Lorenzo thrilled to return to podium

Jorge Lorenzo was delighted to end his podium drought at Misano, four months after he last finished in the top three.

The Yamaha rider had made an astonishing start to his rookie season - taking three straight pole positions, winning at Estoril in only his third MotoGP start.

But after scoring four podium finishes in his first five races, Lorenzo struggled all summer due to a series of confidence-sapping accidents and a lack of pace from his Michelin tyres.

He rebounded at Misano this weekend however, qualifying on the front row for the first time since his last pole in Portugal, and following teammate Valentino Rossi home for a one-two in the race.

"I'm happy to be here on the podium again, four months after Le Mans, the last race where we got it," Lorenzo said.

The Spaniard said he had tried to challenge Rossi for the victory after Casey Stoner crashed out of the lead, but decided to settle for second rather than risk another accident.

"After Stoner crashed, I wanted to win," Lorenzo said.

"But to follow Valentino was very difficult and I had to take so many risks, so I preferred to finish second and to gain the confidence that we haven't had for the past three months."

Having carried injuries for much of the season, Lorenzo said he was now back to full fitness, and believes only Michelin's deficiencies are now preventing him from getting back to winning form.

"I am fine now, healthily speaking," he told BBC television. "We still have some problems with the tyres, but when we solve those maybe we can get a victory."

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Stoner confident injury won't slow him

Casey Stoner is confident that his injured wrist will not cause him any difficulty in tomorrow's San Marino Grand Prix.

The world champion aggravated an old injury in practice yesterday and had to reorganise his programme today to avoid putting too much pressure on his wrist.

But after taking a seventh straight pole in qualifying, Stoner said he was not anticipating any problems on race day.

"The injury isn't actually that bad, it's just sometimes when I go into corners if I twist it a little bit the wrong way or the bike shakes, that's when the pain shoots up your arm," Stoner told BBC television.

"It's basically an old injury of mine that's got some small fractures floating around the middle of it, and then when they get trapped in between the bone, it starts sending electric shocks up my arm.

"It's kind of annoying, but if everything goes alright then it doesn't affect me too much."

Although Stoner ultimately took pole at Misano by half a second, he said it had been a challenging session.

"We struggled a little bit in this afternoon's session," he admitted in the post-qualifying press conference.

"We were trying to change the set-up a little bit so we were a bit happier, and the bike that we did the quickest time on this morning just didn't seem to work this afternoon. Then we went back to the other set-up that we had this morning and it seemed to work better, so we're a little confused at the moment.

"But we're really happy with the lap times we're doing on race tyres at the moment. What I was worried about was that we only had time to get two qualifiers in. We always have three and most people have more. But unfortunately when we were testing the race set-up, we ran out of time.

"So I was very happy and very lucky to stay on pole position with only two qualifiers."

Despite his run of poles, Stoner has not won since the Sachsenring in July, having been beaten by Valentino Rossi in a fraught race at Laguna Seca, and having crashed out of lead at Brno a fortnight ago.

He said these events proved that his dominant practice and qualifying form did not necessarily guarantee a race win.

"We've been working quite well all weekend, as at past weekends, but it doesn't always work out," Stoner told the BBC. "So we're just going to have to wait for tomorrow and then try to do the right job."

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Talmacsi wins as di Meglio crashes

Reigning 125cc champion Gabor Talmacsi boosted his title chances by winning today's San Marino Grand Prix just as championship leader Mike di Meglio scored no points with a crash.

The Hungarian made a perfect start from pole position and together with Briton Bradley Smith immediately opened up a gap to the rest of the field.

The two Aprilia riders exchanged the lead only when Talmacsi outbraked himself on lap 12 of 23, when the chasing pack was over seven seconds behind.

But three laps later the Bancaja Aspar rider overtook his Polaris World rival back, after which Smith was content with his second place and ended up over five seconds behind the winner at the flag.

Aprilia's Simone Corsi took a hard-fought third place after first battling it out with di Meglio, and then with Joan Olive.

The Frenchman diced with the Italian from around lap ten to lap 15, when he crashed on the bumps from third position. On that same lap Stefan Bradl retired with a mechanical problem on his Aprilia.

