Pedrosa romps to third MotoGP victory at Indy
2010-08-30 15:05:38 Author: admin Source:
Dani Pedrosa continued the 2010 Motorcycle Grand Prix championship (MotoGP) chase with a fine ride to victory at Indianapolis on Sunday. The petite Spaniard took his third race win of the season and his very first at the Brickyard ahead of pole position man Tech 3's Ben Spies and championship leader Jorge Lorenzo.
Starting from the middle of the second row, Pedrosa jetted into fourth on the first lap, then took over third from Nicky Hayden on the third lap and team mate Andrea Dovizioso on the next lap to go second overall. He then set his sights on Spies who's only a second up and successfully made it for the first position as they crossed the famed “Yard of Bricks” at start-finish on the seventh lap.
Spies tried to stay with the Spaniard, but Pedrosa continued to lower his own fast lap mark on the eighth, ninth, and eleventh laps. The eleventh would be the fastest of the race (1: 40.896) and would give Pedrosa a lead of 2.787. By the time he crossed the line for the win, the gap was 3.575 to second place man, Spies.
Lorenzo dropped three places on his grid position at the start and finished the first lap in fifth with his team-mate close behind. On lap 3, the championship leader made it past Hayden and he set off in pursuit of Dovizioso, arriving within striking distance by the eighth lap. The Italian did not make it easy for Lorenzo however and it took the Spaniard several more laps to pass him, which he did on the brakes into turn one on lap 12. By that time, Pedrosa and Spies were some distance away for Lorenzo to catch and he would play it safe to settle for third with 16 points to add to his already hefty tally.
Rossi meanwhile had jumped from seventh to fifth at the start and looked more comfortable on the bike than he had all weekend, during which he had struggled for grip and rhythm. On the fourth lap he overtook Hayden and settled in fifth, a few tenths off the Lorenzo-Dovizioso battle. Once Lorenzo was past Dovizioso, the current champion too began to close down his compatriot and with eight laps remaining he passed him for fourth place. By then however his lack of fitness following his injury had caught up with him in the searing heat and he was unable to push further, coming home some six seconds behind his team-mate.
Fifth place man Dovizioso (above) lost out to Lorenzo on the twelfth lap and the Italian would give another spot away to Rossi on lap 20. But having held on to fifth, he took over third in the championship just behind Pedrosa.
Elsewhere, Casey Stoner rode a rather quiet race to sixth overall, while Marco Simoncelli (above) finished seventh in his first MotoGP race at the Brickyard. Simoncelli was the only rider in the top seven to have a real fight on his hands for the second half of the race. The Italian was chased by three riders, then two, and finally just one. Alvaro Bautista (above, blue) made a run at the stripe, coming up short by .085s.
Bautista caught up with Simoncelli at half-distance and had a tremendous battle with the Italian for the rest of the race. Bautista tried a number of times to overtake his old adversary, but was unable to find the opportunity to get past and settle for a very close call eighth place.
Loris Capirossi narrowly missed out on a top 10 position as he was pushed off the track on the last lap by Hector Barbera. Capirossi had caught and passed the Spaniard with two laps remaining, but Barbera hit him on the final lap, pushing him wide and on to the grass.
The final two Honda riders both rode with injuries to score points at the bottom of the results table. In his return to MotoGP after a more than two month lay-off, Hiroshi Aoyama finished twelfth and one position up on Randy de Puniet. Marco Melandri crashed out when he lost the front end on the third lap while in a strong seventh position.
In the championship, Lorenzo continues to sit comfortably at the top of the standings, with a 68-point lead over Pedrosa. Dovizioso, Casey Stoner and Rossi are next in third, fourth fifth respectively. The MotoGP paddock now has just a few days rest before it reconvenes at Misano in Italy for Round 12 of the MotoGP Championship.
Results
1 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda 47'31.615
2 Ben SPIES Tech 3 Yamaha +3.575
3 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha +6.812
4 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha +12.633
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda +21.885
6 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati +35.138
7 Marco SIMONCELLI Honda +36.740
8 Alvaro BAUTISTA Suzuki +36.825
9 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac +44.905
10 Hector BARBERA Aspar +51.368
11 Loris CAPIROSSI Suzuki +55.386
12 Hiroshi AOYAMA Honda +57.903
13 Randy DE PUNIETHonda +1'04.139
Riders Standings
1 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha 251
2 Dani PEDROSA Honda 183
3 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Honda 126
4 Casey STONER Ducati 119
5 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha 114
6 Ben SPIES Yamaha 110
7 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati 109
8 Randy DE PUNIET Honda 78
9 Marco SIMONCELLI Honda 63
10 Marco MELANDRI Honda 61
11 Colin EDWARDS Yamaha 57
12 Hector BARBERA Ducati 54
13 Loris CAPIROSSI Suzuki 41
14 Aleix ESPARGARO Ducati 39
15 Alvaro BAUTISTA Suzuki 33
16 Mika KALLIO Ducati 31
17 Hiroshi AOYAMA Honda 22
18 Alex DE ANGELIS Honda 11
19 Roger Lee HAYDEN Honda 5
20 Kousuke AKIYOSHI Honda 4
21 Wataru YOSHIKAWA Yamaha 1
