MotoGP Race And Practice Results

Before today's Indianapolis Motor Speedway's MotoGP race, it was easy to calcuate the number of wins that Dani Pedrosa had in the premiere class -- simply multiply his years in MotoGP and multiply by two. All that changed today when Pedrosa easily beat fan favorite Ben Spies and Series Leader Jorge Lorenzo to take his third win of the 2010 season.

The Repsol Honda rider didn't get his usual rocket start, that honor going instead to pole-sitter Spies, but within a few laps the Catalan had caught the Texan and started appyling pressure and took the lead going into the seventh lap just past Indy's famous yard of bricks start/finish line. Pedrosa, the only rider able to make the Bridgstone "extra-hard" compound rear work, set about accomplishing what he does best -- winning from the front --  by setting fastest lap after fastest lap. Within two laps after Pedrosa  took the lead, he had dropped Spies by nearly 2 seconds. Pedrosa'sgap eventually stretched out over 5 seconds and near the end he relaxed a bit and won by well over 3 seconds.

Ben Spies looked like he was going to check the next to last item off his MotoGP to-do list, but finished a very creditable second given the nature of the competition. Spies said that his tires went off and he was sliding a lot on a track already notorious for it's lack of grip.

Behind the lead pair, their was a brief scrap for the final spot on the box when Dovizioso, Lorenzo and Rossi bunched up with a second and a half gap between 3-5th, but that ended quickly when Lorenzo dispatched Dovizioso. Although Rossi was close behind, by the time he also overtook Dovi, Lorenzo had pulled a margin of over two seconds on his team mate.

The Marlboro Ducati duo of Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden had wretched luck on the day, Stoner crashing out on lap seven and eventual sixth-place finisher Hayden losing his knee slider so that he burned a hole in the knee of his Alpinestars leathers.

Colin Edwards came into the pits once to swap out a hard rear for a soft and then retired late in the race. Mika Kallio and Marco Melandri both also crashed out.

Editorial Note: The American contingent in the paddock is in a state of grief and shock on the passing of 13-year-old Peter Lenz as a result of injuries suffered in the USGPRU support race earlier today. Peter was a rising star on the US roadracing scene and he will be greatly missed.

Results and summary of the MotoGP race at Indianapolis:

Dani Pedrosa finally broke through his own personal glass ceiling in MotoGP, finally winning a third MotoGP race in a single season. The Spaniard fought his way forward from 5th on the grid and did his usual disappearing act once he got past Ben Spies on lap 7.

The Repsol Honda rider had gotten a good start, but had been unable to rocket into the lead off the line. It was polesitter Spies who hit the first corner in the lead, the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider quickly becoming a formidable starter himself. Spies was followed into the first corner by Marlboro Ducati's Nicky Hayden and Repsol's Andrea Dovizioso, the Italian quickly working his way past the American to take over 2nd. Pedrosa hit the first corner in 4th, ahead of the Fiat Yamahas of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi, Rossi gaining a place and Lorenzo losing three places off the line.

To the great joy of the home crowd, Ben Spies led the race comfortably for the first six and a half laps, but it was soon clear that Pedrosa was in the zone, the Spaniard dispatching Hayden and Dovizioso with little difficulty. Pedrosa hunted down Spies on lap 7, cruising past the Texan as the bikes crossed the line to start lap 8, and the race was effectively over. Nobody was capable of catching Pedrosa, and nobody except Pedrosa was capable of catching Spies.

Further back, there was a little more excitement. A loose kneeslider had hampered Nicky Hayden, the second Ducati rider to suffer that problem, after Casey Stoner had caught his slider and knocked it loose during practice yesterday. Unable to control the bike on his left knee - a major problem at Indy, the track running counter clockwise - Hayden slid back through the field, allow Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi to pass.

Dovizioso seemed to have the final spot on the podium wrapped up, but Jorge Lorenzo quickly caught the Italian, then found Dovizioso an almost insurmountable obstacle to get past. Persistence paid off, however, as Lorenzo stuffed his Yamaha decisively into Turn 1 ahead of Dovizioso's Honda at the start of lap 12. Dovizioso put up stiff resistance, but the laps spent pushing Lorenzo left the Italian struggling for grip towards the end. Dovi fell back into the clutches of Valentino Rossi, who had used the contretemps between Dovizioso and Lorenzo to catch the squabbling pair. A couple of mistakes by the Repsol Honda rider allowed Rossi past relatively easily, and the final positions were settled by lap 20.

Pedrosa's victory means he closes the gap to his chief rival Lorenzo from 77 to 68 points, still a formidable advantage for Lorenzo with seven races to go. Spies' second podium of the year - one step up from his 3rd spot at Silverstone - confirms the Texan as a serious threat for Yamaha for the future.

The biggest problem of the race, though, was that it turned into yet another procession. With the tires and the electronics rewarding the utmost precision, it is becoming almost impossible to recover from even the smallest mistake. Winning a MotoGP race is becoming increasingly about chasing perfection, and less and less about improvising your way around problems. Dorna will be hoping that the regulation changes from 2012 will help solve this problem, and that the hype over Valentino Rossi will help to paper of the cracks until the return of the 1000cc bikes in two years' time.

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Results and summary of the Moto2 race at Indianapolis:

Toni Elias has braved illness and incident to win his 3rd race in a row in the Moto2 class, taking advantage of a restart to get away with a small group and take victory, consolidating his impressive lead in the championship.

The first attempt to start the Moto2 race had to be aborted after a double pile-up in Turn 2, which saw over 10 riders go down in separate incidents, and could not be cleared before the riders approached the location again. At the second attempt, Elias got a brilliant start, diving across the field and up the inside into the first turn. Scott Redding followed, with Julian Simon not far behind. 

