US MotoGP 2011: Stoner surges clear

CASEY Stoner increased his lead at the top of the MotoGP standings to 20 points last night, with victory in the United States Grand Prix.  The Repsol Honda rider, 25, took his fifth win from ten outings in 2011, to move further clear of his only title rival of the championship, defending champion Jorge Lorenzo.

     On an absolutely gorgeous day in California, the Laguna Seca played host to the final event before the summer break.  Lorenzo, suffering from a big practice crash which meant he could barely walk, started on pole position.  He made the most of it, by making a belting start and leading the three Honda’s of Dani Pedrosa, Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso into the Andretti bend.

     As Lorenzo zoomed into the distance, others were finding the tight and twisty circuit harder to cope with.  Britain’s Cal Crutchlow lasted only four laps, before suffering another expensive accident on his Tech-Speed Yamaha bike.  After a promising start to his rookie season, Crutchlow has now only scored two points in his last five outings.  Moments later, American wildcard Ben Bostrom retired with a brake problem and Marco Simoncelli made his customary exit.  The Italian slid off on the way upto the undulating Corkscrew bend, to record his fourth crash already of an error-prone season. 

MEMORABLE: Stoner's passes deserved his glory

     Back at the front and as in the German Grand Prix a week earlier, Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner had managed to gap the rest of the chasing pack.  At half-distance, Stoner decided to make his move on Pedrosa, forcing his team-mate to concede position or crash at the Corkscrew.  Sensibly, Dani chose the latter and as his fitness levels dropped off, so did his pace and it meant no repeat of his Sachensring success seven days earlier.  Casey, who was worried about his lack of race pace going into the event, hunted Lorenzo down successfully and bravely passed him on the outside of the start-finish straight with just six laps to run.  Lorenzo left minimal space and the Australian was lucky not to end up in the back of the Yamaha’s exhaust. 

     After that, Stoner cruised away into the distance, to win by nearly five seconds.  Lorenzo’s ride to second was heroic and keeps him right in the thick of the title battle, with eight races still to run this season.  Pedrosa held onto third, whilst home hero Ben Spies recovered from a bad start to pip Dovizioso for fourth.  Sixth and seventh for the Ducati’s of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden was the best they could hope for, although Alvaro Bautista’s Suzuki had a chance of beating both Italian bikes, if he hadn’t chucked his bike into the dirt.

     Brno is the next event in three weeks time and for Stoner, it is the perfect response to some increased Lorenzo pressure.  The second half of this MotoGP season promises to be spellbinding!