Dani Pedrosa dominates Indianapolis GP

with twowheelsblog

The signs that Dani Pedrosa was completely at ease at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway started Friday morning and in today’s 28 lap race the Repsol Honda rider completely dominated the scene with a blistering race pace almost always below the circuit record, which was virtually impossible for anyone to touch and cross over the finish line with more than a 10 second margin and take his second victory of this 2012 season and doing so reduce the gap to points leader Jorge Lorenzo to just 18 points.

Jorge Lorenzo settled for a safe second place after deciding to go with thee soft rear tire but a bad start and finding himself bottled behind Andrea Dovizioso for several laps stopped him from any having any chance to catch Pedrosa. If Lorenzo seemed happy with second place - but angry with wildcard rider Steve Rapp who seemed unaware that he was to give track space when he was lap by the Spaniard - same can’t be said for team mate Ben Spies who suffered still another incredible impossible technical issue after his Laguna Seca swingarm collapse.

The American had been the fastest Yamaha rider this weekend, even better than his titled team mate and he also led the race from the third turn on lap one until Pedrosa passed him on lap seven. Spies was travelling in second when the engine of his M1 blew on the straight and he had to park his dead bike.

Andrea Dovizioso took the final podium spot after he passed the very stoic Casey Stoner.The Australian who was riding with big ligament damage and a chipped bone in his right ankle gave proof that even injured he is still a gritty rider as he powered passed Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl and then caught Dovizioso and seemed to break away but as the very long race continued the Italian upped his pace and re-caught the Repsol Honda rider with seven laps to go. Stoner valiantly tried to take back the position, but his injury finally began to take the toll and he finished 4th and was completely drained when he returned to his pit garage to a big applause.

Alvaro Bautista finished fifth almost 8 seconds ahead of Stefan Bradl who wore out his tires. Valentino Rossi had another horrible race he was more than 57 seconds from race winner Pedrosa and he finished in a very lonely seventh.

Karel Abraham managed an 8th spot after passing Yonny Hernandez (9th) and Aleix Espargaro who rounded out the top ten.
Toni Elias finished in 11th for Pramac Ducati.

It was a war of attrition for the CRT riders, Mattia Pasini crashed on the first lap, Michele Pirro and Danilo Petrucci suffered technical issues on the first lap and Randy de Puniet also suffered a technical problem.

MotoGP Indianapolis Race Results:

01- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 28 laps in 46’39.631
02- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 10.823
03- Andrea Dovizioso – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 17.310
04- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 19.803
05- Alvaro Bautista – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 22.556
06- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 30.072
07- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 57.614
08- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1’08.442
09- Yonny Hernandez – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 1’11.106
10- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 1’14.079