Jorge Lorenzo wins US MotoGP, 9-time World Champion Valentino Rossi claims third place
Spain’s Dani Pedrosa missed out on his second win in as many races as he suffered a fateful crash with just one-third of the distance remaining, handing over the lead to his compatriot Jorge Lorenzo, who extended his lead in the championship points table to 72 points.
Pedrosa will be bitterly disappointed by the fateful events of the race, as he had the perfect chance to cut Lorenzo’s lead considerably but instead, it was the other way round.
This was Lorenzo’s sixth win of the season with four of them coming in the last 5 races; it would have been five out of five had Pedrosa not spoiled the party last week in Germany.
Pedrosa started fourth on the grid but a rocket start saw him seize the lead as early as the first lap, and at one point he was leading Casey Stoner and Lorenzo by over a second.
However, on the 11th lap, he lost the front part of his Honda while entering the uphill turn 5 and his Honda slid into the gravels; his machine somersaulted a couple of times before crashing into the tyre barrier on the side.
The crash handed over the lead to Lorenzo, who had already passed the Ducati of Stoner and was leading the Australian by more than three seconds. Lorenzo controlled his pace masterfully for the rest of the race, and drove with exquisite finesse and panache to drive past the chequered flag ahead of Stoner and Rossi.
This was only Rossi’s second race back after the horrific leg break that he suffered almost six weeks ago, and after just missing out on a podium finish in Germany last week, the nine-time World Champion crossed the finishing line ahead of Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso with more than a 14 second gap.
Rossi overtook the Honda of Andrea Dovizioso with seven laps left after he had run side by side with his rival before finally sweeping past the Italian before Andretti Hairpin.
Ben Spies, Dovizioso, Rossi and Nicky Hayden were entangled in an intriguing four way battle for the third spot in the first half of the race, but after Rossi had flown past Dovizioso it was left for Hayden, Spies and Dovizioso to fight for the fourth and fifth place, and when Spies out-braked himself at the last corner with 8 laps to go, Hayden secured an easy fifth place finish.
The Honda Gresini duo of Marco Simoncelli and Marco Melandri battled with the Tech 3 Yamaha of Collin Edwards for a top 10 finish, but Simoncelli crashed out of the race at the same place as Pedrosa did to hand over the initiative to Edwards, who finished seventh, while Melandri crossed the line in 8th place.
The Suzuki of Loris Capirossi and Pramac Ducati of Mika Kallio rounded off the top 10, but they were thankful to Finn’s Aleix Espargaro, who also bowed out of the race at Pefrosa’s corner with only a handful of laps to go.
A 12th place finish for Roger Lee Hayden’s LCR Honda meant that for the first time since David and Carlos Checa, two brothers scored points in the same premier class of a MotoGP.
Pos. Rider Team Time/Gap
1. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 43m54.873s
2. Casey Stoner Ducati + 3.517s
3. Valentino Rossi Yamaha + 13.420s
4. Andrea Dovizioso Honda + 14.188s
5. Nicky Hayden Ducati + 14.601s
6. Ben Spies Tech 3 Yamaha + 19.037s
7. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha + 40.721s
8. Marco Melandri Gresini Honda + 47.219s
9. Loris Capirossi Suzuki + 52.812s
10. Mika Kallio Pramac Ducati + 52.814s
11. Roger Lee Hayden LCR Honda + 1m14.089s
12. Alex de Angelis Interwetten Honda + 1m14.666s
Retirements:
Aleix Espargaro Pramac Ducati 28 laps
Marco Simoncelli Gresini Honda 18 laps
Dani Pedrosa Honda 11 laps
Hector Barbera Aspar Ducati 3 laps
Alvaro Bautista Suzuki 3 laps
World Championship standings:
1. Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) 210
2. Dani Pedrosa (Spain) 138
3. Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) 115
4. Casey Stoner (Australia) 103
5. Valentino Rossi (Italy) 90
6. Nicky Hayden (U.S.) 89
7. Ben Spies (U.S.) 77
8. Randy de Puniet (France) 69
9. Marco Melandri (Italy) 53
10. Marco Simoncelli (Italy) 49
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