MotoGP Race And Practice Results

Results and summary of the Red Bull US GP at Laguna Seca:

Jorge Lorenzo has tightened his grip on the 2010 World Championship by taking a comfortable victory at Laguna Seca. The Fiat Yamaha rider was helped in both respects in no small part by his compatriot and chief rival, Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa, who crashed out of the race while leading.

Lorenzo had taken a strong start once the lights dimmed, but was passed first by Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner, and then by Pedrosa, who shot past round the outside, and got the holeshot into Laguna's first real corner, Turn 2. Lorenzo was further discomforted by Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Ben Spies, who had dropped the Spaniard to 4th by the time they headed up the hill towards the Corkscrew for the first time. Pedrosa seemed hell-bent on doing a repeat of his victory here last year, when the Repsol Honda man cleared off from the line never to be seen again, but he would not have it so easy this Sunday.

Stoner was pushing Pedrosa from the off, while Jorge Lorenzo sized up Ben Spies. Lorenzo was past the Texan at Rainey Curve, and set about chasing down the leading pair. It took a little over a lap, but soon Lorenzo was on Stoner, and not far off the leader Pedrosa. Stoner, meanwhile, was becoming erratic, smashing his own lap record from 2008 on one lap, then losing almost a second the next. His problem, it later emerged, was a lack of grip at the front, the Australian losing the front a couple of times before deciding that discretion was the better part of valor and running at a slightly less blistering pace.

Stoner's problems handed Lorenzo the initiative, and on lap 6, the Fiat Yamaha man was past. He then set about catching Pedrosa, but Pedrosa was proving to be a far tougher nut to crack. Lorenzo edged closer, and Pedrosa responded, the gap seesawing at just under a second, until the race was decided on lap 12. Pedrosa headed into Turn 5 hot, folded the front and crashed out, taking with him both his hopes of victory and any realistic chance of wresting the 2010 MotoGP championship away from Jorge Lorenzo. From there on in, it was plain sailing for Lorenzo, the Mallorcan only having to keep his bike the right way up to take victory. He did, finishing comfortably ahead of the struggling Stoner, and extended his championship lead to an impressive 72 points. Though there's still half the season left to go, barring incident, Lorenzo should have this year's title in the bag. The fact that the Fiat Yamaha man has only finished in either 1st or 2nd place makes it almost impossible to claw points back from Lorenzo, and only a serious incident can prevent a runaway win.

While the front of the race was rather processional, the battle behind the front two places was rather more interesting. After Pedrosa crashed out, it looked like his Repsol teammate Andrea Dovizioso would take the final spot on the podium, but that was reckoning without the mayhem that was being unleashed behind. Valentino Rossi had barged his way past Ben Spies, dragging Nicky Hayden in his wake. Dovizioso sat comfortably in 3rd, Rossi apparently incapable of catching him, until stimulus appeared from behind. Spies had elbowed his way past Nicky Hayden at Turn 5, and was closing the gap to Rossi rather rapidly. Feeling the Texan breathing down his neck, Rossi ramped up the pace, and the pair started to reel Dovizioso in.

Just as Rossi caught Dovizioso, Spies made a mistake and ran wide, running onto the extended tarmac strip on the outside of Turn 11, losing touch with Rossi and ceding the spot to Hayden. But Spies' efforts paid off, though only for the man he had been chasing. The pressure Spies had applied had put Rossi on Dovizioso, and on lap 26, the Fiat Yamaha man stuffed his M1 up the inside of the Repsol Honda to take 3rd. Dovizioso was not prepared to just roll over, pushing hard to get back for the remaining 6 laps, but try as he might, he could not get past. An exhausted Rossi took the final spot on the podium, holding off Dovizioso to the line. Nicky Hayden held on to take 5th, at the head of an American trio, the Marlboro Ducati man leading the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha team of Ben Spies and - some 20 seconds further behind - Colin Edwards. San Carlo Gresini's Marco Melandri took 8th, while a photo finish decided the race for 9th in Mika Kallio's favor, the Pramac Ducati rider finishing just one thousandth of second ahead of Rizla Suzuki's Loris Capirossi.

Turn 5, where Dani Pedrosa had crashed, took rich pickings this Sunday, with Aleix Espargaro and Marco Simoncelli joining Pedrosa in the gravel there. Added to a couple of retirements, this left a measly 12 riders classified, a rather thin effort, despite a "full" MotoGP grid of 17 starting the race.

The MotoGP riders head back to Europe, to join their Moto2 colleagues for an extended break. The series reconvenes at Brno on the weekend of August 15th, with big announcements on the future of Valentino Rossi (to Ducati), Dani Pedrosa (at Honda) and Nicky Hayden (staying at Ducati) expected.

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Results:

Results and summary of qualifying practice at Laguna Seca:

Jorge Lorenzo has continued his dominance of MotoGP qualifying, taking his 5th pole in a row at Laguna Seca. The Fiat Yamaha rider fought a session-long battle with Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner for pole position, the two men swapping places throughout the session. In the end, though, Lorenzo put in a blistering lap inside of 1'20 with seconds left in the session to take a convincing pole. Stoner was left to settle for 2nd on the grid, after struggling early in the session with setup, but still within two tenths of Lorenzo's time.

