25/06/2011
Spies was untouchable today, finishing seven seconds ahead of Stoner
By David Miller
Image by Yamaha Racing
Factory Yamaha’s Ben Spies has taken his debut MotoGP win today at Assen but it was overshadowed by a big error from Gresini Honda’s Marco Simoncelli which saw him take out reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo on the very first lap.
Simoncelli slid up the inside of Lorenzo into the first left-hander of De Strubben and then highsided on a cold tyre right in front of the Spaniard, taking them both into the gravel trap and handing Spies a huge advantage. Both riders re-mounted and it is either a testament to how good a rider Lorenzo is or how bad slow everyone else is that he came back through the field to take sixth. Simoncelli, who had to bump start his RC212V himself, managed to finish in ninth place.
Spies, meanwhile, opened a four-second advantage in the space of two laps over the Repsol Honda pairing of Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso which he then stretched to more than seven seconds by time the chequered flag came out. Stoner didn’t need to chase him as it was 20 easy points.
Marlboro Ducati’s Valentino Rossi had a brief scrap with Cal Crutchlow for fourth before the Monster Yamaha man had to pit in with a shot front tyre which looked like it had cold-torn. Nicky Hayden finished behind his team-mate in fifth with Lorenzo sixth and Colin Edwards seventh. That was it…
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