Honda wins final MotoGP of 2007

Published Nov 4, 2007

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Dani Pedrosa (Honda) dominated Sunday's final round of the 2007 MotoGP championship at Valencia, leading from lap six to come home more than five seconds ahead of Ducati's Casey Stoner, with John Hopkins third in his final ride for Suzuki.

Valentino Rossi braved the pain of a broken right hand to start from 17th on the grid and was up to 14th, lapping faster than anybody on the circuit except Pedrosa and Stoner, when his Yamaha went sick on lap 20 and he retired, handing second place in the World championship to Pedrosa.

Stoner got a rocket start to lead off the line from Nicky Hayden (Honda) and Pedrosa; the Spaniard went inside on turn two, however, and immediately set off after Stoner.

Hopkins demoted Hayden to fourth on lap four; Hayden gradually fell back into the clutches of Marco Melandri (Honda) and Loris Capirossi (Ducati) who put up the battle of the race for fourth, with Melandri in front when it mattered.

Pedrosa slowed at the end as his tyres went off but was still more than five seconds ahead of Stoner at the line for a convincing win.

MotoGP Results

1 Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda - 46min43.533

2 Casey Stoner (Australia) Ducati +5.477sec

3 John Hopkins (US) Suzuki +20.404

4 Marco Melandri (Italy) Honda +24.827

5 Loris Capirossi (Italy) Ducati +25.804

6 Chris Vermeulen (Australia) Suzuki +25.862

7 Alex Barros (Brazil) Ducati +29.470

8 Nicky Hayden (US) Honda +30.333

9 Randy de Puniet (France) Kawasaki +30.895

10 Toni Elias (Spain) Honda +31.030

11 Sylvain Guintoli (France) Yamaha +38.763

12 Carlos Checa (Spain) Honda +42.508

13 Colin Edwards (US) Yamaha +46.572

14 Shinya Nakano (Japan) Honda +50.220

15 Makoto Tamada (Japan) Yamaha +56.879

Final championship points for 2007

1 Casey Stoner (Australia) Ducati - 367 points

2 Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda - 242

3 Valentino Rossi (Italy) Yamaha - 241

4 John Hopkins (US) Suzuki - 189

5 Marco Melandri (Italy) Honda - 187

6 Chris Vermeulen (Australia) Suzuki - 179

7 Loris Capirossi (Italy) Ducati - 166

8 Nicky Hayden (US) Honda - 127

9 Colin Edwards (US) Yamaha - 124

10 Alex Barros (Brazil) Ducati - 115

11 Randy de Puniet (France) Kawasaki - 108

12 Toni Elias (Spain) Honda - 104

13 Alex Hofmann (Germany) Ducati - 65

14 Carlos Checa (Spain) Honda - 65

15 Anthony West (Australia) Kawasaki - 59

16 Sylvain Guintoli (France) Yamaha - 50

17 Shinya Nakano (Japan) Honda - 47

18 Makoto Tamada (Japan) Yamaha - 38

19 Kurtis Roberts (US) KR212V - 10

20 Roger Lee Hayden (US) Kawasaki - 6

21 Michel Fabrizio (Italy) Honda - 6

22 Fonsi Nieto (Spain) Kawasaki - 5

23 Olivier Jacque (France) Kawasaki - 4

24 Kenny Roberts (US) KR212V - 4

25 Nobuatsu Aoki (Japan) Suzuki - 3

26 Shinichi Ito (Japan) Ducati - 1

250cc

KTM's Mika Kallio rode a beautifully judged race to win the Sunday's 2007 Valencia 250cc, taking the lead from Aprilia rider Alex de Angelis two laps from the end and moving away to an emphatic win.

Veteran Alex Debon (Aprilia) passed Honda's Andrea Dovizioso in the closing stages and just held on take his first podium finish after 107 GP starts.

Hector Barbera (Aprilia) came up off the second row of the grid to lead off the start but by turn two 2007 World champion Jorge Lorenzo (Aprilia) had moved into the lead, ahead of Barbera, Dovizioso and Kallio.

Dovizioso took second on lap three and it looked as if the race would settle down into the usual slugfest between Lorenzo and Dovizioso - until Kallio moved into third and De Angelis came up to join the leading group.

