Rossi and Stoner lock horns in the USA

Stoner stormed off the line ahead of Hayden, Rossi and Edwards but Rossi sneaked up the inside of Hayden at turn one to move up to second place and then put a brilliant move on Stoner for the lead on entry to the corkscrew. Jorge Lorenzo didn’t even make it to the corkscrew before he launched himself into the crash barriers and seemingly receiving some sort of lower leg injury in the impact.

Andrea Dovizioso had moved up to fourth place behind Hayden by lap two and another rider looking to work his way forward was Chris Vermeulen. The two men up front however were pulling away from their pursuers with apparent ease. Stoner the fastest man on lap two and the Ducati passed Rossi for the lead as they crossed the stripe to start lap three.

Rossi was not letting Stoner escape however and was up the inside a couple of corners later, Stoner returned the favour around the outside, then Rossi again but this time he cut up the inside of the corkscrew over the kerb and into the dirt before then running wide and thus forcing Casey out wide also. The pair then crossed the line side by side before Casey again took the lead. The aggression between the pair palpable.

Rossi through again only a few corners into the next lap and lead Stoner through the corkscrew. Casey saving some huge rear slides in his quest to get the power down earlier than Rossi. No challenge from Stoner on the straight next time around. A few seconds further behind them another good battle was unfolding with Vermeulen and Dovizioso starting to hound Nicky Hayden for third.

Stoner looked to have decided the discretion was the better part of valour as Rossi was desperate to not let him get away and thus behind the Italian looked perhaps the safest place to be.

Marco Melandri had just crept in the top ten before running wide into the gravel as his 2008 woes continued unabated.

Chris Vermeulen was up to third place by lap ten and was quickening his pace. The Suzuki man had begun to leave Hayden and Dovizioso in his wake but was 11 seconds adrift of the leading pair. Rossi and Stoner by far the quickest men on the track and pulling away from the field to the tune of a second a lap.

Stoner passed Rossi with 19 laps to run but then ran in way too wide which allowed Rossi an easy run back through and a handy one second advantage over the young Australian. Stoner responded with a hot new fastest lap of the race to be right back on to Rossi once again. An indication that if he can get in front of Rossi and stay there for a lap or two he might be able to run away from the Yamaha. Something Rossi obviously knew and thus the reason for his staunch resolution to not let that happen.

By half race distance Hayden and Dovizioso battle for fourth place was 18 seconds behind the leading duo. Vermeulen had escaped from that pair and was 15 seconds behind the race leaders. American wildcard entrants Ben Spies on the Suzuki and Jamie Hacking on the Kawasaki were having a good tussle over ninth place. Hacking a few places in front of regular Kawasaki incumbent Anthony West who visited the gravel trap a few laps later to relegate himself further down the order.

Stoner took the lead again with nine laps to run, Rossi back at the next turn, then Stoner again, then Rossi again. That Yamaha six foot wide when in front and six inches wide where there was any gap to squeeze through. Casey Stoner then went down after his rear wheel lifted too high under brakes, the bumps unsettled the Ducati further which made him run wide and eventually off onto the gravel for a stop and fall over style crash. Stoner got the machine back up and running still in second place such was his advantage over third placed Vermeulen but Rossi now had a massive 16 second lead and could afford to lose two seconds a lap over the final seven laps to Stoner and still take the race win.

But Rossi did not back off. The Yamaha man continued to set a cracking pace all the way to the flag and Stoner had only been able to pull back two seconds over the course of the next six laps.

Rossi the clear winner much to the delight of the Yamaha crew in what must go down as one of Rossi’s most memorable victories and his first on US soil. Rossi crossed the line in celebration with the front wheel of his Yamaha carried high while Stoner crossed the line with his head hung low. Vermeulen a clear third place ahead of Dovizioso and Hayden.

Stoner took responsibility for his mistake under brakes in the post race press conference but also made comment that he thought Rossi’s tactics early in the race too much for his liking and that he wished it had been a ‘cleaner’ battle. That comment no doubt stemming from the highly questionable move by Rossi at the corkscrew early in the race that saw Rossi overtake on the inside not just on ripple strip but actually on the dirt before the running back onto the track and holding his line and pushing Stoner wide out to the other side of the circuit.

