Casey Stoner increased his championship points lead at Indianapolis MotoGP today when he took the checkered flag, his seventh of the season and his third win in a row, ahead of team mate Dani Pedrosa and American favourite Ben Spies who fought to a well earned third place position.
Dani Pedrosa took the early lead, followed by defending champion Jorge Lorenzo while Stoner chased in third. Stoner acted quickly to overtake Lorenzo and tried to close the gap on Pedrosa. With 22 laps remaining, Stoner assumed the lead, while Pedrosa followed.
Ben Spies put in an exciting effort, as the rider who appeared the sole challenger to Stoner all weekend long. Spies had a bad start, combined with making contact with another rider into turn four, which meant he lost quite a lot of ground in the early laps and had his work cut out for him. The Yamaha Factory rider struggled at first to pass on the slick Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but eventually over took Nicky Hayden, Andrea Dovizioso, Marco Simoncelli and Jorge Lorenzo to take 3rd position.
According to Spies, it was a tough race following the challenges off the start. He came from a long way back and "had to make some creative passes" to move towards the front. Once he made the pass on his team mate for third, he rode a few hard laps to increase the gap but then settled into a comfortable pace for third as he knew the Repsol Honda riders were out of reach. Happy with third place in front of a home crowd, Spies now hopes to take this confidence to Misano.
Factory Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo finished in 4th position, while Andrea Dovizioso rounded out the top five.
Rizla Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista finished in 6th position with one of his best results of the season.
Valentino Rossi struggled with his Ducati throughout the race and eventually finished in 10th place, behind Colin Edwards (7th); Randy de Puniet (8th) and Hiroshi Aoyama (9th). Cal Crutchlow (11th); Marco Simoncelli (12th); Tony Elias (13th) and Nicky Hayden (14th) rounded out the finishing field.