By lap seven he was up to second and he dived past Lorenzo on lap 10; after that the World champion dropped back, apparently the victim of a mechanical problem.

De Angelis' team mate Alvaro Bautista passed Dovizioso for second on lap 13 only to crash out seven laps later.

Kallio, Dovizioso and Debon closed on De Angelis in the final stages and there was nothing the Aprilia rider, his tyres shredded, could do as Kallio moved past to take his second win of 2007.

250cc Results

1 Mika Kallio (Finland) KTM - 43min28.349

2 Alex de Angelis (San Marino) Aprilia +0.371sec

3 Alex Debon (Spain) Aprilia +6.797

4 Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Honda +6.880

5 Hector Barbera (Spain) Aprilia +12.767

6 Julian Simon (Spain) Honda +13.030

7 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Aprilia +14.751

8 Yuki Takahashi (Japan) Honda +16.437

9 Thomas Luthi (Switzerland) Aprilia +16.551

10 Hiroshi Aoyama (Japan) KTM +20.223

Final 250cc championship points for 2007

1 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Aprilia - 312

2 Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Honda - 260

3 Alex de Angelis (San Marino) Aprilia - 235

4 Alvaro Bautista (Spain) Aprilia - 181

5 Hector Barbera (Spain) Aprilia - 177

6 Hiroshi Aoyama (Japan) KTM - 160

7 Mika Kallio (Finland) KTM - 157

8 Thomas Luthi (Switzerland) Aprilia - 133

9 Julian Simon (Spain) Honda - 123

10 Marco Simoncelli (Italy) Gilera - 97

125cc

Gabor Talmacsi became the first Hungarian motorcycle World champion when he finished second in Sunday's season-ending Valencia 125 GP after swopping places on almost every lap with Aspar Aprilia team mate, title rival and local hero Hector Faubel - with 132 000 screaming Spanish fans urging them on.

Youngsters Pol Espargaro (Aprilia) and Bradley Smith (Honda) came up from the third row to lead the pack into turn one but Talmacsi bustled his way into the lead before the end of lap on, taking Pablo Nieto (Aprilia) with him.

Faubel got a poor start; he was eighth away but moved up to third on lap two.

A lap later he went inside Nieto in the kink in the middle of the back straight and set off after Talmacsi - breaking the lap record twice in the process.

By lap eight he was right behind the Hungarian leader and Talmacsi struck back on the very next turn and from than on it was classic 125cc racing all the way to the chequered flag with tow and sometimes three changes of lead on every lap.

Talmacsi was leading going into the final corner but Faubel went inside and forced him wide to take the win by less than a bike length, while Sergio Gadea got the best of a three-way battle for third with Nieto and Mattia Pasini (Aprilia) to give team owner Jorge Martinez Aspar wall-to-wall podium finishers and a World title in his home race!

125cc Results

1 Hector Faubel (Spain) Aprilia - 40min14.228

2 Gabor Talmacsi (Hungary) Aprilia +0.185sec

3 Sergio Gadea (Spain) Aprilia +0.286

4 Mattia Pasini (Italy) Aprilia +0.826

5 Lukas Pesek (Czech Republic) Derbi +0.876

6 Esteve Rabat (Spain) Honda +5.850

7 Pablo Nieto (Spain) Aprilia +9.038

8 Bradley Smith (Britain) Honda +13.034

9 Tomoyoshi Koyama (Japan) KTM +20.734

10 Pol Espargaro (Spain) Aprilia +21.002

Final 125cc championship points for 2007

1 Gabor Talmacsi (Hungary) Aprilia - 282

2 Hector Faubel (Spain) Aprilia - 277

3 Tomoyoshi Koyama (Japan) KTM - 193

4 Lukas Pesek (Czech Republic) Derbi - 182

5 Mattia Pasini (Italy) Aprilia - 174

6 Simone Corsi (Italy) Aprilia - 168

7 Sergio Gadea (Spain) Aprilia - 160

8 Joan Olive (Spain) Aprilia - 131

9 Pol Espargaro (Spain) Aprilia - 110

10 Bradley Smith (Britain) Honda - 101

- The next Grand Prix will be under lights at Losail in Qatar on March 9, 2008. - Reuters, motoring.co.za.

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