Lorenzo wins as rivals tumble

From motogp.com

The battle for the 2009 MotoGP World Championship was blown wide open on Sunday at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix as Jorge Lorenzo scored a great win and his Fiat Yamaha colleague Valentino Rossi suffered his first DNF of the year.

Lorenzo eventually crossed the line with a 9.5-sec. winning margin to cut Rossi’s championship lead in half, as the deficit dropped from 50 to 25 points, with five races remaining.

Earlier in the race there was also a crash for Dani Pedrosa on the fourth lap when the pole man was leading the race. He bravely picked up his RC212V and rejoined in last place, doing well to finally finish in 10th position.

Following his two heartbreaking DNFs at Donington and Brno, Lorenzo’s title charge was revived in stunning fashion at Indianapolis on Sunday.

Having celebrated the victory in front of the Indy fans in his special edition Captain America helmet, Lorenzo commented, “What a day! In the World Championship if you want to win you have to be on the limit. In the last two races I was on the limit, trying to win, and I crashed, so it was a big disappointment. Today the situation has changed completely and now it has happened to Valentino and Dani unfortunately for them. However, for me, the situation is good.

“It was difficult to keep my concentration for 20 laps, because it was a little bit boring. Bit you cannot relax when it is like that because if you think about something else you could crash. Anyway, I had some fun on the last lap and it is a very nice feeling.”

Following Pedrosa’s fourth lap crash it looked as though Rossi and Lorenzo could be set for another classic battle as the World Champion attempted to repeat his 2008 Indianapolis success. However, a crash from out of nowhere when Rossi lost the front end on lap 9 handed Lorenzo the victory and now the championship advantage is down to 25 points with five rounds remaining.

The first of those remaining races is at Misano next weekend, where Rossi also won last year en route to his sixth premier class title and where he is sure to enjoy huge support from the passionate home crowd.

“Today is a disappointment of course," Rossi said. "We struggled here with the setting all weekend but we made an improvement today and I got a good start and was able to stay in touch with Pedrosa. Once he fell, I knew it would be between Jorge and I, but I honestly don’t know how it would have finished, because Jorge was very fast today.

“Obviously, it would have been better to have finished second than not to finish at all. Unfortunately I ran wide on to a dirty part of the track at turn 1 and lost the front. I tried to carry on but there was a problem with my throttle and it wasn’t possible. I want to congratulate Jorge for his victory and now we look forward to coming back to the front at Misano. We are still leading the championship and this is the most important thing.”

Behind Lorenzo there was a great ride from San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Alex de Angelis, who did his quest to remain in MotoGP no harm at all in second place, gaining his first ever premier class podium from fourth on the grid.

The young San Marino rider, who has his home event to look forward to next weekend, lost ground at the start of the Indy contest but fought back to overcome the experienced Colin Edwards early in the race.

Overtaking Edwards to move up to fourth, before benefiting from crashes for Pedrosa and Rossi, De Angelis held his nerve for the rest of the contest behind Lorenzo.

Still to secure a MotoGP ride for 2010, De Angelis said after the race, “I have to thank the team for the incredible job they have done this weekend. The bike has been fantastic ever since we unpacked it on Friday and we have gone from strength to strength over the course of the weekend. They also gave me a lot of confidence this morning and honestly I think they had more belief that I would be on the podium today than I did.”

Nicky Hayden also rode brilliantly after qualifying sixth, repeating his 2008 Indianapolis podium, this time in third position – his best result to date with Ducati. Hayden got the better of Andrea Dovizioso, despite a stiff challenge from the man who replaced him in the Repsol Honda team, the Italian yet again having to settle for fourth on the last lap.

"It is great to be on the podium," the 28-year-old Hayden said. "I am really happy. Everybody knows what a hard season it has been and to be honest it has been the biggest challenge of my life. We have hung in there and caught a couple of breaks today, and I was able to get on the podium again.

“He [Dovizioso] was all over me and I was getting a lot of heat so I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to hold on. It was all or nothing on the last couple of laps and I managed to hold him off, so hopefully we can just keep building on this. I am very pleased and I’m going to enjoy it.”

Adding to the American representation towards the front Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) finished in fifth place, while there was a late crash from Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing) when battling with James Toseland (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) for sixth. Melandri’s mishap left the Englishman to again equal his best ever MotoGP result.

The top 10 also featured Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), Mika Kallio (Ducati) and Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini). A special mention must go to Pramac Racing’s temporary replacement rider Aleix Espargaró who earned three points in 13th place on his MotoGP debut.

A good performance by World Champion Marco Simoncelli (Metis Gilera) kept his 250cc championship hopes alive as he crossed the line in first place, two seconds ahead of current standings leader Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing Team).

Ahead of his home event next weekend at Misano, the Italian did a great job from third on the grid, having crashed three times on Saturday, to claw back some extra crucial points in his title defence. Simoncelli now trails the Japanese rider by 27 points with five races remaining.

A five-way battle which lasted for the majority of the Indianapolis 125cc race went down to the very last lap and ultimately ended with Pol Espargaró (Derbi Racing Team) earning his first Grand Prix win.

The 18-year-old Spaniard made up for his disappointment in last year’s event, when he just missed out on the win, by judging the race to perfection and holding off his rivals on the last lap to win by 0.120 secs. from Briton Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar).

MotoGP Race Results
1. Jorge LORENZO (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 47:13.592 (149.976 km/h)
2. Alex DE ANGELIS (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda +9.435
3. Nicky HAYDEN (USA) Ducati Team Ducati +12.947
4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (ITA) Repsol Honda Team Honda +13.478
5. Colin EDWARDS (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +26.254
6. James TOSELAND (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +32.408
7. Loris CAPIROSSI (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki +34.400
8. Mika KALLIO (FIN) Ducati Team Ducati +34.856
9. Toni ELIAS (SPA) San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda +45.005
10. Dani PEDROSA (SPA) Repsol Honda Team Honda +45.377
11. Chris VERMEULEN (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki +45.478
12. Randy DE PUNIET (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP Honda +52.294
13. Aleix ESPARGARO (SPA) Pramac Racing Ducati +1:03.552
14. Gabor TALMACSI (HUN) Scot Racing Team MotoGP Honda +1:15.086
Not classified
Marco MELANDRI (ITA) Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki +3 Laps
Niccolo CANEPA (ITA) Pramac Racing Ducati +5 Laps
Valentino ROSSI (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha +16 Laps

MotoGP Point Standings
1. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha) 212
2. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha) 187
3. Casey STONER (Ducati) 150
4. Dani PEDROSA (Honda) 141
5. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha) 123
6. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda) 120
7. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda) 88
8. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki) 86
9. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda) 84
10. Marco MELANDRI (Kawasaki) 79
11. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki) 77
12. Nicky HAYDEN (Ducati) 73
13. James TOSELAND (Yamaha) 72
14. Toni ELIAS (Honda) 70
15. Mika KALLIO (Ducati) 42
16. Niccolo CANEPA (Ducati) 32
17. Sete GIBERNAU (Ducati) 12
18. Gabor TALMACSI (Honda) 10
19. Yuki TAKAHASHI (Honda) 9
20. Aleix ESPARGARO (Ducati) 3