Rossi stuns Lorenzo

Source: Agencies | June 15, 2009, Monday |

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VALENTINO Rossi won his 99th career MotoGP race at the Catalunya Grand Prix yesterday after overtaking teammate Jorge Lorenzo on the last bend.

Rossi finished in 43 minutes, 11.897 seconds to beat Lorenzo by 0.095 seconds. Casey Stoner finished third. The trio is now tied on 106 points in the overall standings after six races in the 17-race season.

"I'm happy, very happy. I congratulate Jorge, he gave me one hell of a final lap," said Rossi.

Lorenzo, who had started in pole position, traded the lead several times with Rossi in a hard-fought head-to-head race in sweltering heat at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.

"I wasn't expecting him to take me at that point but he was more courageous than me and deserved the win," Lorenzo said.

Yuki Takahashi fell and hit the crash barrier hard in the opening lap, and Toni Elias lost grip on his rear tire and fell into the gravel.

The big talking point of the day was the finish in the 125cc category, where race leader Julian Simon mistakenly started celebrating after crossing the finish line with one lap still to go.

That allowed Andrea Iannone to seize the lead and the victory, with Simon not realizing his mistake until he saw his crew gesticulating to him to carry on racing.

"I reacted too hastily, I thought I'd seen the final lap marker on the start of the lap but should have known better when I didn't see the checkered flag when I crossed the line," Simon said.

Motorcycling

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Rossi stuns Lorenzo

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