The United States Grand Prix was in its fourth year since returning to the calendar, with the famous Laguna Seca circuit in California hosting the race it first held in 1988. As ever, the venue’s challenges included the talked-about Corkscrew turn, named for obvious reasons as it bends right, left and right and at the same time dives downhill, almost like a spiral. Other parts of the track can be dramatic for the riders, and then there is the usual factor of the heat.

Laguna does not have any GP support races, so that meant there were three track rookies in the form of the 250cc graduates, Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso and Alex de Angelis. James Toseland had raced there in four years on Superbikes, with a best result of second in 2004. Laguna winners included Stoner and US rider Nicky Hayden, in MotoGP; Colin Edwards and Chris Vermeulen, in World Superbikes; and Loris Capirossi, who took the 250 race back in 1993.

As well as Hayden and Edwards there were a couple of other home riders, with Ben Spies having his second outing on the Rizla Suzuki. In the continued absence of John Hopkins, the Kawasaki was raced by regular US national competitor, Jamie Hacking. His AMA career has seen Hacking win a single Superbike race in 2001 on a Suzuki, but take Supersport and Superstock titles for Yamaha with regular victories. He achieved his best position of sixth in AMA Superbikes in the 2007 season, when he raced for Kawasaki.

Hopkins was missing, but so too was Pedrosa for the race. The 22-year-old Spaniard had injured an ankle and a hand in his Sachsenring crash, but came to the US with the intention of trying to compete. Having ridden in practice, he decided he was not physically up to the job, so there would be one Repsol Honda seat left vacant. Dani had led the championship after nine top-four results in nine races, but two no-scores would be costly. This would have been his 125th GP.

Conditions at Laguna were not quite as expected this year, with temperatures not reaching the heights of preceding visits. Michelin tyre runners struggled somewhat as a result, and although some of them qualified well, optimism for the race was not so evident. Bridgestone led the way, with Stoner and the Marlboro Ducati on pole position for the fifth time running. Rossi was second on the Fiat Yamaha. Michelin’s leader was track specialist Hayden, third for Repsol Honda.

First time visitor Lorenzo was fourth with his Fiat Yamaha on Michelins, ahead of Toseland for Tech 3 Yamaha. Randy de Puniet was sixth with the customer LCR Honda, and then it was Edwards. The second Tech 3 machine was in a more patriotic shade of blue, with Colin’s livery borrowing heavily from the US national flag. Blue was also the colour in eighth, albeit lighter on Vermeulen’s Rizla Suzuki. The came Dovizioso for JiR Honda.

Toní Elías achieved a season’s best of tenth on the customer Alice Ducati for the d’Antín team, then came Capirossi (Rizla) and Shin’ya Nakano (Gresini Honda). Spies was next, from Sylvain Guintoli on the other Alice machine. Marco Melandri was again struggling on the seconds works Ducati, in P15, not yet having secured a move away from the team. Gresini’s second man was de Angelis in P16, and the last bikes were the Kawasakis of Hacking and team regular Anthony West.

The race at Laguna starts with a fast, downhill left-hand kink, then heavy braking for the left-looping Andretti Hairpin. Stoner led away, with Hayden second until Rossi passed him at the hairpin. Toseland was fourth but soon relegated by Dovizioso. James was not to enjoy the first lap, as Vermeulen, Elías and de Puniet worked their way past him. At least he was better off than Lorenzo, who suffered a highside crash at the uphill left turn five, and appeared to have hurt his left ankle or foot. His Fiat team-mate was doing well enough, and Rossi passed Stoner into the Corkscrew braking zone.

Rossi and Stoner led, and already a gap was opening back to Hayden, Dovizioso and Vermeulen. Elías, Toseland, de Puniet, Nakano, Spies, Capirossi, Melandri, Edwards, West and de Angelis followed. But the race soon developed into a fairly frantic two-man tussle, with Rossi and Stoner jostling for superiority. There would be a number of changes of position as they motored away from Hayden and the rest.

Stoner was back in front with an impressive turn one pass, but Rossi got back inside him for turn five, only for another swap coming out of left-handed turn six. This bend leads to the drag up to turns seven, eight and 8A - in other words the Corkscrew. They got very close for a few seconds at this point, as Rossi went momentarily onto the gravel inside the downhill right-handed 8A apex. As he came back on track he couldn’t avoid drifting across into the path of Stoner, on the outside, and they nearly hit.

It was a bit tidier after that, but the moves kept on coming - Stoner on the outside at turn one, Rossi on the inside at turn five, and meanwhile they were exchanging new fastest laps. Valentino led for the next period, but always with Casey in close attendance. Both riders were using the same combination of medium compound front Bridgestone tyre and hard rear, so it would come down to Yamaha versus Ducati and champion rider versus champion rider.

