Spain’s Dani Pedrosa claimed his third win of the season with an impressive victory in the Indianapolis MotoGP.
Pedrosa, who fell while leading at the Brickyard 12 months ago, started fifth but had moved up to second by lap four.
He then got ahead of pole-sitter and home favourite Ben Spies on lap eight before gradually extending his lead. BBC Sport
The final podium position went to MotoGP title leader Jorge Lorenzo, who suffered his worst finish of the season, but at least kept his perfect 2010 podium record intact.
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Lorenzo crossed the line 3.237sec from 2011 team-mate Spies and 5.821sec in front of present Fiat Yamaha colleague Valentino Rossi.
Lorenzo will take a reduced 68-point lead over nearest title rival Pedrosa into next weekend’s Misano round.
World champion Valentino Rossi, who had fallen three times this weekend and qualified just seventh, rebuilt his confidence in the race and got stronger as the race went on – rising from sixth at the end of lap one to take fourth place, from Pedrosa’s team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, on lap 21.
Nicky Hayden, who claimed his first Ducati front row with third in qualifying, saw his hopes of a strong result damaged when a knee slider came loose early in the race.
Third at the end of lap one, Hayden dropped back to seventh by lap 6, but moved up a place when team-mate Casey Stoner lost the front of his factory Desmosedici and crashed out - while just behind Rossi - two laps later. Yahoo! Eurosport UK
Rookies Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) impressed with seventh and eight places respectively, with Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Racing) and Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar) completing the top ten. Loris Capirossi, Hiroshi Aoyama – on his return from injury – and Randy de Puniet were the final three riders to finish the race.
Suffering the disappointment of DNFs were Marco Melandri (lap two) on his 200th Grand Prix start, Casey Stoner who lost the front end of his Ducati Desmosedici GP10 (lap eight), Colin Edwards who was forced to retire with rear tyre issues (lap 17) and Mika Kallio who crashed in turn ten when he hit a bump.
Lorenzo moves onto 251 points with Pedrosa now on 183 in second in the standings. Dovizioso is third on 126, with Stoner now seven points behind in fourth. Rossi remains in fifth while Spies moves up to sixth. Motogp
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