The US GP is at Laguna Seca, but for the second year Indy was hosting a further race in the country, using a modified and reversed version of the track used previously for Formula One racing. The 2008 event had been hit by dreadful weather, but there were no such concerns this year. It was another chance for the two American riders to perform in front of a home crowd, with Nicky Hayden, in the middle of a difficult season with Ducati, looking to recapture the form that gave him second last year.

The other US rider was Colin Edwards, who was currently not fully certain of his GP racing future. Englishman James Toseland is apparently very close to renewing his contract with the Tech 3 Yamaha team, and therefore if World Superbike man Ben Spies arrives it will more likely be Edwards’ ride on the other M1 that he might be in line for. Over in the works team, Lorenzo has now signed on again as partner to Rossi for 2010.

Yamaha had their four men in the top ten after qualifying, with three of them in the top five, but the practice sessions belonged to Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa. The 23-year-old took his first pole position since round four this year, joined on the front row by Lorenzo (second) and Rossi (third). Jorge was using a Captain America design for his crash helmet, in blue with a big white ‘A’ and also the little white wings pictured on the sides.

Both the Tech 3 riders were among those to crash during the practice sessions, along with Toní Elías and Mika Kallio, but Edwards still managed fifth on the grid. Heading the second row however was Alex de Angelis for San Carlo Gresini Honda, taking his best ever start slot in MotoGP. Like team-mate Elías, third in the last race, de Angelis has not yet secured a ride for next season. Toní was in P7 in another good performance for the team, the riders’ positions reversed from the grid at Brno.

Sixth place was a good result for Hayden on the leading Marlboro Ducati, although he was using a patriotic colour scheme with a white, red and blue design. His temporary partner, while Casey Stoner takes his illness break, was towards the back - Kallio was in P15. Next to Elías on row three were Italians Andrea Dovizioso (eighth for Repsol Honda) and Marco Melandri (ninth for Hayate Kawasaki), and then came Toseland.

Eleventh went to Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), from the still injured Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda), Niccolò Canepa (Powermate by Pramac Ducati), Chris Vermeulen (Rizla) and Kallio. 20-year-old Aleix Espargaró moved up from 250cc racing to take over the second Pramac machine for his first MotoGP event, after sixty-plus races in the support classes. He was in P16, and last was Gábor Talmácsi (Scot Honda).

The start of the race saw Pedrosa get away well to lead, from Rossi. Lorenzo’s start was relatively poor, but he surged forward to fight back into the first left-hand bend, recovering third. Edwards was fourth, from de Angelis, Melandri, Hayden, Dovizioso and Toseland. Further back, Elías and Espargaró managed to somehow come together at the right-handed turn two, both running out onto the grass on the outside and also delaying Vermeulen. All continued, but it was de Puniet, Canepa and Talmácsi who therefore followed Toseland.

Pedrosa, Rossi and Lorenzo were already starting to edge clear as Hayden took sixth from Melandri, and with Edwards and de Angelis beginning to engage in battle for fourth. At one point Canepa managed to run wide and lose out on his eleventh place to Talmácsi, Kallio and Capirossi. Indeed, Kallio was a quick mover in the early stages and would soon pick up a couple of further places.

Lorenzo and Pedrosa traded fastest laps as, with Rossi in between, the leading trio moved clear of the battling pair who followed. Edwards lost fourth to de Angelis at turn two, but immediately repassed his Honda rival. Sixth man Hayden began to catch up to these two, with Dovizioso soon to get the better of Melandri and move to join the Ducati rider in that group.

Having had the best pace throughout the meeting, Pedrosa was already 0.4s in front with almost four laps completed. The final pair of corners, turns 15 and 16, lead onto the long main straight, part of the famous oval circuit here. 15 is a short right curve into a tight left at 16. Getting to the exit of the right, Pedrosa went down when the Honda tipped just too far at relatively low speed when changing direction. Dani was able to get it going again with a push from a track worker, and the machine was obviously fairly unscathed, but he was last.

