Aussies first and third in Germany

Australians Casey Stoner (Ducati) and Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) shared the podium with Italian Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) in Germany last weekend after a slippery and dramatic race.

For Stoner, the win marked a return to title contention and once more proved he is a force to be reckoned with, regardless of the track conditions. For Rossi, it was clear warning that his lead in the point ids anything but safe, while for Dani Pedrosa (Honda) it was a bitter day.

The latter suffered a horrific high speed spill at the end of the front straight when leading the race by a handsome margin. A loss of potentially 25 points was a severe setback for his championship hopes, though he is still very much in contention.

He was in good company, with Edwards, Melandri and Lorenzo taking spills. Anthony West also took an off-track excursion on his lone Kawasaki, but struggled his way back up to 10th.

Meanwhile Vermeulen again showed that rain is his friend, steadily working his way through the pack to latch on to Rossi's tail for third spot.

Casey Stoner, 1st, Ducati:
"I saw Dani ride off into the distance and I thought 'fair play' - there was no way I could keep that pace in those conditions at that time. We definitely needed a bit more time to get the tyres up to temperature and Dani just kept edging away, but then after a few laps I was coming down the main straight and I could see his bike bouncing around in the gravel at turn one. It's a shame for him but even though he crashed he was still very impressive today. From then on it was a case of keeping my concentration but that wasn't easy because I've been a little sick all weekend and I wasn't feeling at all good during the race.

"Also, we went with quite a hard rear tyre compound and I had quite a few small moments that made me nervous but kept me on my guard. I kept pushing where I could and managed to keep opening out the advantage with every lap, then kept it upright to the end. It's nice to close the championship down a little bit more and once again I owe a huge 'thank you' to the team, who have adapted the bike to virtually any condition here. This win is dedicated to them."

Valentino Rossi, 2nd, Yamaha:
Rossi explained that now is the time to bring the fight up to Stoner and his Ducati, given the Australian's forceful march back toward the top of the points table. "For the championship this is very, very important; I made a mistake last week in Assen and today Dani did the same. It's unlucky but this is racing and now we are back in front and this is a very good feeling.

"Dani is tough and we know he will be back fighting at the front, but sincerely at the moment we need to think about how to catch Casey because he has been very fast now for a few races.

"Once again here we lost some time during the practice trying to find the right setting and we can't afford to keep doing this.  Today we started from the third row and this meant that I had to deal with some confusion at the start and lost some time on the front riders.

"By the time I got behind Casey my M1 was working very well and I had very good grip with my Bridgestone rain tyres; I felt very confident and I tried hard to push but there was no way to catch him at that stage, so our aim must be to start at the front from now on. Thanks to all my team and engineers; now we have to try to extend this lead in Laguna."

Chris Vermeulen, 3rd, Suzuki:
"I am very happy to be on the podium here in Germany. It was a really difficult race, as there was a lot more water than we had practiced in on this circuit. I have got to give full credit to Bridgestone as they pushed me to go for a much harder compound than I wanted and it definitely worked. I really want to thank my crew as well, and the Japanese Suzuki staff, as we didn't really have a lot of set-up in the rain but the bike worked really well. It wasn't perfect but it was more than capable of getting me home, so I am really pleased to have put it on the podium for them as well. Let's hope this is the start of a good run and now we are off to a track I enjoy a lot so hopefully we can move up to the top step there!"

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