Stoner rules Silverstone

Casey Stoner celebrated his 27th MotoGP victory and the championship lead in the British Grand Prix MotoGP race at Silverstone on June 12, with Repsol Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso in second. Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) rode a brilliant race with a broken collarbone, to land third on the podium.

"I was just happy to stay up on the bike, it was incredibly cold and I was so nervous as in these conditions it's so easy to crash,” said Stoner. “We had a great race today in very tough conditions where anything could have happened, but to come away with a win is fantastic.”

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) lead a rainy start of the Silverstone race, chased by Dovizioso and Stoner, with Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) close behind. But Lorenzo made a mistake on the first lap, allowing the Repsol bikes to pass and clearing the way for Simoncelli to challenge the championship leader, who passed the Mallorcan for third several corners later.

Stoner contended Dovizioso for the lead on lap two, with the Italian holding the top spot for several corners until pole position starter Stoner took over. Meanwhile, Simoncelli, who started from second position, positively hunted down the Repsol Hondas from his third position in the field until he ran wide on lap four and lost the position back to Lorenzo.

With rain steadily falling and conditions worsening, Lorenzo highsided out of third position on lap eight, making the Silverstone race the first he did not finish since 2009.

This put the 25-year-old Simoncelli in third position, but not content to settle for his first podium position to be a third, he pushed to pass Dovizioso until he lost the front under braking on lap 10.

Stoner stretched a gap of 15 seconds ahead of field, eventually lapping Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar Ducati) and Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing Ducati) with three-and-a-half laps left in the race, the two of whom finished 11th and 12th respectively.

The surprise of the weekend came with Edwards finishing on the podium. The 'Texas Tornado', who broke his collarbone last week in practice at Catalunya, started from eighth on the grid to ride a consistent race. Edwards benefited from the setbacks of Lorenzo and Simoncelli, thus earning his first podium of the season.

Nicky Hayden (Ducati), who set the fastest lap of the race, followed fellow American Edwards across the line in fourth.
Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) in fifth. Valentino Rossi (Ducati) finished sixth, in front of Czech rider Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing Ducati).

Toni Elias made a good launch off the start, putting his LCR Honda into eighth on the first lap from his 14th grid position.
The Moto2 Champion crossed the line in eighth position, with Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) in ninth and Loris Capirossi (Pramac Racing Ducati) in 10th.

Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) crashed out of the race on lap 14.

Anthony West (MZ) retired from the Moto2 race, won by Stefan Bradl (Kalex), while Arthur Sissis was ninth and seventh in the two Red Bull Rookies races at Silverstone.

Click on the follwoing link for full results and standings.

Round seven is at Assen from June 23-25.