Stoner takes the cake in the USA

With tens of thousands of American fans urging on local riders Ben Spies, Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards, it was an Australian who stood atop the podium at Laguna Seca on July 24, as Casey Stoner rode a perfectly executed race on his factory Repsol Honda.

Yamaha Factory rider Jorge Lorenzo started strongly from pole position, leading the three Repsol Hondas of Dani Pedrosa, Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso into turn one.

Stoner hung on behind Pedrosa until the 18th lap, when he passed his Spanish team-mate and began closing the gap with Lorenzo in the latter stages of the race.

Stoner looked confident following Lorenzo and with six laps to go performed an audacious overtaking manoeuvre to pass Lorenzo on the outside at more than 250km/h to take the lead.

The last half dozen laps were academic as Stoner pulled away from Lorenzo to win by more than five seconds, gifting him a maximum 25 championship points. Lorenzo is still a contender, having finished in second place (handing him 20 points) and the Yamaha team was in good spirits, celebrating 50 years of GP Racing with a "Blast to the past". Check out the photo of Jorge Lorenzo with his fake facial hair and red tracksuit - very amusing.

Stoner leads the championship on 168 points to Lorenzo's 153.

"All weekend we've been struggling a little so we weren't too confident that we could run with Jorge and Dani in the race. However, this morning in warm-up we found something I was a little happier with," said Stoner. "Before the race I felt relaxed, confident and generally calm, we started a little slower to get the tyres warm gently but also with a full tank of fuel, the bike didn't feel that great.

"So I was patient and took my time, staying with Jorge and Dani to control the gap and make sure they didn't get too far away. I felt I had more speed but decided to wait and watch. I saw Dani struggling a bit and he started to drop back from Jorge so I had to attack at this point.

"Once I caught up to Jorge, I watched to see if he made a mistake and kept the pressure on him, then chose my moment to make the move and was able to slowly open up a gap and bring the race home. It's really fantastic to come from such a difficult weekend and get a great win and I'm very thankful to all my team."

Pedrosa took out the third spot on the podium and though Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) had a good start, sitting pretty in fifth place, he crashed out of the race on turn five, on the seventh lap of the race -- which will provide his critics with more ammunition that he is a loose cannon.

Though it looked as though Dovizioso was going to take fourth place, he was pipped by Yamaha Factory rider and local hero Ben Spies late in the race, the pair separated by just 0.3 seconds when they crossed the finish line.

Spies was the highest placed American rider, and despite a sloppy start at his home race, he proved that he will be a force to be reckoned with over the next few years.

The other two American riders also finished in the top 10, with Ducati Team's Nicky Hayden and Monster Yamaha Tech 3's Colin Edwards in seventh and eighth spots respectively. Valentino Rossi finished in sixth position on his Ducati prototype race bike.

Hector Barbera (Mapfre Aspar Team) and Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) rounded out the top 10.

1 Casey STONER AUS Repsol Honda Team Honda 43:52.145
2 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha +5.634
3 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda +9.467
4 Ben SPIES USA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha +20.562
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team Honda +20.885
6 Valentino ROSSI ITA Ducati Team Ducati +30.351
7 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati +31.031
8 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +45.502
9 Hector BARBERA SPA Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP Ducati +51.549
10 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda +1'08.850
11 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Ducati +1'09.132
12 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Pramac Racing Team Ducati 1 Lap
13 Toni ELIAS SPA LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 1 Lap

Not Classified
19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 155.5 19 Laps
23 Ben BOSTROM USA LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 142.6 24 Laps
58 Marco SIMONCELLI ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 155.6 26 Laps
35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 150.8 29 Laps

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