Casey Stoner heads Dani Pedrosa for Honda 1-2 at Indianapolis Grand Prix
Casey Stoner made it three MotoGP wins in a row as he headed a Honda one-two at the Indianapolis Grand Prix and further increased his stranglehold on the world championship lead
The Australian was beaten off the line by his team-mate Dani Pedrosa and dropped behind Lorenzo after running wide at Turn 2 on the opening lap.
But after using the grunt of his RCV212 and a tow to pass Lorenzo's Yamaha for second spot on lap three, he pulled off an identical move on Pedrosa to hit the front before the one third distance mark and pulled away to a comfortable 4.828-second win. It was Stoner's seventh win of the year and the 30th of his career.
Front row starter Ben Spies endured a terrible opening lap after starting badly and then being shoved out wide onto the kerbs at Turn 3, causing him to drop to ninth.
The Yamaha rider quickly passed Colin Edwards and Alvaro Bautista and then took advantage when Nicky Hayden - the only man not to use the hardest compound front Bridgestone available - slid wide at Turn 1 to move up to sixth.
He then was merciless in scything past Andrea Dovizioso's Honda and Marco Simoncelli's Gresini Honda - which had been as high as third during the early stages - to move up to fourth.
Next on his radar was his team-mate Lorenzo, whom he nailed under braking at Turn 1 on lap 17 to secure the final podium spot.
In finishing fourth, Lorenzo saw his deficit to Stoner increase from 28 points to 44 while Dovizioso came home fifth with Bautista an excellent sixth for Suzuki.
Edwards came home seventh on his Tech 3 Yamaha, ahead of Randy de Puniet's Pramac Ducati. The Frenchman passed Hector Barbera's Aspar Ducati on the final lap to secure the position.
Barbera, who had also fallen behind Hiroshi Aoyama, then crashed at the last corner of the race as he tried to wrest ninth spot from the Japanese Gresini rider.
His crash allowed Valentino Rossi to complete the top 10 after a disastrous race for the Italian. Rossi was suffering from a gearbox glitch and fell to the back of the field early on after running off the track and having to stop before rejoining.
On a terrible day for Ducati machinery, Rossi's team-mate Hayden was a lapped 14th after running into tyre problems. Pramac rider Loris Capiross and AB Cardion's Karel Abraham failed to make the finish.
Simoncelli was another to experience rubber issues, the Italian slipping back to 12th by the chequered flag.
Results - 28 laps: Pos Rider Team/Bike Time/Gap 1. Casey Stoner Honda 46m52.786s 2. Dani Pedrosa Honda + 4.828s 3. Ben Spies Yamaha + 10.603s 4. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha + 16.576s 5. Andrea Dovizioso Honda + 17.202s 6. Alvaro Bautista Suzuki + 30.447s 7. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha + 39.690s 8. Randy de Puniet Pramac Ducati + 53.416s 9. Hiroshi Aoyama Gresini Honda + 53.790s 10. Valentino Rossi Ducati + 55.345s 11. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha + 57.184s 12. Marco Simoncelli Gresini Honda + 1m00.141s 13. Toni Elias LCR Honda + 1m02.169s 14. Nicky Hayden Ducati +2 laps
Retirements: Hector Barbera Aspar Ducati 27 laps Karel Abraham Cardion AB Ducati 20 laps Loris Capirossi Pramac Ducati 12 laps
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments