Valentino Rossi could barely contain his delight after he claimed a stunning third-place in yesterday’s American MotoGP race. Just 50 days after suffering a compound break of his right tibia, the Italian produced a heroic display to thrill a sun-drenched crowd of just over 51,000 fans in California. Sixth at the end of the first lap and struggling to find confidence with his soft compound Bridgestone rear tire, the 31-year-old quickly disposed of Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Ben Spies to seize fifth on the second lap. Rossi then produced a brilliant display to fend off a hard charging Nicky Hayden and Spies, who was finding some momentum in sixth after his early grip issues.

Stuck in fifth-place for the opening 11 laps, it looked unlikely that Rossi would feature in a battle for the podium as he had done so in such thrilling fashion at the Sachsenring a week earlier. But when Dani Pedrosa crashed out of the lead on Lap 12, the Fiat Yamaha rider got a second wind and immediately began to hunt down Andrea Dovizioso’s factory Honda RC212V machine. The nine-time world champion harassed Dovizioso until he made his clinical attack on Lap 27 to snatch third. Dovizioso was galvanized by Rossi’s hard charge, but he was unable to threaten in the closing stages, Rossi holding on for one of the hardest earned podiums of his illustrious career.

“The start of the race was very hard for me because I had a lot of pain and I was far from the podium. At the beginning of the race there was some confusion. There were a few battles and overtakes but I had to stay quiet, out of the battle and I needed some laps to take a good rhythm. But then I saw Pedrosa in the gravel and I just had to try to catch Dovizioso. I just pushed as hard as I could for a few laps and that brought me closer to him and then I couldn't give up, somehow I caught him and it was a great feeling to pass him to take third.”

Rossi had lost out in a terrific rostrum fight with Aussie Casey Stoner in Germany last week. Stoner had denied Rossi a dream podium on his return from injury with a daring last corner overtake at the Sachsenring. But Rossi was in no mood to be ambushed late on again, saying: “It was another great battle with Dovizioso over the last laps and after last week when Casey beat me, I tried not to make the same mistake again and I make a good last lap, better than seven days ago. The podium was the maximum target for this weekend and I’m very happy to be back. It is a great result for us and so important. Coming back on the podium in such a short time after Mugello, I’m so happy. The race was difficult, but also the weekend was very difficult for us. In every practice I struggled quite a lot. This track is very demanding, so I have to suffer, but this morning we found a good setting and the warm-up was not so bad.”

Rossi now has the short summer break to build up strength in his recovering right leg before he returns to action in Brno on August 15. It will be in the Czech Republic next month that Rossi’s big money switch to Ducati is confirmed and he said he was looking forward to a rest before continuing his rehabilitation.

“It will be a very important period because I have another two weeks to work on the leg and on the shoulder. But also I can work on my body in general to be in better shape for Brno. I like that track a lot. It is always very good for the M1, so we’ll try to improve the result.”

Jorge Lorenzo denied that winning his first MotoGP world crown is a forgone conclusion after he strolled to his sixth win of the season at Laguna Seca. Lorenzo was once again coolness personified while his rivals made crucial mistakes around him to ensure the Spaniard’s latest premier class success was relatively easy. He was unflustered by a difficult first lap that saw him drop to fourth, and said: “The start with the clutch was not bad, but I closed the throttle too much into the first corner, so I had to take so many risks to overtake Ben (Spies). That put me in third and I knew I could push and follow the leaders.”

He was promoted to second-place on Lap six when Casey Stoner ran wide braking at turn four. And just as he thought he might be engaged in a repeat of his Sachsenring scrap with compatriot Dani Pedrosa, the Repsol Honda lost the front of his RC212V at Turn five.

The 23-year-old, who toasted his 11th MotoGP with a repeat of his astronaut celebration first trialed in Estoril last season, said: “Winning here at Laguna Seca, it's something I've always dreamed of. I rode so well today, right on the limit and I had to push very hard to stay in touch with Dani. He is always so strong on race day but I knew if I kept the pressure on him then there was a chance he would make a mistake and I would be able to catch him. I knew that Dani was pushing so hard, braking at the limit and going at 110 percent, so I knew maybe he could crash. I was getting more confident every lap. I was getting better and he was struggling a little bit more every lap. So I knew it was only ten laps or 12 laps and it was a long race to the end. I was catching him and I knew for this race, for him, it was difficult to open a big gap. He was pushing at the limit and at the end he crash. I saw his crash, obviously, and then I kept my pace. I'm sorry he crashed but from then on it was very easy for me because I had a big gap from Casey. I have a big lead in the championship, but there is half of the season left and it wouldn't be the first time a rider has lost the title with such a big lead, so we can't take anything for granted.”

