LORENZO MAKES GOOD FOR 6TH VICTORY OF THE SEASON
2010-07-26 15:34:28 Author: admin Source:
Jorge Lorenzo took a brilliant sixth victory of the season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Round 10 of the Motorcycle Grand Prix Championship (MotoGP) by annihilating the competition in the middle part of the race. Having qualified pole on Saturday, the Spaniard did not get the best of starts as he lost ground to his rivals at the downhill turn one and was relegated to third first time around. For the first few laps there was little he could do except hang on behind Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner but on the sixth lap Stoner ran wide and Lorenzo stormed through to take second. By now Pedrosa was nearly a second clear but Lorenzo's pace had begun to improve and he started to push as hard as he could and exert some pressure on his fellow Spaniard.
On lap twelve, with the gap now narrowed to half a second, Pedrosa crashed out and left Lorenzo in the lead and from then on it was plain sailing for him as he expertly controlled his advantage over Stoner to bring it home and take his second win on US soil. Team mate Valentino Rossi also made good on his recent return to MotoGP with a hard-fought third place and the final spot on the U.S. Grand Prix podium.
Lorenzo thus maintains the lead in the riders' championship, extending it to 210 points with Pedrosa a distant second with 138 points. He has also achieved his 11th career MotoGP victory and 32nd in all classes.
Stoner continued his recent podium streak with a solid second place in the USGP, the Australian started well from the front row of the grid and was running in second place behind Pedrosa when he set the fastest lap of the race on lap four, breaking his own circuit record from 2008 with a stunning 1’21.376. A little glitch saw the Australian concede a place to Lorenzo on the fifth lap but he benefited from a crash for Pedrosa six laps later and was unchallenged from that point onwards, securing his best finish of the season so far and his fourth rostrum in succession.
Rossi got going in the middle stint of the race when Yamaha Tech 3's Ben Spies exerted pressure on him from behind and Repsol Honda's Andrea Dovizioso fell within his clutches. Rossi's fighting instinct kicked in as he spied a podium possibility, gradually closing down a two second gap to Dovizioso to come within striking distance with six laps remaining. On the 27th lap, he made his move and passed the Repsol Honda rider for the coveted third place.
Dovizioso, meanwhile, finished less than a second off the podium in a heart-breaking battle with Rossi. After Pedrosa's incident, Dovizioso was third until lap 27 (above) when Rossi attacked on the brakes into the final corner, the hard braking left-hand turn 11. The Repsol Honda rider came back at Rossi closing tight into the signature Corkscrew turn and pressuring him into the final bend. But, Dovizioso had been having braking issues and a small mistake sent him wide and allowed Rossi to claim the final podium spot.
Pedrosa ran a strong race before his crash-out and looked to repeat his '09 feat. On the decisive 12th lap and while holding out against Lorenzo, Pedrosa had the front end slide away when he hit a bump while entering the left-hand turn five, and that led to his departure from the race. Despite a difficult race, Pedrosa and Dovizioso remain second and third, respectively, in the MotoGP championship riders' classification.
2-time winner Nicky Hayden claimed local honor as the first American across the line in fifth after a breathtaking challenge for the podium. Hayden started from seventh on the grid and eventually overcame his compatriot Spies after a race-long battle that had the raucous crowd on their feet, chasing down Rossi and Dovizioso for a podium finish over the final few laps but missing out by just 1.2 seconds.
Marco Melandri finished alone in eighth place, while gathering important data as the team integrates its upgraded electronics package. The Italian spent much of the race battling with team-mate Marco Simoncelli, making his first visit to Laguna Seca, and veteran Colin Edwards. Melandri had been in ninth and just in front of Simoncelli when the rookie crashed on the 19th lap in turn five, the same corner that had claimed Pedrosa.
The final two Honda finishers were the replacement riders, Roger Lee Hayden and Alex de Angelis. Hayden, riding on short notice in place of Randy de Puniet (injured during last weekend’s German GP), made steady progress throughout the weekend and would turn in his fastest laps during the race. De Angelis, who is filling the seat of the injured Hiroshi Aoyama, was making his second visit to Laguna Seca. The back of the grid skirmish came down to the final laps, with Hayden making a pass on the penultimate lap and holding off de Angelis on the run to the flag, the difference between them only 0.577s. Hayden, therefore, picked up five valuable points for the team, which keeps them solidly in sixth in the team championship.
Suzuki riders Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista both had frustrating races, but for very different reasons. Capirossi brought his bike home in 10th position after initially being given ninth in the classification. Video evidence was used to show that Mika Kallio crossed the line just in-front of Capirossi by only 0.001 seconds. Capirossi had battled hard through the whole race to preserve his position after a poor first few laps had cost him dearly in the standings, but unfortunately lost out on a hard-fought ninth in the final metre.
Bautista was yet again the victim of another incident as Aleix Espargaro knocked Suzuki’s Spanish rider out of the race at the start of the third lap. Bautista had already got into a good rhythm and had passed a couple of other riders before Espargaro’s intervention bought his race to an abrupt end for the second week in succession.
Now the series heads into the summer break, the battle to recommence at the Czech Grand Prix in Brno from 13 - 15 August.
Results
1. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 45'54.873
2. Casey Stoner Ducati + 3.517
3. Valentino Rossi Yamaha + 13.420
4. Andrea Dovizioso Repsol + 14.188
5. Nicky Hayden Ducati + 14.601
6. Ben Spies Yamaha Tech 3 + 19.037
7. Colin Edwards Yamaha Tech 3 + 40.721
8. Marco Melandri Honda + 47.219
9. Mika Kallio Pramac + 52.813
10. Loris Capirossi Suzuki MotoGP + 52.814
11. Roger Lee Hayden Honda + 1'14.089
12. Alex de Angelis Honda + 1'14.666
Riders' standings
1. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 210
2. Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda 138
3. Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda 115
4. Casey Stoner Ducati 103
5. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 90
6. Nicky Hayden Ducati 89
7. Ben Spies Yamaha Tech 3 77
8. Randy de Puniet Honda 69
9. Marco Melandri Honda 53
10. Marco Simoncelli Honda 49
11. Colin Edwards Yamaha Tech 3 48
12. Hector Barbera Aspar 41
13. Loris Capirossi Suzuki MotoGP 36
14. Mika Kallio Pramac 31
15. Aleix Espargaro Pramac 28
16. Alvaro Bautista Suzuki MotoGP 25
17. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 18
18. Alex de Angelis Honda 8
19. Kousuke Akiyoshi Honda 4
20. Wataru Yoshikawa Yamaha 1
