Stoner wins at Aragon MotoGP, extends championship lead

Stoner started from pole, but slipped behind Pedrosa and Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) off the start line. However, the Aussie got the lead back within the first lap, then stretched out a margin over Pedrosa. By the finish, the lead was over eight seconds. Stoner also recorded the fastest pole position (1'48.451) and fastest race lap (1'49.046) at the MotorLand circuit. The victory was a double celebration for Repsol Honda, with Stoner's resultgiving thesquadtheir 100th GP win.

Both Stoner and Pedrosa were running special livery for the Aragon around, a joint venture between Repsol Honda and fashion designer David Delfin. According to Delfin, the livery was inspired by superheroes, with prominent stars replacing the traditional Repsol livery.

Behind the top three on the track, Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) crossed the linesix seconds behind Lorenzo to take fourth, a strong finish for the Italian despite running off track during his first attempt at passing Spies. Starting on the front row, Spies had a great start, leading into turn one in front of Stoner and Pedrosa, but both Repsol Honda riders had passed him by lap two, and the American finished the race in fifth place.

Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) crossed the line sixth from an eleventh place start, passing Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) on lap 10 and holding the position to the finish line. Hayden and Héctor Barberá had a scrap for seventh, with the American passing the Mapfre Aspar rider on the penultimate lap.

Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) finished ninth, ahead of Valentino Rossi who started his Ducati Team machine from Pit Lane having used his seventh engine of the season in the warm up. The early laps saw Rossi put in a blazing performance to catch and pass the tail end of the field, but the problems with the Ducati that have plagued the Italian all season continued to manifest themselves at Aragon, and Rossi was unable to progress any further than tenth. Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) finished 11th.

A first lap crash for Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) caused Randy De Puniet to run off track to avoid the Czech rider, the Frenchman rejoining the race to finish 12th. Any hopes of a Repsol Honda 1-2-3 were dashed when Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) also fell on the first lap and was unable to rejoin. Loris Capirossi (Pramac Racing), who recently announced his retirement,collided with Toni Elías (LCR Honda) on lap 15, both riders going down in the gravel.

Gran Premio de Aragon
Race Classification
1. Casey STONER
2. Dani PEDROSA
3. Jorge LORENZO
4. Marco SIMONCELLI
5. Ben SPIES
6. Alvaro BAUTISTA
7. Nicky HAYDEN
8. Hector BARBERA
9. Cal CRUTCHLOW
10. Valentino ROSSI

Championship Classification - after 14 of 18 rounds
1. STONER - 284
2. LORENZO - 240
3. DOVIZIOSO - 185
4. PEDROSA - 170
5. SPIES - 146

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