It was then Olive's turn to fight for the last podium place, but after Corsi overtook the Spaniard on the last lap, the Derbi rider dropped the bike while trying to retake the position. He did manage to rejoin, but could only finish 12th.

Marc Marquez finished fourth with his KTM, ahead of the Aprilias of Nicolas Terol, Andrea Iannone and Simone Cortese.

Di Meglio is still in the lead of the championship, but now the gap has reduced to 28 points over Corsi and 39 over Talmacsi.

CLASSIFIED: Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Gabor Talmacsi Aprilia 40:03.679 2. Bradley Smith Aprilia + 5.402 3. Simone Corsi Aprilia + 14.388 4. Marc Marquez KTM + 17.058 5. Nicolas Terol Aprilia + 17.321 6. Andrea Iannone Aprilia + 17.482 7. Sandro Cortese Aprilia + 17.485 8. D.Agerter Derbi + 18.657 9. Esteve Rabat KTM + 19.148 10. Sergio Gadea Aprilia + 34.650 11. Efren Vazquez Aprilia + 34.855 12. Joan Olive Derbi + 39.394 13. Michael Ranseder Aprilia + 47.304 14. Daniel Webb Aprilia + 53.241 15. Jonas Folger KTM + 53.349 16. Jules Cluzel Loncin +1:01.903 17. Marco Ravaioli Aprilia +1:04.165 18. Tomoyoshi Koyama KTM +1:06.235 19. Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia +1:06.260 20. Robin Lasser Aprilia +1:07.200 21. Gabriele Ferro Honda +1:21.814 22. Bastien Chesaux Aprilia +1:22.521 23. Louis Rossi Honda +1:35.247 24. H.van den Berg Aprilia +1:39.723 25. Luca Vitali Aprilia + 1 Lap 26. R.Krummenacher KTM + 2 Laps NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS: Rider Bike Laps Mike Di Meglio Derbi 14 Stefan Bradl Aprilia 14 Lorenzo Zanetti KTM 14 Pol Espargaro Derbi 12 Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 12 Raffaele De Rosa KTM 10 Alexis Masbou Loncin 6 Gennaro Sabatino Aprilia 6 Pablo Nieto KTM 4 Steve Bonsey Aprilia 3 Scott Redding Aprilia 1 Riccardo Moretti Honda 0 Adrian Martin Aprilia 0 FASTEST LAP: Talmacsi, 1:43.839 on lap 13

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Kawasaki determined to bounce back

Kawasaki are pinning their hopes on tomorrow's post-race test at Misano after a disastrous race that saw Anthony West and John Hopkins finish at the tail of the field.

The duo were off the pace all weekend, with Hopkins struggling to get to grips with his set-up after missing Friday practice having aggravated a previous injury, and West tumbling back down the order after his Brno breakthrough.

"This weekend has been frustratingly tough for us," said Hopkins. "Having aggravated the injury to my rib we missed two sessions and basically ran out of time to set the bike up.

"We got a good start to the race, but I was suffering with quite a lot of discomfort from the injury and I just couldn't push as hard as I wanted to. We're struggling with a few problems with the front-end feeling, but again, that's simply down to a lack of track time.

"All of the other Bridgestone riders are on a different specification tyre, and this is something we need time to test as I think it will make a big difference for us.

"I'm having some intense treatment overnight and hopefully we can get plenty of laps under our belt tomorrow to put us in better stead for my home race in Indianapolis."

Team boss Michel Bartholemy admitted that Hopkins' confidence is currently at a low ebb, but he hopes his rider can turn things around at the test.

"After suffering with so many challenges lately, he is quite down," said Bartholemy. "It's always tough coming back from an injury, but he knows that he needs to put that behind him, get his head down and get on with securing the results we know he's capable of.

"I hope he can take advantage of tomorrow's test to catch up on the set-up time he's lost through injury, because a successful test will be just the thing to motivate him for the next race in Indianapolis."

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Hayden says injury slowing him down

Nicky Hayden says he is still being hindered by the injury that sidelined him from the Czech Grand Prix two weeks ago.

The Repsol Honda rider was forced to miss the race after injuring his foot at an X Games event in Los Angeles.

Hayden was back in action today at Misano, where the American finished as 11th fastest in practice.

The former world champion said he was still in pain when turning right.

