One week after that race, round nine was the United States Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. The race has been on the calendar since 2005, after a gap before that, but experienced 2010 rider Loris Capirossi was the 250cc GP winner here back in 1993. But in the current run, only MotoGP has been on the programme. Former support class racers had no prior track knowledge if they were also MotoGP rookies this year. That meant Álvaro Bautistá, Héctor Barberá, Marco Simoncelli and Aleix Espargaró, who had joined the top class runners later in the season last year. Mika Kallio missed this race in 2009 so was also a new boy.

The field here still included Alex de Angelis, the Interwetten Honda substitute rider. And there was a change for another of the Honda customer teams, due to the absence of LCR man Randy de Puniet, following his injuries in Germany. The man who took over this machine had home knowledge of the track, including GP experience. 27-year-old Roger Lee Hayden is the younger brother of Nicky, a successful AMA Supersport regular, and had raced in the 2007 Laguna GP for Kawasaki, in which he was tenth.

The Fiat Yamaha machines had a different livery here, in a tie-in with promotion for the Fiat 500. In qualifying, series leader Lorenzo put his M1 on pole position for the fifth event running, with Rossi on the other bike in sixth, a place behind where he’d been for his comeback. Marlboro Ducati’s riders were each just behind a Fiat man, with Casey Stoner second, and with local man Nicky Hayden seventh. Stoner and Rossi had each won here in the past, and Hayden had done so twice, as well as in his AMA Superbike career.

Third and fourth grid positions went to the works Repsol Honda riders, last year’s winner Dani Pedrosa this time behind partner Andrea Dovizioso, who made the front row for the first time as a MotoGP rider. Another livery change was for two more home riders, the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha pair, with these bikes adding colours to reflect the Texan heritage of their riders. Ben Spies had won here twice as an AMA competitor, and Colin Edwards once in World Superbikes. Spies qualified fifth, with Edwards eighth.

Two of the track first-timers qualified ahead of two of the most experienced riders, Simoncelli ninth with the San Carlo Gresini Honda, then Barberá tenth on the Paginas Amarillas Aspar Ducati. Marco Melandri was in P11 for Gresini, and then it was Capirossi for Rizla Suzuki. After him was Espargaró (Pramac Ducati), from Bautistá (Rizla), Kallio (Pramac), de Angelis and Roger Lee Hayden.

The race start saw another good getaway from Pedrosa, using the outside line through the first left to pull past those ahead and take the lead. He was followed by Stoner, Spies, Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Simoncelli, Edwards, Melandri, Kallio, Capirossi and Espargaró. Pedrosa and Stoner initially seemed to be building an advantage, but a fastest lap from Lorenzo closed that gap and left Spies and the rest trailing, with Ben under attack from Dovizioso. Bautistá made an early exit when he crashed.

The fastest lap now went to Pedrosa as he began to pull away from Stoner and Lorenzo. Four men raced for fourth, with Spies pushed to the back of the group behind Dovizioso, Rossi and Nicky Hayden. Behind them, Simoncelli headed Melandri, Edwards, Kallio, Capirossi, Espargaró, de Angelis, Roger Lee Hayden and Barberá, but the man at the back soon had to park with his Ducati’s chain broken.

Laguna Seca is mostly left-handed corners, with the most famous landmark being the left and right downhill Corkscrew corner. But in one of the quite fast right-handers, Stoner ran very wide and let Lorenzo through into second. Pedrosa had a lead of just under one second at this stage, but ten laps into the race Lorenzo had reduced that a bit to 0.7s, leaving Stoner trailing a touch. Perhaps Dani felt a bit more under pressure with Jorge now following, but anyway the Honda man now crashed out of the lead at the long turn five left.

Lorenzo therefore inherited first position, and he soon had more than 2.5s in hand over Stoner. The gap to third man Dovizioso was at about six seconds by now. Andrea had got into a twitch at the tight final left turn eleven, but had then stretched away from Rossi, Hayden and Spies. Ben was on the offensive, passing Nicky on the inside at turn five, with the Ducati man then beginning to drop back. However, when Spies then ran off track he rejoined a bit of a way down on Hayden, although without the loss of any further places.

With a few laps to go, Lorenzo had a 3.5s lead over Stoner. But Dovizioso in third was now being caught by Rossi. Five laps from the end, Valentino was close enough to pass on the inside for turn eleven. Following on to the main start-finish straight, Andrea responded by running tighter through the left-hand kink, on the inside line, but ‘the Doctor’ held off this move and had taken third. From there he began to move clear, but on the last lap Dovizioso’s efforts had put him right behind again. Any chance of a reversal ended at the last corner, when Andrea ran wide in his attempt to attack Valentino.

So therefore Lorenzo won again for the sixth time this year, with Stoner in a best-yet second place, Rossi third in his second race back, and Dovizioso fourth, not far ahead of Nicky Hayden. Spies was sixth. The next position had involved a race between the Gresini pair and Edwards. Melandri led until Simoncelli passed him on the inside going into the first part of the Corkscrew. But these positions were reversed when the younger man went just wide in the turn two left Andretti Hairpin, where Melandri squeezed inside. Simoncelli soon crashed at turn five, and then Edwards moved up and was seventh home, with Melandri eighth.

Capirossi had run tenth, whilst Simoncelli was still going, ahead of the Pramac pair. Espargaró overtook Kallio, then set about the Italian ahead. They had a battle in turn eleven, with Loris retaking the spot, but soon Aleix was into ninth, after Simoncelli’s exit, and was getting away. However, he then became the fifth man to go out, falling when on the brakes for turn five. Capirossi and Kallio had a photo finish for ninth, the Finn just getting ahead. Roger Lee Hayden took eleventh, having got the better of final finisher de Angelis.

Jorge Lorenzo celebrated wearing a silver spaceman suit and planting his usual flag. Meanwhile, team-mate Valentino Rossi admitted he was in pain, taking up his crutches before he went to the podium. Dani Pedrosa had looked like he might be on course for the win, but his exit gave Lorenzo an even bigger lead in the points. Pedrosa held onto second overall, with those behind getting a bit closer. But now not even Dani seems likely to be able to do enough to overtake the current leader unless something goes wrong. Colin Edwards was only seventh in his home race, and yet this is his best result of a disappointing season so far. He made it onto 999 points in MotoGP competition. But perhaps a greater reward awaits his new team-mate, with Ben Spies possibly due to get the 2011 Fiat Yamaha ride, as and when Rossi is confirmed for Ducati.

Standings after nine races: Lorenzo 210; Pedrosa 138; Dovizioso 115; Stoner 103; Rossi 90; Hayden 89; Spies 77; de Puniet 69; Melandri 53; Simoncelli 49; Edwards 48; Barberá 41.
Yamaha 215; Honda 175; Ducati 133; Suzuki 48.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

Related Articles:

• Pedrosa wins in Germany, Rossi back in action
• Jorge Lorenzo wins again in Catalan Grand Prix
• Lorenzo wins and Stoner on the podium at Assen GP

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes