The 11th round of the MotoGP championship at the famed Indianapolis Speedway that saw Dani Pedrosa conquer the top spot of the podium for the third time this season in very difficult race for all the riders who had problems with the heat and the slippery and bumpy track.
Jorge Lorenzo continues to lead the series with 251 points followed by Pedrosa who clawed back 9 points from his rival and now stands at 183 points.
Here’s what all seventeen riders had to say about their race.
Dani Pedrosa – 1st“I’m really happy with this win and it was an especially tough one because of the heat today.
I didn’t make the perfect start but I was quite quick through the first few tight corners and stayed close to the leaders.
My rhythm was good today and even though Spies was strong in front I was able to close him down and make the pass.
I’m really pleased with the performance of my bike because it was fast on the straights and also was working well in the corners.
When I was out in front it was quite hard to stay focused and at the end of the race I was really tired – but I’m very happy because last year I crashed when I could have won and now I have made up for it.
There were many crashes this weekend and it would have been easy to make a mistake in the race – you only need to go a little off line and you can be on the ground immediately, especially towards the end of the race when the tyres are worn.
I’ve gone past the barrier of two MotoGP race wins in a season so I’m very happy.
We are doing a good job and I hope we can maintain this momentum next weekend at Misano.
I want to thank the team and all the people around me for this win.
” Ben Spies – 2nd“I’m really happy to have got my best result in MotoGP in front of the American crowd and at a track as famous as Indianapolis.
I always said I wanted my best result in my home race, so it’s mission accomplished.
After the pole position I got a great start and it felt good to be out front for the first time in MotoGP.
But I didn’t have the pace for Dani today and he rode a great race.
I’m happy because I didn’t make too many mistakes when I was out in front and I was consistent for the whole race.
When Dani passed me I knew I couldn’t follow him, so I let him go and concentrated on keeping a gap to Jorge in third and that’s what I achieved.
I can’t complain because it was a great weekend and to be top Yamaha rider when you look at who else is on that bike is pretty satisfying.
It hasn’t sunk in yet that I’ve finished second in my home race.
But I’ll enjoy it before I hop on a plane and try and do it again in Misano next weekend.
”Jorge Lorenzo – 3rd“Of course I shouldn’t be disappointed with third place but at the same time I’m not happy with my race today, I didn’t ride as well as I could have and I didn’t get a good start.
The conditions were incredibly hard and I simply didn’t have the physical strength to push as hard or do the same times I did in practice; it was like a race in Malaysia! The track was so slippery and it was very difficult to use the tyres as you wanted to, I think honestly I’m quite lucky to have finished third today.
The good thing is we took some points and now I have to concentrate on recovering before Misano because we don’t have much time.
”Valentino Rossi -4th “This was a good race for us after the weekend.
Fourth is quite good in the circumstances but the important thing is that my rhythm in the race was strong and I felt much happier on the bike.
I did some good laps and I wasn’t too far from the other Yamahas, but unfortunately I paid a lot for my lack of fitness in this heat and in the end I had to stop pushing because I didn’t have any strength left in my body.
I’m happy though because we came back to a good setting and with me riding well, and if you consider I had three small crashes in the weekend, fourth isn’t so bad.
Now we will look forward to Misano, my home race!”Andrea Dovizioso – 5th“I’m disappointed with this result because I expected to do better this afternoon.
The conditions today were really critical.
It was so hot – the asphalt was more than 50 degrees! – and the track lacked grip because of it.
The result was that I was slower than yesterday.
I made a good start and for a while we were close to the podium battle but I didn’t have enough speed to fight as the race progressed.
Dani was really fast, he was very strong in the middle of the corner and also his style made the difference today.
For two thirds of the race I could fight for the podium, then it was difficult for me to stay with the front guys.
I think maybe I need to study how I can improve my position on the bike and my riding style.
Now I’m just looking forward to going to Misano – which is my home GP – and I’m back into third in the championship so I have a lot of motivation to get a good result there.
”Nicky Hayden – 6th “I still can’t believe what happened – I am so disappointed.
I was being careful over the first few laps because in that heat the track was very greasy.
I lost the front slightly on the third lap and caught my left knee on a drain cover on one of the kerbs, right where the knee slider attaches to the velcro.
There are so many left-hand corners here… from that point on I had to take it really steady, I couldn’t push anywhere and finished up with a huge hole in my leathers.
I am incredibly disappointed because we had to the pace to put in a performance today.
”Marco Simoncelli – 7thIt was such a tough race – similar to Malaysia in that if you tried to push like you did in practice you could easily end up on the ground.
I am quite happy with the result even though I would have liked to finish higher up, but hopefully that will come soon.
