race Classification:1. Dani Pedrosa - Honda 45.35.121
2. Valentino Rossi - Yamaha 45.38.004
3. Jorge Lorenzo - Yamaha 45.39.460
4. Nicky Hayden - Honda 45.45.263
5. Loris Capirossi - Suzuki 46.02.645
6. James Toseland - Yamaha 46.02.929
7. John Hopkins - Kawasaki 46.03.417
8. Andrea Dovizioso - Honda 46.03.570
9. Shinya Nakano - Honda 46.07.690
10. Chris Vermeulen - Suzuki 46.10.212
Championship Positions:1. Dani Pedrosa 41
2. Jorge Lorenzo 36
3. Valentino Rossi 31
4. Casey Stoner 30
5. Andrea Dovizioso 21
6. James Toseland 20