Andrea Dovizioso won the battle of the Repsol Hondas, beating his teammate Dani Pedrosa by four hundredths of a second and taking 3rd, and more importantly, his first front row start in MotoGP - a curious record given that Dovizioso already has a victory in MotoGP. Ben Spies continues his run of 5th places and will start from the middle of the second row, the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider just a couple of hundredths behind Pedrosa. Valentino Rossi is suffering more at Laguna Seca than at the Sachsenring, the physical effort required to flick the bike left and right at the Corkscrew taxing the Fiat Yamaha rider more than expected and causing pain in both his healing leg and shoulder.

Nicky Hayden heads up the 3rd row, the Marlboro Ducati rider a couple of tenths behind Rossi, and nearly three tenths ahead of the second Monster Tech 3 Yamaha man Colin Edwards. Marco Simoncelli is the first of the Laguna Seca debutants, the San Carlo Gresini Honda man setting the 9th fastest time during qualifying, while Pagina Amarillas Ducati rider Hector Barbera rounds out the top ten.

Results:

Jorge Lorenzo topped the timesheets on a beautiful Monterey morning at Laguna Seca, the Fiat Yamaha rider taking over the top spot at the halfway mark and not relinquishing it. Lorenzo displaced Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner, the Australian fastest in the first half of the session, but there was less than a tenth between the two. There was a similar gap to third-place man Dani Pedrosa, the Spaniard coming out ahead of his Repsol Honda teammate Andrea Dovizioso, reversing their positions from yesterday. Ben Spies once again took 5th place, the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider edging Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi.

Results:

Casey Stoner topped the timesheets after the first day of practice at the Red Bull US GP, the Marlboro Ducati rider getting within a couple of tenths of the lap record after just a single session. Stoner's first run seemed a lot less promising, the Australian heading back into the pits where his second bike had its setup radically revised, before taking to the track once again to lay down his usual scorching pace. Jorge Lorenzo was the only man to get near for most of practice, the Fiat Yamaha rider leading the first half of the session before being eclipsed by Stoner in the second half.

Towards the end of the session, Stoner and Lorenzo were joined by the two Repsol Hondas, Andrea Dovizioso coming out comfortably ahead of teammate Dani Pedrosa, the Italian running extremely well at Laguna. In 5th place, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Ben Spies showed what a difference track knowledge makes, working on setup on Friday instead of learning his way around a new circuit, and getting within spitting distance of Pedrosa. Spies also finished ahead of the Fiat Yamaha of Valentino Rossi, the Italian suffering no so much with his pinned leg, but more with his shoulder as he muscled his way down the Corkscrew.

Rossi was the meat in an American sandwich, with Marlboro Ducati's Nicky Hayden and Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards behind him in 7th and 8th, while San Carlo Gresini's Marco Melandri ended the day in 9th. Pramac Ducati rider Aleix Espargaro rounded out the top ten, the Spanish rookie having been given the green light to race, after a fractured vertebra found after his crash at the Sachsenring turned out to be old, and not a reason to prevent Espargaro from riding.

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Results and summary of the MotoGP race at the Sachsenring:

Dani Pedrosa has closed the championship gap to Jorge Lorenzo, by taking victory in a drama-filled MotoGP race in Germany. The race was run in two parts, after an incident on lap 10 in which Aleix Espargaro and Randy de Puniet collided, bringing Alvaro Bautista down with them. The crash left bikes and riders lying on the track, causing the race to be red-flagged and restarted. De Puniet was taken off to the Clinica Mobile, where the LCR Honda rider was diagnosed with a fractured tibia and fibula. Espargaro and Bautista were only slightly more lucky, the two Spaniards failing to return to the pit lane in time, and so were not allowed to restart the race. Afterwards, it emerged that Espargaro had fractured a vertebra, and is in doubt

The restart saw a rerun of the the first race, with Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa making a break at the front, while Casey Stoner struggled to get past Andrea Dovizioso, achieving that too late to make an impact on the front runners. But the difference between race 1 and race 2 was Dani Pedrosa. The Repsol Honda rider had been strong in the first race, but Lorenzo appeared to have the situation under control. In race 2, the tables were turned. Pedrosa mounted a stronger challenge, pushing Lorenzo hard for the first half of the 21 remaining laps of race 2, passing Lorenzo into turn 1 at the start of lap 9. That challenge was too hard, however, and Pedrosa ran wide, allowing Lorenzo to take the lead back by sliding underneath Pedrosa.

But Pedrosa still had plenty of fight left in him. He closed on the Fiat Yamaha rider for the rest of the lap, and tried again at the same place at the start of lap 10. This time, he held his line and held off Lorenzo, and stepped up the pace. Pedrosa's times dropped a couple of tenths, cracking into the 1'21s and inching away from Lorenzo. The Fiat Yamaha man had nothing for Pedrosa, and knew he could only match Pedrosa's pace by taking too many risks, not something he was prepared to do with a 52 point lead in the championship. Lorenzo let Pedrosa go, the Repsol Honda rider taking a convincing victory in Germany, his second of the season, and closing the gap to Lorenzo by 5 valuable points.

