Laguna Seca, USA

MotoGP coming to the US gave the folks over at OnTheThrottle a chance to get into the paddock and talk to some of the people behind the scenes. One of the most interesting characters David Williams caught up with was LCR Honda's Christophe 'Beefy' Bourgignon, crew chief to Randy de Puniet and his replacement Roger Lee Hayden, filling in while De Puniet recovers from the broken tibia and fibula he suffered at the Sachsenring. In the video interview, Bourgignon discusses Roger Lee Hayden's progress on the MotoGP bike, the difficulty of adapting to the Bridgestone tires, and the intricacies of riding a MotoGP bike. Here's what Bourgignon had to say to OTT.

Ever since its return to America, MotoGP in the USA has been something of an anomaly. When the series first headed back across the Atlantic in 2005, it was only the MotoGP class that made the trip to Laguna Seca, with cost and limited paddock space cited as reasons for leaving the (then) 250 and 125 classes back in Europe. When the Red Bull US GP in Laguna was joined by the Red Bull Indianapolis GP at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway facility in 2008, the two support classes joined the MotoGP riders in the US, but only at Indy. Furthermore, the two US rounds have also always been separated by at least one European race, forcing the teams to fly their bikes and equipment out to the US twice.

Q: How difficult was that?

Valentino Rossi: Very much, yeah. Especially the beginning, I have to stay out of the battle, because in front they were making a strong battle. So I don't feel enough confidence to go into the battle. I have to wait. And I need a bit too much lap to take good rhythm and to ride in a good way. I have to say that when I see Dani in the gravel, is extra motivation, you know, because fourth or fifth, more or less is same, but fourth or third change a lot. And from that moment I try to make my best, and I put some good laps together, and I arrived with Dovi, and this time I win the battle, not like in Sachsenring.

Q: At one stage you were over two and a half seconds behind Dovizioso, and as we've seen in the past, it is difficult to close down the gap. There was a lot of laps left, but were you always confident that it would be quite easy to catch up with him?

A spectacular setting for a race, aided in no small part by money from Mazda

This Ducati will be wearing the same number in 2011

And this rider will have an old teammate next door to him again

Q: Was the front end problem similar to the problem you've had previously or just an incident in this race?

Casey Stoner: For me it's a problem, that I suppose if people have the wrong weight in their bike, it was a problem not only for me but for a lot of other riders. A fair few of them crashed, but I think even more had similar problems to me. Obviously, Dani did as well. Like I said, you know, every time I tried to push just a little bit harder, like I had been doing all weekend, it just wanted to fold. Even in the slow corners where I haven't got a lot of weight on it, middle of the turn it would just start folding on me. We have no idea what the reason is, it's not anything like in the past. If I had the forks from the past I would have been down the first time I lost it. But no, with these forks, I get a lot more feedback, so when it does go, I can pick it back up as quick as I can and continue. I feel a lot safer with what I'm running at the moment.

Q: What happened?

Dani Pedrosa: I hit a bump. I was entering with the brake and I hit a bump with the front wheel, and I just lost the front.

Q: What does this mean for the championship? Can you still catch Jorge?

Broken leg and duff shoulder or not, Rossi was on it in the US

Andrea Dovizioso could not translate his front-row start into a top-three finish

Dreaming of a three-peat one day