He highsided to the moon on Saturday morning and wasn't sure he would be able to race for the remainder of the weekend, however defending MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo still managed to set pole position on Saturday afternoon. Sunday's race win belonged to the Factory Yamaha rider, or so one might think.
However it wasn't meant to be on this sunny afternoon in central California. With a great launch from pole position, Lorenzo led the majority of Sunday's MotoGP race, with several Honda riders including Respol Honda team mates Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner hunting him down every step of the way. Stoner managed to get around his team mate on the 18th lap of the 32 lap race and then went to work on the leader. According to Stoner, he struggled at the beginning of the race, but as the fuel level lowered, the bike got easier to handle and he was able to increase his pace and catch Lorenzo. Once he caught up to the leader, Stoner waited for his opportunity to pass, taking the lead with 6 laps remaining. The Repsol Honda rider then checked out on his competition to take the checkered flag.
Dani Pedrosa completed the podium in third place. Still recovering from previous injuries, Pedrosa found himself tiring about halfway through the race and was pleased overall with a third place finish.
American favourite Ben Spies put on a good show for local fans as he first went to work Ducati's Valentino Rossi, eventually overtaking the famous Italian and moving his way up to pass Repsol Honda's Andrea Dovizioso to finish in 4th position overall.
Dovizioso crossed the line in 5th position, ahead of Ducati team mates Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden who were 6th and 7th respectively.
Ben Bostrom's day ended early when he rode off the track in lap six and decided to retire early.
Marco Simoncelli, Cal Crutchlow and Alvaro Bautista also did not finish.
The MotoGP series takes a short summer break before returning to Brno, Czech Republic August 12-14, 2011.
