The Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca in California proved to be a disappointing event for Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso.
From fourth on the grid Pedrosa made his usual incredible start and shot into the lead on the run to the first corner. The 24-year-old Spaniard on his Honda RC212V defended his advantage strongly, holding off an early attack from 2007 world champion Casey Stoner who then ran wide letting championship leader Jorge Lorenzo through.
'I hit a bump on the way into the corner and I couldn’t do anything - I was down' – Dani Pedrosa
Pedrosa looked well capable of repeating his fabulous German Grand Prix win of just seven days ago but crashed out on lap 12 of 32. The Spaniard lost grip as he went into turn five after running over a pothole in the Laguna Seca track.
“At the time I that I crashed I was pushing hard to maintain the gap to Lorenzo and my rhythm was good,” Pedrosa said after the race. “Unfortunately though I hit a bump on the way into the corner and I couldn’t do anything - I was down. It’s very very disappointing obviously but this can happen when you’re trying everything to win. You have to push as much as you can and take risks - and I really wanted to win this race.
“The one thing we can do now is to remember that we were having a good race until this moment, and we were leading the race - this is what I want to take from the weekend. You cannot sit there with your arms crossed thinking about what could have been. For the whole weekend me and the team were working well and we put ourselves in a winning position. It hasn’t worked out for us but we’ll come back fighting at the next one.”
That left Lorenzo leading from Stoner with Dovizioso third. He was also under pressure with Valentino Rossi hounding him. He resisted until lap 27 when the fellow Italian slipped past going into the last corner before the start and finish straight. Dovizioso hung on and did his best to retake third at the same corner on the last lap but it wasn't possible.
“I cannot be happy about this result because the podium was so close,” the Italian said. “I made a good start on the inside, but then got a little bit trapped going through turn one and lost positions. I really wanted to get away with the front riders but in the first three laps I lost time behind Spies, and because of this I lost contact with the leaders. I was lapping with a pace of 1m 22.5 and the middle of the race was going well, but in the last laps Valentino began to go faster and I couldn’t lap at the low 1m 22s pace he was able to achieve.
“When he came past me I did everything I could to take him back but I was not fast enough - especially in T3 and T4. I didn’t have the performance on the brakes to make a move - so I couldn’t overtake him again. The result is not what we wanted and so we have to keep working hard so that we can challenge for race wins - that’s the target.”
Meanwhile, Pramac’s Mika Kallio found himself back in the top 10 – finishing ninth after an eventful race. Despite a good start the Finn found himself down in 12th before battling back to overtake Loris Capirossi on the line.
"Finally, a good result after so many bad races,” Kallio said. “I had a very good start which allowed me to find myself in eleventh position after the first lap. I struggled with Capirossi to maintain this position, but unfortunately he was much faster than me. Thanks also to Aleix that has reached and overtake me, I was able to lower my pace lap and together we took Capirossi.”
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