Pedrosa holds off Rossi for first Honda victory of season; Hayden strong fifth

INDIANAPOLIS, July 6, 2009: In an event that featured a bit of everything, it was only fitting that Dani Pedrosa broke into the winner’s circle for the first time in 13 months.

Pedrosa edged 2008 Red Bull Indianapolis GP winner Valentino Rossi by .344 of a second to win the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix on July 5 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, his first victory since the Grand Prix of Catalunya in June 2008. It also was Honda’s first win since that race, ending Yamaha and Ducati’s duopoly on the top spot of the podium this season.

“This is a fantastic win for us, and it’s a great feeling after such a long time without a victory,” Pedrosa said. “The start to the season has been really difficult, and actually it’s been tough since Sachsenring last year because I’ve had a lot of injuries and I haven’t been able to ride at 100 percent for a long time or train properly.”

Jorge Lorenzo finished third on a Fiat Yamaha, while 2007 MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner finished fourth. Stoner’s Ducati teammate, 2006 MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden, placed fifth for his best finish of the season. Fellow American Colin Edwards finished seventh on a Yamaha Tech 3 machine.

The unpredictable nature of the event started during practice Friday, as Chris Vermeulen crashed hard. Riders continued to hit the asphalt and gravel during practice and qualifying Saturday, as Edwards, Stoner and Lorenzo crashed. Lorenzo’s high-side crash came just after he turned a lap quick enough for pole, and it was uncertain whether he could race after suffering a dislocated right shoulder and a severely bruised right foot.

But Lorenzo endured the pain in a brave ride to his seventh podium finish of the season.

Pedrosa led all 32 laps of the race, but he nearly threw the race away on the final lap. Pedrosa slowed on his Repsol Honda Team machine, letting Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha Team machine pull up to his rear wheel approaching the final corner. But Pedrosa hung on.

Hayden, from Owensboro, Ky., started eighth and climbed steadily through the field and benefited from a crash by Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso. He climbed to 12th in the standings.

“I have won here twice and to say that fifth place feels just as good might sound strange, but, man, so much hard work has gone into getting us to this point, and I want to savor this feeling,” Hayden said.

Edwards, from Houston, became just the 14th rider in the 61-year history of Grand Prix racing to amass 100 point-scoring finishes in the premier class with his seventh-place finish. He has scored points in all eight races this year and climbed to fifth in the standings.

The next race is the Grand Prix of Germany on Sunday, July 19 at Sachsenring. The second annual Red Bull Indianapolis GP is Sunday, Aug. 30 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

DANI PEDROSA (Repsol Honda Team Honda/Bridgestone, winner): “This is a fantastic win for us, and it’s a great feeling after such a long time without a victory. The start to the season has been really difficult, and actually it’s been tough since Sachsenring last year because I’ve had a lot of injuries and I haven’t been able to ride at 100 percent for a long time or train properly. But my team and Honda never gave up, and I’d like to thank everyone who’s been working really hard to help me get back to this position. I’d also like to thank the doctors who have treated me because there have been quite a few of them! I got a good start, I was able to get into a good rhythm straight away. Perhaps my only mistake here was to slow down too much on the last lap because I didn’t realize how close Valentino was.”

VALENTINO ROSSI (Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha/Bridgestone, second): “The first half of the race was quite difficult because we weren’t at 100 percent today. I didn’t expect Dani to be so fast, but he was very strong and there wasn’t much I could do to go with him. The last 10 laps were very exciting because Lorenzo was pushing me so hard that I had to really make another step, and then Dani slowed down and suddenly he was right in front of me! I thought there was a chance to pass on the final corner, but unfortunately I was just too far off and it was too much of a risk. Second is good today because we were not in perfect shape here. We missed something in the setting and this is always a hard track anyway, so we have to be happy with these 20 points. We have extended the championship lead, so it’s a good result for us, and we have shown that we are still strong this year even when things are not perfect. This consistency is the most important thing for the championship. Now I am happy that we have some time to rest because these have been a hard two weeks, and the next two races are very important because we are all so close!”

JORGE LORENZO (Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha/Bridgestone, third): “I always try to do my best, and I think that is what I have done today, considering my physical condition. I am really proud, and I think that this was one of my best races. My foot was OK, but I had a lot of pain in my right shoulder, which meant I wasn’t strong in my right hand and I had to over-compensate with my left. I am really tired now! I want to thank the Clinica Mobile because they made it possible for me to finish the race. After a while, I started to forget about the pain a bit, and I just wanted to do my best and I knew that it was possible to pass Valentino. Unfortunately, I hit some bumps when I braked deep and my rear tire moved a lot, and I was lucky not to crash. Maybe without this mistake, if I had been able to pass him, it would have been possible to win. But anyway, third is good in the circumstances, and we have taken good points. Now we have some time to recover. I am fit and strong, so I hope that by Sachsenring I will be back to my best.”

NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Team Ducati/Bridgestone, fifth): “I have won here twice and to say that fifth place feels just as good might sound strange, but, man, so much hard work has gone into getting us to this point, and I want to savor this feeling. To be racing at home, to score a solid result and to have had fun out there is nice. I just want to say a huge ‘thank you’ to my whole team, to Ducati and to everybody who has continued to believe in me during some difficult times this season. We have made progress over the last two races, we have kept the faith, and it has paid off with this fifth place. Hopefully we can keep it going and score even better results as the season progresses.”

COLIN EDWARDS (Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha/Bridgestone, seventh): “It’s great to score my 100th points finish in front of my home fans. But I expect more than finishing seventh. I'm pretty tired now, and it was a really physical race because I couldn’t get the bike to turn. Each time I threw it on its side it just went straight out to the curb. I was using a lot of effort to get the bike to turn, and it felt like the front forks were sitting between my legs. When I braked, the front didn't feel like it was coming back up. It felt like the front was buried in the ground and just pushed me out to the edge of the track. I ride over the front a lot, but today it felt like I was crawling all over it, almost like I was sitting on top of the tank. It wasn't super special, and we've got to go back to the drawing board, I think, for Germany. My pace was consistent and I was doing between 22.9 or 23.1 the whole race, but that just wasn't fast enough.”