Casey Stoner totally dominated the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix to take his seventh Grand Prix win of the season from his seventh pole position, smashing the lap record in the process. Fellow Red Bull athlete and Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa was the only one to come close to challenging him but was almost five seconds behind at the flag.
Pedrosa knew he had to take the battle to the Championship leader and did so with another of his incredible starts, coming from the second row and passing Stoner on the charge into Turn One. Reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo also went past into second and -- briefly at least -- it looked as though Stoner had a race on his hands even though he had been totally superior throughout practice.
Stoner was confident though and in no hurry; he waited for the tires to come in fully then passed Lorenzo to capture second as they raced across the famous yard of bricks to start lap three. He then chased down Pedrosa.
With five laps gone, Stoner was closing on Pedrosa. Marco Simoncelli passed Lorenzo for third and Niki Hayden passed Andrea Dovizioso for fifth. Then Lorenzo got back into third and incredibly that was Simoncelli's race -- he went rapidly backwards from there to finish 12th with obvious tire wear problems. Similar demons hit the Ducatis of Hayden and Valentino Rossi; Hayden reversed into 14th while Rossi managed 10th.
Christian Pondella/Red Bull Media House North America, Inc.
With 22 of the 28 laps still to go, Stoner passed Pedrosa into turn one and the victory was decided there. Once ahead, Stoner steadily extended his lead and the racing interest turned back to Ben Spies, who had made a disastrous start from second on the grid to complete the first lap in ninth. He fought back though, and eventually took third from Yamaha teammate Lorenzo.
Another win for Stoner, and this time at the only circuit on the calendar where he has not previously been on the podium. So was this win particularly crucial as he extended his lead to 44 points over Lorenzo?
“There are crucial points throughout the season; we just have to keep our heads down and try to keep winning races," he said We worked hard and had a good set up; I wasn't happy with the grip but it seems like compared with everyone else things weren't so bad.
"The race wasn't easy -- at least the first few laps -- but then I got into a rhythm and the bike was working well so I have to thank the team for that. I just had to keep up the concentration, make sure I didn't make any mistakes and stayed away from the slippery sections of track off line.”
Pedrosa said that the race went better than he expected. “I am very very happy because in practice I was a second off so didn't expect to race with Casey and Ben here. But the team did a great job and we found something so thanks to them. The race was hard but I was a lot happier on the bike than I had been in practice.”
Gold & Goose/Red Bull Media House North America, Inc.
Marquez Wins Moto2 and Closes on Bradl
Marc Marquez took a fabulous victory in the Moto2 race and with Championship leader Stefan Bradl only finishing sixth, the Red Bull athlete has closed the points gap to just 28 with six races still remaining.
Marquez set off from pole and was with the leaders from the start and when he made the decisive move into the lead on lap 8 of the 26, no one had any serious response. While he almost casually stretched his advantage, archrival Bradl was fighting even to get into the points after finishing the first lap 19th from 22nd on the grid, hindered by a crash in free practice.
“Sure it's important for the championship,” said reigning 125 World Champion Marquez. “Here though, Bradl had some troubles so maybe that can happen to me in Misano, so I have to remain very concentrated and remember that six races remain. I want to be happy but have to keep focused."
"The race was difficult," he continued, "especially in the end because the tires are completely destroyed. In the beginning I didn't have the same feeling I did in practice but gradually it came and I started to push, then I could get in front and get a gap. In the end I managed that gap.”
Terol Expands 125cc Championship Lead
Nicolas Terol looked to be in a class of his own and scored a comfortable victory to extend his Championship lead to 26 points over past Red Bull Rookies Cup winner Johann Zarco, who finished fifth. It was a frustrating day for the Red Bull Ajo MotorSport team as Danny Kent had qualified fifth but ran wide and had to fight back from 18th to 13th with teammate Jonas Folger ninth in his return to racing from sickness.
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