MotoGP- Laguna Seca - Race

Drought Over

July 6, 2009 by Jacob Black - motogpmagazine.com

Pics by Scott Jones from motogpmatters.com

Repsol Honda pilot Dani Pedrosa revisited the top step of the podium for the first time in over a year at the Red Bull US Grand Prix in Laguna Seca. An action packed Laguna Seca grand prix saw just 12 riders finish a race of attrition, with six crashing out and James Toseland copping a disqualification. But it was the diminutive Spaniard who stood firm. Pedrosa holding off a last lap attack from Rossi to win after riding to the front off the line and dominating all race.

Starting from pole with a separated collarbone was too much for Jorge Lorenzo. The Spaniard dropping to eighth before turn one as Pedrosa and Stoner led the way from Valentino Rossi.

Rossi, clearly on a mission rounded up Stoner for second on the way into the famous corkscrew and set off after Pedrosa but in shades of 2008 Rossi lost the spot to Stoner again just one lap later, and the battle between the two saw Pedrosa take a small advantage into lap three.

At the end of three short laps Pedrosa led Stoner, from Rossi, Dovizioso and Lorenzo, the top five separated by less than 1.5 seconds.

Lap four saw the first crash of the race, Galbor Talmasci crashing out of his second MotoGP on the Team Scot Honda.

Settling back into a rhythm after yet another horror start, the injured Lorenzo closed on the front runners as Loris Capirossi crashed out of the race on lap five.

In a race that was rapidly turning into one of attrition, Andrea Dovizioso was the first of the front runners to falter, his crash on lap seven came at turn five, the Repsol Honda tucking the front and sliding out on the left hander while Sete Gibernau was the fourth rider out on the final corner of the lap.

James Toseland received a pit lane penalty for jumping the start, but either didn’t see his pit board or didn’t care, and was disqualified from the race for ignoring the penalty, leaving just 12 riders in the race.

Meanwhile Dani Pedrosa skipped out by two seconds over Stoner and Rossi, forcing Rossi’s hand. Rossi managed to retake Stoner for second on lap 12 but Pedrosa was still almost half a second faster than the rest of the pack and pulling away.

The injured and ever tenacious Lorenzo clawed his way into third on lap 21 as Stoner’s recurring mystery illness saw his slide slowly backwards to fourth. Stoner’s Ducati teammate Hayden, lurked in fifth at his home grand prix but the 10 second gap between the two was already insurmountable for the American.

Lorenzo steadily closed on Rossi by two-tenths a lap and the battle for second ignited as Pedrosa stabilised his lead over the duo.

With the injured Lorenzo monstering the back of his teammate, it was a wild dive down the inside of the final turn that seemingly undid the Spaniard’s hopes to peg back points on championship leader Rossi. Lorenzo’s bike picked up the rear tyre deep under brakes, bucked and almost threw its pilot in a harrowing moment that showed just how disadvantaged the #99 rider was by his injured collarbone.

The moment seemed to trigger something in Rossi, who used his new found freedom from Lorenzo to push for the lead, with around a second gap to Pedrosa heading into the final lap Pedrosa could be forgiven for feeling safe but Rossi closed enough to have a lunge into the final turn.

The dramatic last lap had the Honda camp pulling their hear out but Pedrosa did enough to win Honda’s first race since Catalunya in 2008 from Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner and Nicky Hayden in fifth, his best result on a Ducati in a race only 12 riders made the finish.

Today’s second place leaves Rossi still leading the championship by nine points from Lorenzo, 16 from Stoner and 59 points from Dani Pedrosa heading into the next round in Germany. .motogp.com

1. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team 44min 1.580 sec

"The performance was very good. I was comfortable, I was doing great laps, and just in the last lap I relaxed a little bit too much.

"When I saw in the last lap the bike of Rossi I thought maybe I was too slow. But it's a good feeling to be back winning for me and my team." news.bbc.co.uk/sport2

2. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 44min 1.924 sec

“The first half of the race was quite difficult because we weren’t at 100% today. I didn’t expect Dani to be so fast but he was very strong and there wasn’t much I could do to go with him! The last ten laps were very exciting because Lorenzo was pushing me so hard that I had to really make another step and then Dani slowed down and suddenly he was right in front of me! I thought there was a chance to pass on the final corner but unfortunately I was just too far off and it was too much of a risk. Second is good today because we were not in perfect shape here, we missed something in the setting and this is always a hard track anyway, so we have to be happy with these twenty points. We have extended the championship lead so it’s a good result for us and we have shown that we are still strong this year even when things are not perfect. This consistency is the most important thing for the championship. Now I am happy that we have some time to rest because these have been a hard two weeks and the next two races are very important because we are all so close!”yamaha-racing.com
3. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha Team 44min 3.506 sec