While the action for the lead was merely interesting, the battle behind was fierce, and fiercely entertaining. Valentino Rossi, having recovered remarkably well from his leg injury, and more importantly, his shoulder injury, had muscled his way forward past Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso, and had set about catching Casey Stoner. The nine-time world champion took 7 laps to do it, but on lap 13, Rossi was with Stoner, and started to challenge the Marlboro Ducati rider.

He first tried at the bottom of the Waterfall, but ran wide on the way out of Turn 13, allowing Stoner to get back again. He tried again at the same place on lap 15, and this time he made it stick. But only for a lap, when Stoner dived back underneath to take back 3rd. Rossi tried again at Turn 13 a lap later, only to have Stoner pass him in the same place the next lap. Rossi took 3rd back again on the penultimate lap, Stoner losing ground out of Turn 13 and having to close back again.

The pair arrived at the top of the hill on the final lap, with one more chance for Stoner to take back the last podium spot. He was too far back on into Turn 13, but Rossi had to make a choice: The Fiat Yamaha rider elected to defend into the penultimate corner by taking a tighter line, and this opened up a perfect opportunity for Stoner. The Australian used 13 to make a run into the next - and last - corner, and shoved his Marlboro Ducati elegantly up the inside of Rossi's Yamaha, leaving the Italian with no choice but to cede the position, or risk a crash. Knowing he was just back from injury, Rossi chose the safer option of finishing and taking some points.

Behind Stoner and Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso, Marco Simoncelli and Nicky Hayden had been battling over 5th, and Hayden seemed to have the situation under control. But at the start of the last lap, Hayden hooked his gear lever and clicked back into first, running wide into Turn 1 and giving up two positions to Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli. The Repsol Honda rider took 5th, while San Carlo Gresini man Simoncelli ended up 6th.

The injuries to Espargaro and De Puniet see a depleted field head to Laguna Seca. While there were 17 riders on the grid at the Sachsenring, there could just be 15 at Laguna.

Race, final results:

Race Part 1 results, after 9 laps: 

Results and summary of the Moto2 race at the Sachsenring:

Toni Elias has extended his championship lead in the Moto2 class by winning a convincing victory in German Grand Prix. The Gresini Moriwaki rider came from a chasing group to catch the leaders - the FIMMCO Speed Up bikes of Andrea Iannone and Gabor Talmacsi - before passing them to take the win.

Talmacsi got the holeshot into Turn 1 ahead of his teammate, but Iannone had take over the lead by the end of lap 2. It looked like being another runaway victory for the Italian, but by the halfway mark, both Speed Up riders started to fade. The gap of over 5 seconds which Iannone had built up started to shrink rapidly, as Toni Elias and Simone Corsi started to close. The pair was past Talmacsi on lap 18, but Corsi crashed out after getting past the Hungarian. Five laps later, Elias caught and passed Iannone, and after some light resistance, Iannone surrendered to the Spaniard's pace, and Elias went on to win by a very comfortable margin.

Iannone's 2nd place was secured, but behind the Italian, Talmacsi was under siege. A group consisting of Italtrans' Roby Rolfo, Cardion's Karel Abraham and HolidayGym's Fonsi Nieto had caught the Hungarian, and were pushing to get past. Rolfo was the first to succeed on lap 26, with Nieto and Abraham following a couple of laps later. On the penultimate lap, Nieto pushed past Rolfo in the hope of grabbing the last spot on the podium, but Rolfo was back out of the first corner, and went on to claim 3rd, ahead of Nieto and Abraham. Talmacsi was forced to settle for 6th, finishing just ahead of Damian Cudlin, substituting for Axel Pons on the Tenerife Pons Kalex bike.

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Results and summary of the 125cc race at the Sachsenring:

Marc Marquez has extended his winning streak to five in a row by taking victory in the German 125cc Grand Prix at the Sachsenring. The Red Bull Derbi rider had had to be patient in the early laps on a damp track, as local riders Jonas Folger and Marcel Schrotter leapt into the lead, gambling on the wet conditions. But as the track dried, Marquez and Tuenti Derbi man Pol Espargaro reeled the two Germans in, then passed them to build a huge lead.

A duel then unfolded that looked to last all race, with first Marquez then Espargaro leading, and contesting that lead very physically. Passes were tough and fairings were bashed, but both men stayed upright, until three laps from the end, when Espargaro pushed a little too hard. The Tuenti Derbi rider ran just a little wide, running a little too hard over the painted kerbstones which were still damp in places, and lost the bike completely. With Espargaro out, Marquez went on to take victory uncontested.

Espargaro's crash left Tomoyoshi Koyama and Sandro Cortese to contest the final podium spots, after battling with Tito Rabat, Bradley Smith and Randy Krummenacher for most of the race.

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