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Marco Melandri became the fourth rider to defeat
MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi this
season after a thrilling first race at the
Istanbul Park circuit in Turkey. The Italian
youngster clinched his maiden premier-class
victory with a performance that reflected his
dominance throughout free practice this weekend,
despite having conceded pole position to his
team-mate Sete Gibernau on the final lap of
qualifying yesterday afternoon.
Melandri snatched the lead from Gibernau in the
first corner and, after briefly conceding his
position on lap four, he was back in front just
two laps later as the Spaniard ran into the
gravel and saw his chance of winning his first
race this season disappear. Whilst Rossi
recovered from a bad start to pile on the
pressure over the final few laps, Melandri held
firm to take the chequered flag with a
comfortable advantage of 1.513 seconds.
“I haven’t won a race since Valencia in 2002
so this is the perfect way to end a wonderful
weekend for me,” said Melandri, who had stood
on the top step of the 250cc and 125cc podiums
on seventeen occasions before moving up to the
MotoGP class in 2003. “I was disappointed to
lose pole position yesterday but it taught me an
important lesson for today and I just tried to
ride without putting pressure on myself. I had
fun and focused on my rhythm, even when
Valentino got close I just kept taking it lap by
lap. I have had bad luck and injuries this year
so to come back and end the season like this is
unbelievable.”
Second place for Rossi represented his fifteenth
podium finish from sixteen races this season but
it also means that the Italian will not be able
to break Mick Doohan’s record of twelve race
victories for a single season, with one
remaining chance to equal the Australian’s
total in the final round of the season at
Valencia in two weeks’ time. Whilst Gibernau
returned to the track in fourth place he could
do nothing to prevent Nicky Hayden from
clinching his third consecutive podium placing,
with the American now trailing Melandri by nine
points in the chase for second place in the
championship.
Colin Edwards’ chances of beating the Honda
youngsters to the coveted runner-up spot are all
but over after the Texan could only muster
seventh place in today’s race behind Carlos
Checa and Toni Elías, who passed his Yamaha
colleague with a daring pass on the final lap.
Edwards now cuts a distant figure in fourth
place in the championship, 21 points adrift of
Melandri.
Whilst Makoto Tamada, Alex Barros and Shinya
Nakano completed the top ten, Chris Vermeulen
capped an impressive second weekend in MotoGP as
a replacement for Troy Bayliss by clinching
eleventh place. The Australian’s performance
was made all the more remarkable by the fact
that he finished ahead of Honda colleague Max
Biaggi, as well as other full-time riders such
as Rubén Xaus and John Hopkins.
Casey Stoner bounced back from the
disappointment of seeing his 250cc World
Championship chances disappear in his home round
at Phillip Island seven days ago by taking
victory in the first ever quarter-litre race at
this circuit. Stoner led the race from the first
corner and held off a late challenge from
recently crowned double-World Champion Dani
Pedrosa to become the first Australian rider
ever to score five wins in a season in the
class. Hiroshi Aoyama completed the podium after
an intense battle with pole setter Alex de
Angelis, who crashed in the final corner but was
able to remount and finish seventh.
Thomas Lüthi missed out on the chance to become
125cc World Champion after his only remaining
rival for the title crashed. Mika Kallio slid
out of the battle for victory on the final lap,
meaning a podium finish for Lüthi would have
been enough to seal the title. However, a
frantic finale saw the Swiss teenager cross the
line at the back of the lead group in fifth
place, meaning he now needs at least two points
from the last round at Valencia. French teenager
Mike Di Meglio celebrated his maiden victory and
was joined on the podium by Mattia Pasini and
Tomoyoshi Koyama.
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Travel Turkey - 2005
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