“I always try to do my best and I think that is what I have done today, considering my physical condition. I am really proud and I think that this was one of my best races. My foot was okay but I had a lot of pain in my right shoulder, which meant I wasn’t strong in my right hand and I had to over-compensate with my left; I am really tired now! I want to thank the Clinica Mobile because they made it possible for me to finish the race. After a while I started to forget about the pain a bit and I just wanted to do my best and I knew that it was possible to pass Valentino. Unfortunately I hit some bumps when I braked deep and my rear tyre moved a lot and I was lucky not to crash – maybe without this mistake, if I had been able to pass him, it would have been possible to win but anyway third is good in the circumstances and we have taken good points. Now we have some time to recover; I am fit and strong so I hope that by Sachsenring I will be back to my best.” yamaha-racing.com
4. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 44min 14.012 sec

“I can’t be happy with fourth place, even though I know that we have performed some damage limitation in terms of the overall standings. It’s a weekend to forget,” said the Ducati rider.

“Today I didn’t feel as bad at the end of the race as I have done in the last two, but I’m still not right,” he added, referring to his physical condition that has suffered over the past month. The fatigue also brought with it the return of a previous problem in his scaphoid.

“I found it really difficult to keep my concentration over the last few laps and I was in a bit of a daze by the end. My left arm was feeling really tired by the end because of the fact there are so many left-handers here and my left wrist still doesn’t have the full range of movement after my operation in the winter,” he explained. “Now we’ll focus on trying to find out the root of the problem because racing in this condition is not much fun.”

Stoner will now stay on in the United States for extensive tests at the Fremont Surgery Center with Dr. Arthur Ting and Dr. Tuan, to try and understand the source of the problem. .motogp.com

5. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team 44min 23.243 sec

“It was certainly a lot better than my other races so far this year. I have some great memories from here so it’s hard to get too excited by fifth place but I’m happy.”

On the weekend as a whole he commented, “I’ve had a tough season, on Friday I was at the bottom and feeling miserable, just thinking it would break my heart to ride like that all weekend. We changed some stuff on the bike and just kept working our way forward, and in the end we got into the top five. Now we need to try and build on this.”

Looking ahead to the next round in Germany, Hayden added, “We have to enjoy this moment and then see what Sachsenring brings. We’ve made a lot of changes on the bike so this has been a big adjustment for me. The team is just working as hard as ever and I am happy with my guys and the support they give me so if we can get some momentum that is all I can ask for.” .motogp.com

6. Toni Elias SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini 44min 23.621 sec

“Finally I finished sixth and Nicky was very strong. I tried right up until the last corner but I couldn’t pass him, and although I wanted more, to be higher up, I think we have to be happy with sixth because it’s our best result this season.”

On the improvements he made in California he continued, “We are thinking positively, we must continue working like this. We are doing well, every race we are getting closer and I hope to take that next step to get closer to the best riders.”

“I was hoping the front guys would be a little slower than that and allow us to challenge them but the pace was very quick so compliments to them. In general this weekend has been much better than previous races and so was the result, but we always want more.” .motogp.com

7. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 44min 31.781 sec

It’s great to score my 100th points finish in front of my home fans and doing it for Monster, Yamaha and Tech 3 who have given me great support. But I expect more than finishing seventh. I’m pretty tired now and it was a really physical race because I couldn’t get the bike to turn. Each time I threw it on its side it just went straight out to the kerb. I was using a lot of effort to get the bike to turn and it felt like the front forks were sitting between my legs. When I braked the front didn’t feel like it was coming back up. It felt like the front was buried in the ground and just pushed me out to the edge of the track. I ride over the front a lot but today it felt like I was crawling all over it, almost like I was sitting on top of the tank. It wasn’t super special and we’ve got to go back to the drawing board I think for Germany. My pace was consistent and I was doing between 22.9 or 23.1 the whole race, but that just wasn’t fast enough.”yamaha-racing.com
8. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 44min 34.437 sec

“It was a little bit difficult, because I was sore from the crash I had on Saturday and that didn’t help things. To be honest we really struggled with the bike set-up to improve on what we had last year, even though our race time was quicker than last year, because everyone else has taken a bigger step forward. So it was tough for us.”

He continued, “I really struggled with the front tyre that Bridgestone had here, it was very different to last year. But that’s the single tyre supplier rule, it is the same for everyone and you’ve got to make your bike work around it. Anyway I got a pretty bad start, pretty bad couple of laps in which I got tangled up with (Colin) Edwards and (Loris) Capirossi and eventually came through for eighth. I felt our pace was probably good enough for sixth or seventh but it wasn’t as good as we needed to be at the front.” .motogp.com

9. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 44min 41.905 sec

“I am quite satisfied as it was hard to expect a better result starting from the fifth row on this ‘up-and-down’ track. I struggled with grip problems from Friday and we tried to make some adjustments but in the end the bike was not at 100%. My start was not brilliant and I hit some traffic in the first few laps, but after that my rhythm was good enough to pass a few riders.”