Stoner said red-hot title favorite Jorge Lorenzo would make a worthy 2010 MotoGP world champion after he claimed his best result of the season in America yesterday. Aussie Stoner finished a distant second behind another dominant display from Fiat Yamaha rival Lorenzo, who now holds a 72-point lead in the standings at the halfway stage of the season. And the 2007 world champion heaped praise on faultless Lorenzo, who has not finished outside of the top-two in the opening nine races.

“He’s proven to be a worthy champion at this point,” declared Stoner as his own winless streak extended to ten races going back to Sepang in Malaysia last October.

“Jorge’s been so consistent and very fast as well. Every session he’s always there and he’s riding fantastically. When you’re riding up against somebody like that it’s very easy to make mistakes. When you have to try and gain so many points back, it’s easy for anyone to have some problems. So we’ve just got to keep going. I’m not in the running for the championship; I’m in the hunt for a top-three in the championship. I’m actually quite happy with the way I’m riding at the moment, but maybe a few too many mistakes are costing me.”
 
Stoner’s second was his best result of the year and put him on the rostrum for the fourth successive race. But he was ill-equipped to deal with Lorenzo’s hot pace once the 23-year-old hit the front on Lap 12 following a disastrous error by Dani Pedrosa. Stoner had made a fast start and shadowed Pedrosa in the early laps before he ran wide on Lap six.

“Everything seemed to be working perfectly at the beginning of the race. We just needed to wait until the tires got up to temperature. I wanted to get a little bit closer to Dani to try and make a pass on him and see what we could do at the front. But as soon as I tried to push that little bit harder, I closed the front and I lost a bit of time to Dani. After that I tried to bring it back again but I lost the front a little bit again. And then a lap or two later I lost the front quite a lot and ran very wide, and that’s when Jorge (Lorenzo) came by. I’m a little bit disappointed with that. We hadn’t really had any front-end issues all weekend, but it seems to be I wasn’t the only one with front-end issues because there were a lot of crashes. I’m lucky I suppose, because I managed to keep it on two wheels. If I had a little bit more confidence in the front we could’ve gone faster, but that’s the way the race went. Jorge was running some really nice consistent lap times and as soon as he and Dani had that lead on me I just couldn’t quite pull it back enough. And after that Jorge was able to run his lap times, do a good rhythm and I just wasn’t quite fast enough to keep up. I tried a few times in the midway point of the race to drop my lap times again and had a small front end issue again, so it was just time to try and keep everything nice and smooth and consistent, and bring it home to second. We still need to pull something out of the bag a little bit more to give Jorge and Dani a run for their money.”

Dani Pedrosa has conceded his hopes of lifting a maiden MotoGP world title in 2010 all but disappeared when he crashed out of the lead at Laguna Seca yesterday. The Spaniard got his trademark fast start to grab the holeshot and led for the opening 12 laps. But just when he started to come under intense pressure from Spanish rival Jorge Lorenzo, he lost the front of his factory RC212V at Turn five. Pedrosa went hurtling into a trackside air fence but was able to walk away unscathed. Unfortunately his title hopes suffered a much more serious blow as his blunder left Lorenzo unchallenged to scorch to his sixth win in nine races.
 
Lorenzo heads into the summer break with a comfortable 72-point lead in the championship, and Pedrosa admitted he needed a miracle to get back into serious contention.

"For sure it is very difficult. Jorge with his results is doing very good and he is three races ahead, so it is difficult. I have to try to do the best results possible,” said a downbeat Pedrosa, who was on course to win back-to-back races in MotoGP for the first time in his career.

Lorenzo had taken 0.5s out of Pedrosa’s lead in three laps, and the 24-year-old said: “At the time that I crashed I was pushing hard to maintain the gap over Lorenzo and my rhythm was good. 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 the team and I 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.”

Andrea Dovizoso failed to capitalize on his first MotoGP front row start in Laguna Seca, the Italian ending the 32-lap American Grand Prix in a disappointing fourth position. The Repsol Honda rider held third-place on Lap 12 when teammate Dani Pedrosa blew his hopes of a second successive Laguna Seca success with a Turn 5 crash. The former world 125GP champion was well clear of Valentino Rossi in fourth spot, but was unable to keep a fast rhythm to secure his first podium in four races. Dovizioso let slip a 2.5s advantage on Rossi, who was riding superbly just 50 days after he broke his right tibia in Mugello. Rossi made his critical move for third on Lap 27 and Dovizioso was unable to find a way back through as he struggled in the final half of the spectacular California circuit.

