Dani Pedrosa ran an exemplary race from fifth place to win the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix while his Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso recalimed third place in the title race from Casey Stoner as he took fifth.
The highly rated Spanish star took the lead on lap seven and ran a faultess race to the flag. He's scored two wins in every season moving to MotoGP five years ago, but this is the first time he’s surpassed that tally. “I’ve gone past the barrier of two MotoGP race wins in a season so I’m very happy,” said Pedrosa. “We are doing a good job and I hope we can maintain this momentum next weekend at Misano."
Starting from fifth on the grid, Pedrosa – who fell while leading in Indianapolis last year – was up to second by lap four. He then took advantage of his straight-line speed to pass home crowd favourite Ben Spies going into lap eight.
The Spaniard continued to increase his lead over rookie Spies, finishing 3.575 seconds clear of the American who earned his best-ever finish. Championship-leader Jorge Lorenzo could only finish third as Pedrosa ate into his massive lead in the overall standings.
"It was a fast bike in the straightaways and it was going well into the corners," Pedrosa added.
Although he made gains in the championship, Dovizioso was less pleased, especially after Valentino Rossi passed him nine laps from the end as his Honda’s grip faded in the 50-degree heat.
“I’m disappointed with this result because I expected to do better this afternoon,” said Dovizioso, who had out-qualified his team-mate. “I made a good start and for a while we were close to the podium battle but I didn’t have enough speed to fight as the race progressed.
“Dani was really fast, he was very strong in the middle of the corner and also his style made the difference today.”
The last 250cc champion Hiroshi Aoyama finished 12th for Interwetten as he continues his comeback from a broken back. Aoyama picked up a place at the Brickyard but didn’t want to push hard given his physical condition – the 28-year-old was racing in a specially designed corset.
“Under the given conditions here at Indy it was quite hard to finish the 28 laps,” the Japanese rider said. “I had to fight on every single lap. I could stay with the other riders, but didn’t want to risk anything. I had to find a compromise not to go too far and over my possibilities and still have a good race.”
However, the day’s racing was overshadowed by the death of 13-year-old racer Peter Lenz after he crashed and was run over by another rider during the warm-up for the first race of the day.
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