Leading player from the moment the lights went out, Dani Pedrosa was on his way to his third win of the season − second in a row − when in the twelfth lap of the United States Grand Prix, he lost control of the front of his Honda in turn five of Laguna Seca and fell. A tough setback for the Repsol rider, who had taken another step forward between the practices and the race. His team-mate, Andrea Dovizioso, finished fourth after fighting to the last turn for a place on the podium.
Another lighting start for Dani Pedrosa put the Repsol Honda Team rider in first by turn one, followed by Casey Stoner, Ben Spies, Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo. Just a turn later, Dovizioso dropped a position, which he recovered in the third lap after overtaking American Ben Spies, but now way behind the leading three. Pedrosa, Stoner and Lorenzo did not take long to ride at under one minute and twenty-two seconds beating the current circuit record held since 2008. In lap six, when Pedrosa set the fastest lap, an error from Stoner allowed Lorenzo to take second and set off in pursuit of Pedrosa, who was setting his best times of the weekend.
However, just six laps later, the Repsol Honda Team rider saw how the front wheel of his Honda RC212V lost grip in turn 5 – when he ran over a pothole in the track –, falling at high speed over the Laguna Seca gravel. This was the end of a good race for the Repsol Honda Team rider, who had a good chance of taking the final victory.
With the Spaniard out of the race, the road to victory was left wide open for Lorenzo, while Andrea Dovizioso automatically climbed a position and had a place on the podium within his grasp. The Italian had controlled the pressure from fellow Italian Valentino Rossi throughout the race until five laps from the end, when in the turn running up to the finish line, he overtook him. Dovizioso tried to recover third place up until the last minute, but finally had to make do with fourth.
After the United States Grand Prix, the World Championship will now take a well-earned rest – three weeks – until the traditional Czech Republic Grand Prix, which will mark the start of the second half of the 2010 World Championship.
Dani Pedrosa, fall >> Audio
“At the time I that I crashed I was pushing hard to maintain the gap to Lorenzo and my rhythm was good. Unfortunately though I hit a bump on the way into the corner and I couldn’t do anything – I was down. It’s very very disappointing obviously but this can happen when you’re trying everything to win. You have to push as much as you can and take risks – and I really wanted to win this race. The one thing we can do now is to remember that we were having a good race until this moment, and we were leading the race – this is what I want to take from the weekend. You cannot sit there with your arms crossed thinking about what could have been. For the whole weekend me and the team were working well and we put ourselves in a winning position. It hasn’t worked out for us but we’ll come back fighting at the next one”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 4th 14.188 sec. behind >> Audio
“I cannot be happy about this result because the podium was so close. I made a good start on the inside, but then got a little bit trapped going through turn one and lost positions. I really wanted to get away with the front riders but in the first three laps I lost time behind Spies, and because of this I lost contact with the leaders. I was lapping with a pace of 1m 22.5 and the middle of the race was going well, but in the last laps Valentino began to go faster and I couldn’t lap at the low 1m 22s pace he was able to achieve. When he came past me I did everything I could to take him back but I was not fast enough – especially in T3 and T4. I didn’t have the performance on the brakes to make a move – so I couldn’t overtake him again. The result is not what we wanted and so we have to keep working hard so that we can challenge for race wins – that’s the target”.
