Lorenzo stretches lead; Pedrosa crashes

From motogp.com

Jorge Lorenzo’s MotoGP World Championship lead was stretched to 72 points at Laguna Seca on Sunday as the Fiat Yamaha rider won the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix ahead of Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi, in a race that saw Dani Pedrosa crash out when leading.

A trademark lightning start from Pedrosa saw him lead into turn one of the first lap and the Spaniard appeared to be making a similar break for victory as he had done in the previous round, as he led for the early part of the race while setting a fierce pace.

However, on lap 11 and with Lorenzo pressuring him for the lead the Repsol Honda rider crashed out at turn five, leaving his fellow Spaniard to take his M1 to a sixth win of the season as he tasted victory on the Californian circuit for the first time.

In second place at 3.517 secs. behind Ducati Team rider Stoner scored his best result of the season so far – his fourth podium in a row – and a comfortable finish with a distance of almost 10 seconds back to third place. That was taken by Rossi, the reigning World Champion achieving a superb podium finish in only his second race back from injury and one which he worked hard for throughout the race.

“I rode very well today, at the limit," said the 23-year-old Lorenzo. "I started well with the clutch but a lot of riders overtook me on the outside by the first corner, so I had to take a lot of risks to overtake Spies. Then Stoner made a mistake in a corner and I overtook him… I didn’t make my best start of the season!

“Dani was impressive and was pushing so much at the limit as well, and I knew it was possible for him to crash. That happened and then it was quite easy to finish the race.”

Stoner’s second place came after a weekend of exhaustive work from the Australian and his Ducati Team crew, as he took his best result of 2010. The finish was made all the more impressive given the front-end issues Stoner said he had been struggling with during the race.

“We tried everything we could this weekend and everything was working more or less as well as it has been all year,” he began. “At the beginning of the race everything felt pretty good and once I got the tires up to temperature I wanted to try and make a pass on Dani… as soon as I tried to close in on him a little bit I lost the front and ran it wide. It happened again, and a lap or two later I lost the front too much and basically ran very wide and Jorge was able to get through.

“For me it just wasn’t worth it, I had to ease off a bit and the rest of the corners seemed okay. I put up the best fight I possibly could, but it wasn’t enough today again. I can always come back in the next race in Brno and see what happens. We are happy with the overall weekend.”

Stoner set a new lap record of 1:21.376 early in the race before he started to experience problems.

“I knew we were able to run some pretty quick lap times but when I started to lose the confidence the lap times were gone," he added. "It was important to finish the race. I thought there might have been a bit more of a battle but as soon as I saw Dani go down I knew he was obviously having similar issues to me.”

Just 51 days after suffering the injury at Mugello which had threatened to rule him out for much longer, Rossi was back on the podium.

The reigning World Champion rose from sixth on the starting grid to work his way up the field, passing Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) five laps from the end of the physically demanding 32-lap race and holding off his fellow Italian to complete a remarkable achievement.

“It was a difficult race but also a difficult weekend because this track is very demanding on the body. I suffered a lot, also during the practice sessions,” explained a drained but delighted Rossi. “We improved the setting of the bike and I was confident of having a good race, but at the beginning it was very difficult to get into a good rhythm and I lost a lot of time.”

As the tires started to go off toward the end there were changes further down the order, as Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) fought for the honour of highest placing American, a duel that presented plenty of enthralling moments of its own.

Hayden edged out Spies for fifth place, with the latter’s team-mate Colin Edwards seventh. The top 10 was completed by Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team), Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki).

The remaining two riders to finish the race in 11th and 12th were Roger Lee Hayden (LCR Honda) and Alex de Angelis (Interwetten Honda MotoGP).

There were early ends to the race for rookies Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) and Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar), the former of whom crashed while the latter retired, neither making it past lap four.

Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) suffered the disappointment of crashing out two-thirds of the way through the race when battling with team-mate Melandri for eighth, while Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Racing) fell three laps from the end when in a top-10 position.

Lorenzo now has 210 points, with Pedrosa remaining second in the standings on 138 and Dovizioso third on 115.

Despite his very healthy advantage in the overall standings at the halfway point of the season Lorenzo has no room for complacency, and he indicated that the title is far from decided.

“We have a big lead in the Championship, it’s easier than before this race, but this is not the first time a rider has had such a big gap in the Championship,” he stated.

Race Results
1. Jorge LORENZO (SPA) Fiat Yamaha 43:54.873
2. Casey STONER (AUS) Ducati +3.517
3. Valentino ROSSI (ITA) Fiat Yamaha +13.420
4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (ITA) Repsol Honda +14.188
5. Nicky HAYDEN (USA) Ducati +14.601
6. Ben SPIES (USA) Monster Tech 3 Yamaha +19.037
7. Colin EDWARDS (USA) Monster Tech 3 Yamaha +40.721
8. Marco MELANDRI (ITA) San Carlo Gresini Honda +47.219
9. Mika KALLIO (FIN) Pramac Ducati +52.813
10. Loris CAPIROSSI (ITA) Rizla Suzuki +52.814
11. Roger Lee HAYDEN (USA) LCR Honda +1:14.089
12. Alex DE ANGELIS (RSM) Interwetten Honda +1:14.666
Not Classified
Aleix ESPARGARO (SPA) Pramac Ducati +4 Laps
Marco SIMONCELLI (ITA) San Carlo Gresini Honda +14 Laps
Dani PEDROSA (SPA) Repsol Honda +21 Laps
Hector BARBERA (SPA) Paginas Amarillas Aspar Ducati +29 Laps
Alvaro BAUTISTA (SPA) Rizla Suzuki +30 Laps

Point Standings
1. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha) 210
2. Dani PEDROSA (Honda) 138
3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda) 115
4. Casey STONER (Ducati) 103
5. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha) 90
6. Nicky HAYDEN (Ducati) 89
7. Ben SPIES (Yamaha) 77
8. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda) 69
9. Marco MELANDRI (Honda) 53
10. Marco SIMONCELLI (Honda) 49
11. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha) 48
12. Hector BARBERA (Ducati) 41
13. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki) 36
14. Mika KALLIO (Ducati) 31
15. Aleix ESPARGARO (Ducati) 28
16. Alvaro BAUTISTA (Suzuki) 25
17. Hiroshi AOYAMA (Honda) 18
18. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda) 8
19. Roger Lee HAYDEN (Honda) 5
20. Kousuke AKIYOSHI (Honda) 4
21. Wataru YOSHIKAWA (Yamaha) 1