“It was a strange race because I lost too much behind (Ben) Spies in the early laps and after that I didn’t have any reference. I didn’t know where I was losing and where I needed to improve, and then when Valentino passed me I understood I was so slow at the Corkscrew and also Turn 11. I tried to follow him and I improved a little bit. But I didn’t have any possibility to try and overtake him, but also in T3 and T4 I was slower than him. It was difficult to stay close to him and pass him. I wanted to pass him before the last lap because I was not strong in the last two sections. I didn’t have the performance on the brakes to make a move - so I couldn’t overtake him again.”

Nicky Hayden denied taking any great satisfaction out of being top American rider in his home race at Laguna Seca yesterday. The 2006 world champion ended the 32-lap race in fifth-place but was somewhat gifted his spot after a braking mistake by compatriot Ben Spies in the closing stages. It was a tough race for Hayden right from the start as he encountered a clutch problem off the line that almost saw his factory Ducati GP10 stall. It was a repeat of an issue that struck him in Mugello and also ruined Casey Stoner’s hopes of challenging Jorge Lorenzo at last month’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

“I got a terrible start,” said Hayden. “I really almost stalled it. Luckily I made a few passes to get in contention and hung in there for a bit. I don't know what to say. I knew it was going to be tough but I didn't expect a miracle or anything when I've been seventh and eighth-place all weekend. It's not like you find a second between the warm-up and race, but we went for it anyway.”

The Kentucky rider was still able to latch onto the back of Valentino Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha until he succumbed to an attack from Spies on Lap 21. He added: “I had a couple little issues and they got away, and with about five to go I got into a good rhythm and we were bringing Dovizioso back and I could sniff the podium. I needed Dovi and Rossi to trade positions a couple times and let me get there. Dovi just about stuck it under him in Turn 4 and I saw that and I thought, ‘Man, that's all I need, just one little dive bomb up the inside.' But I was over my head, doing my fastest laps of the weekend almost because I thought there was a chance we might be able to get on the box if the guys in front made a mistake. I dug as deep as I could but it wasn’t enough today. My first two years here at Laguna Seca were much more fun, that’s for sure, but hopefully we can be back here fighting for the win next year – that’s the goal.”

A mistake in the braking zone for the last corner with seven laps remaining cost Ben Spies his chance of a podium finish in Laguna Seca yesterday. The 26-year-old had made a brilliant start from the second row to claim third by the first corner before he quickly surrendered three places in a tentative first few laps. But once he found his confidence in the soft compound Bridgestone rear tire he opted to run, Spies was able to quickly close down on compatriot Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi in the battle for fourth. Dani Pedrosa’s crash out of the lead on Lap 12 turned the three-way tussle into a battle for the podium as Rossi superbly hauled the American duo into podium contention.

Spies, who was looking to add to his fantastic maiden premier class rostrum in Silverstone last month, quickly closed a gap of over 0.5s to overtake Hayden’s factory Ducati GP10 on Lap 21. The reigning World Superbike champion then shadowed Rossi’s factory Yamaha YZR-M1 as the Italian rode himself into a contention for a fairytale podium. Rossi hauled Spies to the back of Andrea Dovizioso’s Repsol Honda, but just when the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider was prepared to go on the offensive, he made a mistake on the approach to the final corner on Lap 25. Not only did he lose close to three seconds, but his mistake on the brakes gifted fifth-place back to 2005 and ’06 Laguna Seca winner Hayden. Spies quickly regained his composure, but was powerless to reclaim fifth from Hayden.

“I got a good start but for the next two or three laps I just couldn’t get my race speed fast enough and they gapped me a little bit. Nicky and Valentino rode by me like I was a 15th-place guy. But from Lap 10 to 25 I was definitely quicker than them. Not mind blowing quicker but I was catching them so I have to figure that early stage out and try and get it done. Nicky was strong in some places and I was strong in others, but I knew I was getting held up a little bit. Once I got by Nicky I got right up on the back of Valentino but I was struggling in some points with him. I was actually going to attack him on the next lap when I had a problem entering the final corner on Lap 25. I ran wide and lost out, and although it wasn’t the podium I wanted in front of my home crowd, I’m happy because I had the speed to come through the field and I had the speed to be on the podium. I couldn’t quite finish the job and that was down to me. But I’d rather leave here knowing I could have been on the podium rather than leave here in eighth-place and not on the pace. I can’t ask for a lot more because I’m in the top-six again, leading non-factory rider in the race again and putting up a strong fight, so I’m not too upset.”