SECOND STRAIGHT WIN FOR STONER, ANOTHER TOUGH ONE FOR MELANDRI
 Casey
Stoner took his second consecutive victory and his third of
the season at Assen, to complete a clean sweep after taking
pole position and setting the fastest lap of the race. The
Australian dominated the race from start to finish, closing
the gap to new series leader Dani Pedrosa to 29 points and
bringing himself to within 25 of Valentino Rossi in second
place.
On a day of typically changeable weather in Holland, Stoner
started out well with the fastest time in a wet warm-up before
carrying his dominance into the race. After briefly conceding
the lead to Dani Pedrosa on the first lap he quickly reasserted
himself and opened out an advantage that eventually stretched
to 11.310 seconds over the Spaniard.
Marco Melandri, who was himself impressive during the warm-up
when he set the seventh fastest time, was unable to reproduce
that form in the dry and eventually crossed the line in thirteenth
place.
CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1st
"We knew we had the pace to win today but sometimes
coming into race day that can make you even more nervous because
you know the only thing that can go wrong is yourself! I was
also worried about the weather and after watching the 125
race I thought it would be typical to start raining whilst
I was in the lead. Thankfully that wasn't the case and I was
able to get out front, put my head down and concentrate on
doing the times we've been doing all weekend in dry conditions.
I'm sorry Valentino crashed because this isn't necessarily
the way I wanted to recover points on him, but at the end
of the day we've had our fair share of bad luck this year
too and racing is an unpredictable game. Now it seems fortune
is favouring us but more than that I've really got to take
my hat off to Ducati and to my team. They've been doing such
a good job over the past few races to get us back on the pace
again and make us consistently competitive, so I want to say
'thank you' to all of them."
MARCO MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team) 13th
"It would have been good for me to have a wet race today.
This morning things were going better and I was quite satisfied
with the bike. Compared to yesterday the situation was much
better, even though the front end still wasn't perfect. Unfortunately
though you can't do anything about the weather, the race was
run in the dry and the problems we've been having with the
bike returned. I can't get it into the corner, I can't make
it turn and I'm losing so much grip, especially with a full
fuel tank. It was a very difficult race."
LIVIO SUPPO (Ducati MotoGP Project Leader)
"I think that today Casey has once again shown not only
that he has extraordinary talent but also great mental strength.
Apart from Qatar it has been a tough start to the season for
us but he has never lost his belief and that shows great character.
We also need to thank Filippo, Vitto and all the guys at home
once more because they have never stopped working to give
Casey the technical support he needed to recreate that level
of confidence and become unbeatable again, as he has been
in the last two races. Huge thanks also go to our sponsors
and technical partners, especially Bridgestone and Shell,
who have always given us extraordinary support. Marco had
shown promising signs in warm-up, which I think was his best
ever wet session with us, but unfortunately he couldn't repeat
it in the dry during the race. Now he has two races on tracks
he likes so we hope that this can help him discover a good
feeling with his bike."
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