Rossi extends his series lead to 25 points over Stoner who moved past Pedrosa for second place in the rankings. Pedrosa failing to start in America due to injuries sustained at Sachsenring. Lorenzo remains in fourth place despite failing to finish a lap at Laguna while Dovizioso leapfrogs over Edwards into fourth place thanks to his strong fourth place. Edwards’ disappointing 14th place finish scoring him only two points. Vermeulen gained a firmer grasp on seventh place in the standings over Hayden.

Despite his recent no points finishes Pedrosa remains in contention for the title, only 41 points adrift of Rossi and 16 behind Stoner the Repsol man certainly not out of the running and will now take the opportunity to recuperate fully before coming back strong for the remaining seven rounds of the series.

The teams now enjoy a month long break before reconvening at Brno on August 17.

Valentino Rossi – 1st
“What a race today! We made some modifications to our bike after warm-up and these gave us the last few tenths that enabled me to fight with Casey today; the result was just fantastic. I got a good start and I was able to pass him in the first lap, but I knew I had to try and stay in front of him and it was impossible to relax even for one second. My M1 was brilliant and so were my Bridgestone tyres; I really only made one mistake, at the corkscrew when I went a bit wide but in fact the dirt had quite good grip also! Casey was a bit faster on the straight than me but I was stronger on the brakes so I had to make all my passes there. I don’t know how many times we changed the lead but it was a lot and it was great, great racing for me and I think also for the fans, because it’s been a while since we’ve been like this. To stay in front I had to do high 21s at least on every lap and I want to thank my team and engineers for giving me a bike that could do this. I had a great rhythm and I am really so happy to win for the first time in America. About the passes, I am sorry that Casey thinks some of them were a bit strong but I really don’t agree; I passed only on the brakes, I braked in the same places every time and we never touched. Of course this was an aggressive race, but it was definitely a fair one. Now we have the summer break and I am looking forward to relaxing a bit, but not too much because it’s going to be a hard fight for the final seven races and we must keep the concentration!”

Casey Stoner – 2nd
“At the end of the day I’m not happy because I’ve made a mistake and it has cost me the chance to win this race, but I also think that even if he rode a great race, some of Valentino’s moves early in the race were too aggressive. Anyway, we can’t do anything about that now – the important thing is that we’ve come away from here with 20 valuable points and after being written off in some quarters four races ago we now go on our summer holiday with a fighting chance of winning the title again. We’re 25 points behind, which is a big gap, but there are seven races left and a lot can happen. We can take a lot of positives out of this weekend – mainly the fact that all the hard work by everybody at Ducati and Bridgestone has paid off again.”

Chris Vermeulen – 3rd
“I’m really happy to be back on the podium again. That’s two podiums in a row, not just in two races but two in a row at Laguna as well! The last two have come in completely different conditions and I think it proves that the Suzuki is becoming a lot more competitive and the changes we are making is getting us a lot closer to the front. I was hoping to run with the front two today but I got held up a bit at the start and lost some time. After I had got through they were a long way ahead and I ended up having quite a lonely ride – it was tough to keep my concentration at times as there was nothing to focus on other than count down the laps.”

Andrea Dovizioso – 4th
“I am pleased to have achieved this result to be the first Honda rider on Michelin tyres, which shows how good they are! Valentino and Casey were riding unbelievably fast. I made a good start, and on the first lap when I saw Lorenzo fall, I knew that the first two were away and that I could not follow them. I was behind Hayden who was quick, even though Vermeulen was able to catch us. When I realized that Hayden was running slower, I wanted to pass him, but Laguna is difficult to pass on and I spent four laps trying. Then I pushed to the maximum to pass Hayden and De Puniet, who are strong ‘brakers’ and who were difficult to pass.”

Nicky Hayden – 5th
“Obviously at my home race I’d hoped to be able to put up a better fight than that. It was certainly a tough weekend, we struggled a bit with the tyres we had available. We really had only two race tyres, the one I used in practice I kept using again and again, I used it Friday, Saturday and again this morning, by the end it had 35 laps on it. I think I learned a good lesson, we set up the bike on quite old tyres. In the race when we put in a grippy new race tyre the balance of the bike changed a lot, so it was pushing the front in a lot of places. I would’ve liked to have been closer to the front but I think we learned a good lesson. Now we’ve got a few weeks off, so we’ll regroup and try to finish the year strong. Hopefully I can improve and they can do some work in Japan.”

Manufacturers
1, Yamaha, 241
2, Honda, 197
3, Ducati, 192
4, Suzuki, 112
5, Kawasaki, 52