The race for third was soon several seconds down, and involved Honda and Suzuki machinery, with Hayden, Dovizioso and Vermeulen. Chris moved up to fourth, then looked at trying to make it third. He went inside Nicky at Andretti, only for the US rider to get through inside at the second apex of the long hairpin bend. This led to Andrea getting a place back, inside at the right-handed turn four, but this time Chris got it back at turn five. He would soon advance beyond Hayden for that third place.

Stoner continued pushing Rossi, such that he had a brief rear slide at the long left-handed downhill turn nine, or Rainey Corner. He wasn’t deterred, and there was a new lap record for Stoner. He went to the outside of Valentino across the start-finish line, but as a result was wide round Andretti and lost the lead and a bit of ground. But he had the speed to catch up again. By half-distance the pair of them were approaching an 18s lead.

Several times Stoner looked to get around the outside of Rossi across the line and through turn one. At one stage when he seemed on course, Valentino again got back through at the inside of Andretti Hairpin. Casey was coming back at him at the inside of the turn three right-hander, but the Yamaha rider held him off. It would not be the last moment of drama.

Meanwhile, Vermeulen’s pace in third had been good enough to get him clear of Hayden and Dovizioso. The two Honda riders changed position when the customer team rider overtook the works man on the inside for turn four. Rumours continue to suggest that Andrea will replace Nicky next year, and he has looked like he might provide a closer challenge to Pedrosa than Hayden has with the 800 bikes.

But the battle that was taking most of the limelight was that between Rossi and Stoner. The Australian continued to run right with the Italian, but he was about to get a bit too close. At turn eleven, the final tight left-hander, Casey nearly hit the rear of Rossi’s bike. Braking heavily, Stoner now ran wide on the Ducati, into the gravel trap. He suffered a slow speed fall that ended his challenge for victory.

Stoner’s race itself was not ended, though. He got back into the action and was still in second place. The leaders had such an advantage that, with seven laps left, Stoner was 16s from Rossi but 7s ahead of Vermeulen, a gap which he started to extend again. But the final stages saw no change in the top three, as they were all separated by such handy margins. Rossi, Stoner and Vermeulen made it a Bridgestone one-two-three, although Chris was using a hard front, unlike the other two.

Dovizioso was fourth after starting to distance himself from Hayden, and in the later stages the Repsol man might have been concerned about another Honda customer, as de Puniet was catching. But Randy did not get close enough. It had been a battle for Toseland on the second of the Yamahas. Following his first lap, James had advanced to sixth again, before de Puniet came past. He held P7 for a long time in front of Nakano, but both men lost two positions right at the end.

Elías had been sixth on lap one, then fell back so he was twelfth. He then came through again, relegating Edwards and helped when Melandri ran through the gravel at Andretti. Toní then battled wildcards Spies and Hacking, passing them both late on, then Nakano and Toseland. Sixth man de Puniet was therefore followed home by Elías and Spies, and for each it was a best GP result so far this year. Toseland and Nakano stayed ahead of Hacking, then it was Guintoli, de Angelis and the surprisingly uninspired Edwards and Capirossi, from Melandri and West.

Valentino Rossi had been third at Laguna Seca in 2005, and fourth in 2007, and in between was a non-finisher. So this was his first win at the circuit. He has of course won just about everywhere else. Casey Stoner was disappointed with his race, as he obviously lost a chance to get more points than his Italian rival. Casey blamed himself for the crash, but was unhappy about some of Rossi’s moves elsewhere - perhaps thinking of the Corkscrew incident. However, he seemed to have regained his good humour towards Rossi on the podium. Valentino had thanked the circuit on his way in by ‘kissing’ the Corkscrew turn.

Chris Vermeulen had another good Laguna Seca result, and Andrea Dovizioso had another good MotoGP rookie result. But it was obviously not a good meeting for the leading Spaniards, with Jorge Lorenzo apparently hurt yet again and his first five results of the year becoming harder to recall; and with Dani Pedrosa’s momentum gone as a result of his German GP exit and non-race here. But both riders can use the summer break to strive closer to fitness, and it could still go on as a three-way title chase when next they race.

Standings after eleven races: Rossi 212; Stoner 187; Pedrosa 171; Lorenzo 114; Dovizioso 103; Edwards 100; Vermeulen 89; Hayden 84; Toseland 72; Nakano 70; Capirossi 61; Elías 46.
Yamaha 241; Honda 197; Ducati 192; Suzuki 112; Kawasaki 52.

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