Simon got past Redding on lap 3, then into the lead on lap 5, but there was nothing to choose between the front three. The Mapfre Aspar rider led, Elias in his wake and Redding latched on in 3rd, but unable to challenge. Slowly but surely, the Marc VDS rider dropped off the back of Simon and Elias, leaving the two Spaniards to settle victory between them. The race was decided on lap 12, when Elias put on a picture-perfect pass round the outside of Simon through Turn 1, leaving him perfectly lined up to hold onto the lead into Turn 2. From then on, Elias merely had to hold on to secure victory.

Elias victory helped his standings in the championship, with 2nd place man Andrea Iannone riding a brilliant race to fight his way through the pack to finish in 4th, while 3rd place rider Thomas Luthi ended the race down in 7th.

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Results and summary of the 125cc race at Indianapolis:

Nico Terol has won an incident-strewn and controversial 125cc race at Indy, the Bancaja Aspar rider cruising to a comfortable victory after inheriting the lead from Marc Marquez.

Terol and Marquez had gotten away at the start, with Marquez gradually dropping Terol as the Red Bull Ajo rider ratcheted up the pace. Marquez appeared to have the race in the bag, but a mistake going into Turn 10 saw the championship leader slide out of the race, rejoining down in 14th position. Marquez was not the only rider to crash, however. Bradley Smith, who had pushed his way past Pol Espargaro to take 2nd after a terrible start, also lost the rear on a bump around Turn 11, handing 2nd position to Sandro Cortese, who had followed Smith past Espargaro.

The crashes also worked in Marquez' favor, however. Once back on track, Marquez chased down the riders ahead of him, passing Jasper Iwema, Alberto Moncayo and Jonas Folger. But crashes by Smith and Luis Salom gained Marquez a couple of extra places. The Red Bull Ajo rider was catching the group fighting for 5th, including Esteve Rabat, Danny Webb and Randy Krummenacher. A mistake on the last lap meant that Marquez ran on at Turn 3, then cut across the section missing out Turn 4 altogether. That closed the gap to the group, and Marquez worked his way past the three riders ahead to cross the line in 5th, but the Spaniard had his advantage taken away from him by Race Direction, being penalized for cutting the corners and dropped down to 10th in the final standings.

Marquez' crash and penalty closes the championship fight right up. Marquez still leads, but his advantage has been slashed to just 4 points over Nico Terol, who is 1 point ahead of Espargaro in 3rd.

Results:

According art 1.19: #93 Marquez demoted to 10th position due to lap 22 illegal manoeuvre with 20 seconds penalty

Jorge Lorenzo reclaimed the top spot in Sunday morning's warm up session, the Fiat Yamaha rider putting in another unstoppable lap at the end. The session turned into something more resembling qualifying than just a warm up, the lead changing constantly in the last minutes of the session. Valentino Rossi, Ben Spies and Dani Pedrosa all held the lead, but Lorenzo came out on top in the end.

Valentino Rossi extended his run of crashes into the morning warm up, the Italian losing the front at Turn 10 and going down. Rossi came away from the crash relatively unhurt, but the incident cannot have helped his already dented confidence. The man set to replace him in the factory Yamaha team, Ben Spies, will have gained confidence, Spies setting the 3rd fastest time of the session, just behind Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa and ahead of Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner.

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Results of qualifying for the Moto2 class at Indianapolis:

Julian Simon will start from pole for tomorrow's Red Bull Indianapolis GP, after a late charge saw the Mapfre Aspar rider take pole from his compatriot Hector Faubel. Faubel himself had just beaten out his Marc VDS Racing teammate Scott Redding, who looked like taking the pole for much of the session. JIR's Simone Corsi rounds out the front row.

Championship leader Toni Elias has been struggling with illness all weekend, and could only manage the 6th fastest time, but fortunately for Elias, his main challenger for the title, FIMMCO Speed Up's Andrea Iannone, crashed out during the session and did not rejoin.

Results:

In front of a crowd of appreciative countrymen, American Ben Spies took his first pole position in MotoGP by "laying it all on the line" when it mattered most. Spies' pole lap came with 1:59 left in the session, immediately after his soon to be team mate Jorge Lorenzo had vaulted into the top position. Lorenzo looked a bit disappointed to be relegated to second position, but said that being on the front row was "OK" given the conditions. Nicky Hayden, who said that the softer Bridgstone compound "felt like a qualifier" sat in the catbird seat during the final minutes of the session and held on to flank Lorenzo on the outside of the front row.

Andrea Dovizioso, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner, who had all sat near the top of the sheets during the session were unable to come close to the top trio in the dying minutes. Valentino Rossi had a brief flurry of hope when he went third with 25 minutes to go but his execrable luck on the weekend continued when he threw his Fiat Yamaha down the road in turn six with just over six minutes to go.

Results and summary of MotoGP qualifying practice at Indianapolis:

Ben Spies has taken a stunning debut pole at Indianapolis, after a thrilling qualifying session at a hot Speedway. The Monster Tech 3 Yamaha grabbed pole with two minutes to go from his teammate for next year, Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, who had in turn just deposed Marlboro Ducati's Nicky Hayden. With two of the three Americans on the front row of the grid, MotoGP will receive a big boost in the US.

The two Repsol Hondas sit on the second row, Andrea Dovizioso ahead of Dani Pedrosa, while Casey Stoner sits behind his Marlboro Ducati teammate in 6th. Valentino Rossi continues to struggle with grip, the Italian turning his Fiat Yamaha upside down searching for setup with just minutes in the session left, then crashed out at Turn 6 with 6 minutes to go in qualifying. Rossi will start from 7th for Sunday's race. 

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