Rossi takes first win of the year

Valentino Rossi pops a wheelie exiting a turn

A crowd of more than 120,000 fans at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit witnessed a victory for Valentino Rossi in the first European race of 2009.

Rossi took his first win of the season at the Gran Premio bwin.com de EspaÃ±a on Sunday, beating Dani Pedrosa to the line by a 2.7s margin in front of a huge Spanish crowd in Andalusia.

Pedrosa led for the first half of the race having made one of his trademark strong starts from second on the grid, but Rossi took the lead with ten laps to go and did not look back there and his triumph gives him an 11 point lead in the general standings.

The rostrum was completed by Casey Stoner, who trailed Rossi by 10 seconds, the Ducati Marlboro rider moving into second place in the championship. It was the Australian’s first podium appearance at the southern Spanish track.

As was the case in the 250cc and 125cc races the Spanish rider who got underway in pole position crashed out when Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo lost control riding in fourth place with three laps to go, losing ground in the championship race.

An excellent performance from Randy de Puniet, meanwhile, saw the Frenchman bring his LCR Honda satellite machine home in fourth place, having qualified in that position, to give himself a confidence boost ahead of his home GP in two weeks time at Le Mans.

Another excellent run from Marco Melandri gave the Italian another good points haul in fifth, the former Ducati and Honda rider improving on his good result from last weekend in Japan for the Kawasaki-equipped Hayate Racing team.

Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi rode steadily from sixth on the grid, to come home in the same position, meaning five different manufacturers were represented in the top six.

Monster Tech Yamaha’s Colin Edwards crossed the line seventh, whilst Andrea Dovizioso did well to finish eighth in his third ride for the factory Repsol Honda team having left the track at one stage. Toni ElÃas was the second best Spaniard in ninth for the San Carlo Honda Gresini team, with the top ten completed by Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen.

Sete Gibernau on his return to Jerez could only manage 11th for the Grupo Francisco Hernando team, whilst 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden crossed the line 15th.

The MotoGP stars return to action at the Grand Prix de France in a fortnight’s time.

Results

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Motorcycle	Gap
1	25	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Fiat Yamaha Team	Yamaha	0.000
2	20	3	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	2.700
3	16	27	Casey STONER	AUS	Ducati Marlboro Team	Ducati	10.507
4	13	14	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	LCR Honda MotoGP	Honda	31.893
5	11	33	Marco MELANDRI	ITA	Hayate Racing Team	Kawasaki	33.128
6	10	65	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	34.128
7	9	5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	34.421
8	8	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	34.625
9	7	24	Toni ELIAS	SPA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	42.689
10	6	7	Chris VERMEULEN	AUS	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	45.183
11	5	59	Sete GIBERNAU	SPA	Grupo Francisco Hernando	Ducati	48.192
12	4	72	Yuki TAKAHASHI	JPN	Scot Racing Team MotoGP	Honda	51.875
13	3	52	James TOSELAND	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	53.683
14	2	15	Alex DE ANGELIS	RSM	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	53.941
15	1	69	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Marlboro Team	Ducati	1'01.237
16	0	88	Niccolo CANEPA	ITA	Pramac Racing	Ducati	1'10.896
17	0	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Fiat Yamaha Team	Yamaha	4 Lap
18	0	36	Mika KALLIO	FIN	Pramac Racing	Ducati	15 Lap