"Things went pretty decent, considering," said Hayden. "Not fantastic or nothing, but the bike was working pretty good, the tyres were working a lot better than they have the last couple of weeks, so a big thanks to Michelin for doing a good job here.

"It's not the most pleasant ride of my life, but I expected that. In some of the right-hand corners I'm probably not as quick as I should be, but in T2 and T4 which are pretty much all left-hand corners I'm one of the quickest.

"In some of the rights the injury is a little bit of a hindrance, but it's not a big deal. I don't want to be a drama queen and make a big deal of it, I'm not the first guy who's ridden injured. It's just the way it is and the main thing is that it's good to be back."

Teammate Dani Pedrosa completed a low-key day for Repsol Honda, the Spaniard finishing in 12th position as he continues to work on returning to form after his injury.

"It's been a difficult but important day," said Pedrosa. "We're not happy with the result but I am happy because we are working to get me back into my rhythm which I had lost after missing Laguna, doing no real training in the summer break and then having lots of problems at Brno.

"We had a long debrief at the end of today, analysing all the data, and for sure we can improve our lap times tomorrow.

"Conditions here are quite extreme, it's very hot. We have been testing some new tyres and we still have more to test tomorrow, when we will see what kind of shape we'll be in for the race. We will keep working hard."

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Suzuki riders content with their race

Rizla Suzuki riders Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi are happy with their San Marino MotoGP performances today after difficult starts to their race.

The Australian, who made a good start from seventh on the grid, managed to save a high-side on the second corner, however causing him to lose several position and damage his bike's fairing.

But the ex-Superbike rider had a strong run through the field and recovered several position to finish in fifth place.

"I got a good start and, although I got pushed a bit wide in the first turn, I still thought I'd hold on to my position," he said.

"But as I entered turn two the rear tyre was just not warm enough and I had a big slide. I thought it was all over then, but luckily I landed back on the bike and although I smashed the fairing with my leg no harm was done.

"I didn't quite have the pace that I have had this weekend which was probably due to the higher temperatures, and we certainly slid around a bit more today.

"This is the first time we have raced with the new chassis and with the new construction front tyre that Bridgestone brought here for us, so with all things considered - and from where I ended the first lap - I think we had a good race.

"The tyres worked especially well and I did my fastest time on lap 25 out of the 28 - it was just a shame I wasn't with the front group from the beginning or things might have been very different."

Capirossi, on his record-breaking 277th Grand Prix race, struggled with set-up problems throughout the weekend and was forced to start the race with a new front tyre.

The veteran Italian lacked the right feeling in the tyre at the beginning of the race, but as it got better he was able to fight with the rest of the field.

The Imola-born rider got in a last-lap dice with Tech 3 Yamaha's James Toseland, but couldn't make his move on the Briton stick and had to settle for seventh at the flag.

"It has been quite a hard weekend for me as we have been working a lot on the new chassis and getting it right," said Capirossi.

"I really want to thank my team as they have all worked so hard to get it the best it can be. I think maybe we changed too many things on the bike and lost our way a bit, but at the end the bike seemed to work ok.

"This morning during warm-up we went back a bit and then on the grid I had to change my front tyre and had to start with a new one that didn't have the right feeling to start with. The tyre soon got better and in the end I didn't go too badly.

"I made a big fight on the last lap and tried to overtake, but I made a little mistake and couldn't quite hold it, but for my 277th Grand Prix it was not too bad."

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Hayden to miss San Marino GP

Nicky Hayden will not race in today's San Marino Grand Prix at Misano due to the foot injury that also kept him out of the last race at Brno.

The Repsol Honda rider injured his right heel landing from a jump in the X Games in Los Angeles during the six-week summer and had to sit out the Czech Grand Prix two weeks ago.

He rode in the practice and qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday of this weekend, but missed the warm-up this morning and will not start the race.

Hayden had qualified just 16th, two seconds off the pace of polesitter Casey Stoner, and also crashed at the end of the second practice session.

He admitted that the injury was affecting his riding and that he was barely able to use the rear brake. He decided this morning to sit out today's race and rest the injury ahead of his home round at Indianapolis in a fortnight.

"After the first session, I thought it would be alright, but as weekend has gone on I've lost strength in foot," he said. "This morning was by far the worst it's been so we decided not to risk more damage and the medical team advised me to rest up for Indy."

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