He went on to say, “We decided to go for a softer rear tyre which was a good choice for the beginning of the race, but grip from the rear tyre dropped with ten laps to go. Still, this is another productive result for me and the team as I am sitting in ninth place in the championship.” .motogp.com

10. Marco Melandri ITA Hayate Racing Team 44min 49.608 sec

“We had quite a good set-up and I was confident but I had a small crash,” said Melandri of the incident. “We tried to repair the bike and use the same one but it was a big mistake because the settings were completely different to the morning and were not working well. I had a completely different feeling on left and right corners and the throttle wasn’t smooth, so it was tough.”

He continued, “I was just riding to finish the race because I already knew from the warm-up lap that I wasn’t going to do well. It’s disappointing because I think we had everything to do a good race, so now we have to look forward to the next one.”

Giving some further thoughts on the forthcoming visit to Sachsenring, Melandri added, “It’s a strange track because it’s very, very tight and you stay on the left side a lot. We’ll have to see about the weather too because sometimes it can be very unpredictable.”.motogp.com

11. Alex de Angelis RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini 44min 50.390 sec

“We made some changes to the bike for today but with the conditions being so much cooler for the warm-up this morning than they were for the race in the afternoon, we hadn’t really tested them. I was really struggling over the first few laps and the bike was moving around a lot but the problem eased in the second half of the race and I was able to push harder. I honestly thought I could run with Vermeulen today and that would have been a battle for eighth place so it’s a shame we suffered this setback. Anyway, at least we picked up a few points.” motogpworld.net
12. Niccolo Canepa ITA Pramac Racing 45min 20.111 sec

"Hard race for us today. In the first laps I couldn't push more because I didn't have enough grip with the front part of the bike, in addition I saw other riders fall in front of me and I thought the track wasn't in the best condition in that moment”, he said. “Once the front tyre was warmer it was too late because I found myself practically alone. I maintained yesterday's afternoon rhythm, but it wasn't enough to reach the riders in front of me. We will try to do better in two weeks at the Sachsenring."moto-live.com

DNF:
Gabor Talmacsi HUN Scot Racing Team MotoGP

"I had a very good feeling with the bike, and a good start. Then suddenly, when I was 15th, I lost the front. I cannot say why,” shrugged the Hungarian. “I'm fine, but it is really a pity because I was in a condition to get a good result. I stay confident for the next race."
Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

“I am really upset about this because we have worked so hard over weekend to find the best solution and we thought we would be ok with the setting. I started quite well and was really aggressive in the first couple of laps, but on turn six I lost the front on the second lap and then on the next lap I did the same in the same place, but that time I crashed.”

“The truth is this has been a terrible weekend for me as we never really found a good solution. Fortunately we have another nine races in front of us and we will keep working really hard to get some good results.”.motogp.com

Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team

“We were in good shape, I’d got into a fast rhythm and I’m sure we could have had good result, so I’m very disappointed. Unfortunately I made a mistake and I spoiled my opportunity.”

Explaining what had occurred in more detail he added, “During the first laps, I was behind Valentino Rossi, I wanted to overtake him and I was very close at the end of the straight. It’s a blind point and I was so close that I didn’t see the plastic poles that separate the track from the pit lane. I hit a few of them and in the impact the clutch lever bent, and from that moment on I couldn’t control the engine braking. It was my mistake as my line was too far to the left but after that it was tough to ride and change gear properly.”

He continued, “Nevertheless, I tried to stay up with the leaders. Then I lost the front and crashed after having had a couple of warnings. I’m really disappointed because we are getting closer to front-running pace at every race and here we could have done well. Still, I believe in myself, in the machine and in my team, and I really hope to get a good result soon.”.motogp.com

Sete Gibernau SPA Grupo Francisco Hernando

DSQ:
James Toseland GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3

“There’s not much I can say really other than it was a tough weekend. I feel like the jump start was pretty harsh. I knew it was close but I didn’t think I’d jumped the start and that early in a 32-lap race I’m not looking at my pitboard. I was just concentrating on catching the guy in front and the first thing I realised that I’d been penalised was when I saw the black flag and my number. Obviously if I’d known I’d jumped the start then I would have come in but I’ve watched the TV replay and you can’t see anything. I didn’t gain any places either so in my opinion it’s pretty harsh. It’s a setback but I’ve just got to get on with it and bounce back in Germany.” yamaha-racing.com

Mika Kallio was absent this weekend due to a finger injury, while Gabor Talmacsi will be Scot Honda’s only rider from this event onwards..motogp.com