Stoner crashes out of French MotoGP

Australia's Casey Stoner second crash of the year in yesterday's French MotoGP race has thrown his championship tilt into disarray, as Yamaha continued on its merry way with Jorge Lorenzo winning easily ahead of team-mate Valentino Rossi. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) was third after a great fight for the final podium spot.

Stoner slid from his Ducati on lap two, and the Australian was unable to get back on his machine as he experienced the second non-finish of his season.

He now has just 11pts in three races, equal 13th with Yamaha's Ben Spies. Lorenzo leads the way on 70pts ahead of Rossi (61), Dovizioso (42), Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 40) and Stoner's team-mate Nicky Hayden (39).

"I'm really disappointed because the bike has felt great all weekend. I've been pushing the front wherever I wanted but for some reason when the race has come around it felt like it was going to fold," said Stoner. "It's something we have to get to the bottom of and we need to do it soon because it is not good to start the season with only one finish from three races.

"I haven't changed anything with my riding style, but if I need to do something then we have to work out what and I can do it. Maybe it's because when I'm behind slower riders in the race I'm not able to put the same pressure on the front. I'm not sure at the moment, to be honest, so we need to sit down and work out what's best for the next race."

A superb start from Rossi from his pole position saw the Italian lead into the first turn ahead of Pedrosa and Lorenzo, but the latter quickly moved into second and set his sights on his team-mate.

The fight for the win started on lap seven when Lorenzo took the lead from Rossi, only to see the Italian immediately reclaim it. Undeterred, Lorenzo pushed again on lap 10, this time making his move stick as he moved into first and began to open up an advantage.

As the Fiat Yamaha riders occupied the top two positions, the battle for third was also an extremely engrossing one and involved another pair of team-mates. Repsol Honda's Pedrosa and Dovizioso were tight in third and fourth, with Hayden refusing to lose touch in fifth as well.

Lorenzo's lead over Rossi at the front had stretched to over four seconds with four laps to go, and Pedrosa and Dovizioso were by now locked in a marvellous duel for the final podium spot.

A thrilling last lap played out as Dovizioso forced his way through on Pedrosa to take third, and Hayden also squeezed past the Spaniard. Lorenzo crossed the line to take victory by a gap of 5.672secs from Rossi, with Dovizioso taking his second podium of the season in third place.

"I am so happy to win for the second race in a row, it's the first time for me in MotoGP and it makes me feel very confident in myself," said Lorenzo. "Finally I did a good start, which I'm really happy about, then I easily got past Pedrosa.

"Passing Valentino wasn't so easy because he was braking so deep and I had to be very patient, something that I might not have managed one year ago! Finally I overtook him but I didn't expect to be able to go away in that way, my bike and Bridgestone tyres just felt so good and it wasn't difficult for me to keep this pace up."

Hayden finished fourth for the third consecutive race, with Pedrosa ending the race in fifth. Melandri was sixth as a switch of suspension paid off for him, with Randy de Puniet (Honda) taking seventh in his home GP.

Ben Spies (Yamaha) and Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) also joined Stoner on the DNF list.

Round four will be held at Mugello from June 4-6.

Click on the following link got full results and standings in all classes.