Hitting the Apex Page #4

gonna have a better opportunity

to win a grand prix MotoGP race.

Oh! Simoncelli's going down!

Someone else gone, it is Simoncelli!

Oh, Simoncelli's gone down!

Marco Simoncelli, he's in line

for a first MotoGP podium

and crashes out at turn one.

There was no secret

that a few of us riders

were a little bit concerned

about his riding.

Simoncelli's gone down!

And he's taken with him Jorge Lorenzo.

I think the problem is that he's not

very conscious about the risks.

Many, many, many riders want

to make him a little calm in that time.

I was technical director at the time,

looking into race direction

and it's very, very similar

to early Lorenzo career

with talented, really, really, hungry

and full of confidence

and wanting to ride aggressively.

For him the race

is to be aggressive.

If you want to win,

the talents are all aggressive.

Valentino, when he started,

was a talent. He was aggressive.

Everybody's aggressive.

Dani Pedrosa was building his

strongest challenge for the title yet.

He took second in Spain

and won in Portugal.

Going into the fourth race in France,

he was just behind Lorenzo and ahead

of Stoner in the championship.

He now found himself fighting

for second place with Marco Simoncelli.

Saturday night, before the race

in Le Mans was a weekend

that had a lot of polemic on Marco

because he's too aggressive.

But I say to Marco, "Please, tomorrow,

keep attention to all the other guys,

because for sure all the people

want to look for your mistake."

And he said, "Ah, yeah, yeah,

good idea. I understand."

But unfortunately the next day...

Oh! Pedrosa's gone down!

Did he catch the back wheel there?

He holds his right collarbone.

Marco Simoncelli has been given

a ride-through penalty

for that move on Dani Pedrosa.

And Marco Simoncelli,

that first ever podium finish in MotoGP

has been wrenched from his hand.

What happened is

I broke my collarbone there.

I had to do two surgeries.

I lost the championship.

I was out for three races.

It was a harsh blow for Pedrosa.

He'd only just recovered from breaking

his other collar bone in 2010.

I'm so sorry for his crash

and for his injuries.

But for me,

I haven't done nothing incorrect.

Had he never done

anything wrong before,

he probably

wouldn't have copped that penalty.

It did make him think, his riding

was significantly better after that.

When he did the mistake

with Pedrosa especially,

he suffered very much

because people go to him and say,

"You are a d*ckhead!"

Because Pedrosa crash

and also have pain another time.

And Pedrosa was very angry with Marco.

And all the people in Spain

was very angry with Marco.

Before the race in Barcelona,

arrive a letter with no signature

with a gun.

Someone from Spain give him

a letter or a mail

with "I wanna kill you."

You can hear boos

as he laps the track by himself.

Dani Pedrosa, not here.

He'll have an operation

on that broken right collarbone.

And I remember that in Barcelona

we have a lot of bodyguards.

Two bodyguards for the weekend.

That makes everyone nervous, no?

He make pole position in practice.

It will be one more lap

for the former 250cc

world champion Simoncelli.

He's protecting that.

He's got pole! Marco

Simoncelli pulled it out of nowhere.

A 142.413! He's been second

in the last two rounds.

And he's pulled that

out of absolutely nowhere.

Marco Simoncelli, the rider who's been

at the center of all the talk,

all the debate, all the discussion

for the last couple of weeks

has now taken pole.

I wonder what kind of reception

he's gonna get

as he wheelies his way

around this circuit.

Simoncelli, despite all the boos

is giving them the wave.

Thank you.

I've got pole. Thank you.

Marco Simoncelli took

a careful sixth place in Catalunya.

Casey Stoner won.

Jorge Lorenzo was second.

His lead in the championship

shrinking to seven points.

Marco got a little bit too much

of an attack from people.

So he really backed off.

You saw his results suffering

because it was really affecting him.

Three races later,

Dani Pedrosa was back.

When I came back,

I didn't try to have a talk with him.

I kind of avoided.

I regret that. Because life

is too short to have enemies.

Simoncelli crashed out of

four of the first ten races that year.

But then... things changed.

My impression was that Marco

had changed during the last races.

He was more conscious of the risk

and he was trying

to be a more conscious rider.

When he started to come back

and his results started to get better,

all of a sudden,

he's racing like a true racer.

Marco Simoncelli has done it.

Marco Simoncelli has grabbed

his first MotoGP podium.

It's well deserved after everything

he's been through this season.

It feels unbelievable.

I'm really, really happy

and I want to say thanks to everybody

who never stopped believing in me

when I was in a difficult moment.

And everybody who helped me

to arrive here today.

With three races to go,

Lorenzo was the only rider

with any hope of beating Stoner

in the championship.

There were 65 points between them.

The odds were stacked

against the Spaniard.

But you never know,

Stoner might make a mistake.

He didn't.

Oh! Lorenzo goes down.

When he went down,

the fingers of Lorenzo's left hand

were trapped between the clutch lever

and the handle bar.

The lever amputated the tip

of his ring finger.

It was a horrible morning for Lorenzo.

But a great afternoon for Casey Stoner.

Casey Stoner now is closing up

on the 2011 MotoGP world championship.

Simoncelli in second place.

Everybody stands in Phillip Island.

Casey Stoner

wins the Australian Grand Prix.

The 2011 world champion!

I won the home grand prix.

I think it was our fifth in a row there.

Won the second world championship

on my birthday.

That's a pretty special day.

Marco Simoncelli was back

on the podium at Phillip Island,

second place his best result yet.

Casey did a great season this year

and he won the title

because this year

he has been number one,

the strongest rider in the track

in every condition and in every race.

My congratulation and also I want to say

good luck to Lorenzo for his injury.

Stoner might have locked up

the title, but the fight was still on.

For a racer, all that ever matters

is the next race.

There were two to go.

I hope to continue to work in

the right way and finish on the podium.

Maybe I hope, also, to stay

on the first step of the podium.

The next race was

at Marco Simoncelli's track.

His nickname, Sic,

is also the acronym of the circuit

which had seen the biggest moments

of his career to date.

SIC Circuit.

I remember the first time

we went there

we found all these SIC T-shirts.

His mum and I bought loads of them.

Because they were

just the thing for us.

It stood

for Sepang International Circuit

but it was

one of those strange coincidences.

At the end of lap one,

Simoncelli was fighting Alvaro Bautista

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