Once again we had the pair of Fiat Yamaha men running at the front and contesting the victory, with Rossi leading Lorenzo. Already the next group were out of touch, and getting dropped further back. They carried on like this for a couple of laps, with Jorge tracking the man with five wins on the board already this year. At some places it looked like the Spaniard was able to get tighter cornering lines than the race leader, and then he used the slipstream effect along the main straight to move to the inside and pass into turn one.

Lorenzo already seemed to be shaping to pull away once in front, but perhaps he wouldn’t need to. At turn two on lap nine, turning in to the right-hander Rossi was a bit off line and he lost grip at the front. He went down as the Yamaha tipped too far, leaving his team-mate at the front on his own. Like Pedrosa, ‘the Doctor’ got his bike up again and carried on, and in fact he was a place in front of the Spaniard, 16th and 17th. Valentino continued, but Dani soon caught him and went straight past. The Yamaha’s throttle was damaged and so Rossi had to retire to the pits.

His two rivals having fallen, Lorenzo now found he had a ten second lead. Edwards had been overtaken by de Angelis, the Honda pilot passing on the left over the start-finish line. The San Marino rider now found himself in second position, whilst Hayden had also passed Edwards and was third. Colin was now followed by Dovizioso, and had not been able to keep pace with the two who had gone ahead.

Lorenzo looked like he needed only to keep going to win, even with half the race still to run, but he continued to eke out the margin over second place. Meanwhile, last man Pedrosa was lapping faster still as he chased after the field. Second man de Angelis still had only a few tenths in hand over Hayden, whilst behind them Edwards was about to lose out to Dovizioso, who got by on the power over the line.

Into the last several laps and de Angelis had eased into a two second lead over Hayden, with Alex seemingly on course for his first MotoGP podium. Nicky’s pace was not as good as Dovizioso behind, who was catching. Edwards was alone in fifth, with a big gap back to Toseland and Melandri. A couple of laps later and Marco crashed out as he chased a possible sixth, the Kawasaki somersaulting several times. Kallio was established in eighth when this happened, but Capirossi was now closing in.

The last couple of laps saw Lorenzo with a lead of over twelve seconds, and he duly took his third win of the season, finishing with a lengthy wheelie. A best yet of second was good reward for de Angelis, who had found his best form throughout the event. Behind, Dovizioso was close to Hayden on the last lap, but not close enough for turn ten, at the end of the infield back straight, where he might have had a chance to pass. They crossed the line in unchanged order, with Nicky again on the podium at home.

Toseland again was sixth, his best GP result and one he has now managed nine times. He was just far enough clear of the next finisher, and this was Capirossi after a late pass on Kallio. There was a good race for ninth in the late stages, and it involved Pedrosa. He had made his way past Talmácsi and Espargaró before Canepa stopped with a mechanical problem. Dani also dealt with de Puniet, then closed in as Elías was pushing Vermeulen. Toní won this contest, with Dani also passing Chris on the power, just before the finish line!

Jorge Lorenzo did everything right, whilst Valentino Rossi made a costly mistake. The winner capped his result by adding a Captain America shield to his ensemble. A lead of fifty points was cut in half, on the day that Lorenzo’s victory was the 50th podium result for a Fiat-sponsored Yamaha. Even so, Rossi probably still needs only to beat his team-mate in one of the remaining races to be champion again. Meanwhile, Dani Pedrosa made a good charge to recover from his own mistake, but still found himself behind Casey Stoner overall. Had he won, and it looked a good bet, it would have been a different story.

In second and third, Alex de Angelis and Nicky Hayden both recorded their best results of the year so far. Alex has a single 250cc GP win on his CV, but had not done better than three fourth places in the MotoGP class. He will hope it helps him find another ride. Nicky has had many podium finishes in his Honda racing career, but this was his first with a Ducati. Indeed, Stoner has not had a Ducati team-mate reach the podium in almost two years. Will an Italian be there next time, when they race in Italy again?

Standings after twelve races: Rossi 212; Lorenzo 187; Stoner 150; Pedrosa 141; Edwards 123; Dovizioso 120; de Angelis 87; Capirossi 85; de Puniet 84; Melandri 78.
Yamaha 280; Honda 204; Ducati 182; Suzuki 109; Kawasaki 78.

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