Indianapolis MotoGP 2011: Supreme Stoner marches on

CASEY Stoner continued his seemingly supreme routine march towards the 2011 MotoGP championship, with another dominant victory at Indianapolis last weekend.  It was his seventh win from 12 starts, his third in a row and extended his point’s advantage over his only title rival, Jorge Lorenzo to 44 points.

     On a baking day at the home of American motorsport, Stoner began on pole position and showed his supreme machinery advantage over the Yamaha of Lorenzo.  Unsurprisingly, he fell behind team-mate and traditional fast-starter Dani Pedrosa into the first corner.  Lorenzo briefly took second, but the first lap was a nightmare for American hero Ben Spies.  Spies, starting on the front row of the grid bogged down and got squeezed out of the first few bends, first by fellow American Nicky Hayden and then by Marco Simoncelli.  Spies dropped to tenth and his victory hopes were dashed from there.

     The Honda power of Stoner saw him coast past Lorenzo on lap three and four laps later, had reeled in Pedrosa, completing the pass into the first corner.  After that, it was a demonstration performance from the two Repsol Honda bikes.  Meanwhile, Spies provided most of the overtaking action as he recovered to produce forceful passes on Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso.  With 11 laps to go, the local man was fourth and closing in on a lonely Lorenzo.  Team-mates they may be and Lorenzo might be the one going for the championship, but nothing was going to deny Spies, as he overhauled the reigning champion to take the final spot on the podium.

DOMINANT: Casey Stoner continues his rich vein of form

    With pole position and the lap record to boot, Stoner secured his 30^th MotoGP victory to win by over four seconds.  Further back, both Hayden and Simoncelli fell back drastically with tyre problems.  Hayden had to retire, whilst Simoncelli slipped from a promising fourth to an unwelcome twelfth.  Dovizioso had a clean race on the third of the works Hondas to finish fifth and there was a very encouraging performance from Alvaro Bautista to record a sixth place finish for Suzuki.  Valentino Rossi finished a very distant tenth for Ducati and there was a long overdue finish for Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, who came home in eleventh.

     With only six events remaining, it is looking more and more difficult for Jorge Lorenzo to close the gap, which is becoming more like an avalanche.  Casey Stoner is looking impossible to beat, and now has one hand on the MotoGP crown.  Can anyone stop him in the remaining races?  On the evidence of Indianapolis, it’s hard to see how anyone can.