I had a good fight with Bautista and was pleased to hold him off in the end.
Apart from Spies I finished ahead of the other rookies so that also gives me a lot of satisfaction.
”Álvaro Bautista – 8th“It was a hard and very difficult race because it was so hot that you could feel the heat coming from the bike and from the ground.
It made it a very physical race, but that was also a good test for me to see how my body had healed and at the end I still felt strong.
I lost a few places at the start, but I was able to overtake other riders very quickly and I got behind Kallio and decided to follow him because he had a good rhythm and I didn’t want to use all my energy with a long race ahead.
We caught up to Simoncelli and I knew I was faster than Kallio so it was better to pass him and catch Simoncelli on my own.
I saw two points on the track where I could then get past Simoncelli, but they were both very risky because they were very bumpy.
I tried to get past in turn 10 but it was just too dangerous to go past because it was so bumpy and I wanted to finish the race – as it had been a long time since I’d done that.
I finished in the top 10 and we did a good job through the whole weekend.
This morning we made a big change in the gearbox and that worked very well for me.
I am happy with the weekend and the team worked fantastic, we have another race next week and I’m looking forward to that already.
”Aleix Espargaro – 9th“It’s so hot here, I did a sauna inside my leather suit, I had never run with a similar weather condition.
I’m really exhausted after this race but very happy to have finished my race in the better way.
I was able to start very well and to not lose positions, in the early laps I tried to get my rhythm and overtake the other riders.
On the fifth lap, I overtook both Capirossi and Edwards and I sewed up the gap with Mika.
Unfortunately I could not have a lap pace that would allow me to be with the others.
With the heat the track had became very slippery, during the last laps I tried to complete my race without taking unnecessary further risks.
After the summer break I came back in a perfect shape, I cannot wait to race on Misano’s, which is one of my favorites.
Hector Barbera – 10th“This result is fairly positive, but I can’t say that I am entirely satisfied because I didn’t have much fun out there.
I was having front end problems right from the get-go; on each corner I had the steering tuck in and I felt like there was no grip.
I had to be very focused and pay attention to every turn in order to stay upright, because it would have been very easy to have crashed.
It’s strange, but the heat did not help us at all, as I felt comfortable during the morning warmup and thought that a good race was possible.
When the temperatures rose it took too much out of the bike.
Perhaps it is due to a small change in the engine, but we will look at it in detail this week in order to be ready for Misano –where it will also be hot.
It isn’t logical that we should suffer with this.
In any case, it is the first time that this has happened to us and we can’t be too displeased with a return to the top ten.
Next week we should be in peak condition again.
”Loris Capirossi – 11th“Sometimes the feeling in our bike is not too bad and sometimes it is difficult to ride, today it was very difficult and I didn’t really have any feeling in the front tyre and this has been a problem I’ve had many times this year – sometimes causing me to crash.
It’s really difficult to find the limit, but it’s not that easy to just find the solution.
Today I tried to keep my pace – which was not as fast as I would want it to be – and at the end I tried to attack Barbera.
I got past him, but on the last lap he came in a bit too crazy and hit me and put me onto the grass, so I lost 10th position.
I am a bit upset about today’s result because the bike has been up and down all weekend and today it was not so good.
Everybody tried their hardest this weekend and that is very important, we now need to move on and see what happens next time.
”Hiroshi Aoyama – 12th“Under the given conditions here at Indy it was quite hard to finish the 28 laps.
I had to fight in every single lap.
I could stay with the other riders, but didn’t want to risk anything.
I had to find a compromise not to go too far and over my possibilities and still have a good race.
Surely we can be better than that when I am 100% fit again and I am looking forward to that so much.
”Randy de Puniet – 13thHonestly this was the most tough race for me since the beginning of the year… even more demanding than Brno! This track is heavily biased with ten left hand corners and six right hand corners which make changing direction very punishing.
Then the surface is very bumpy and everybody struggled with grip levels.
We tried to get the most from our bike and I even tried to change my riding style but at the end I could not find my pace.
I am still holding the 8th position in the classification and I am pretty sure that the next race we will be up there once again as I like Misano layout”.
Casey Stoner – DNF “I am very disappointed – it was a nothing crash but obviously it was enough to leave me out of the race.
I know a lot of people have had front end crashes but apparently here at Indianapolis we have gone back to the situation we were in at the start of the season and we’ve struggled to find front-end feel in the corners.
It is a real shame because we had good pace and I think we could have been on the podium.
” Mika Kallio – DNF“What a bad luck, this is not the right way.
I had start a lot better than usual, at the end of the first lap I had conquer three positions.
Then thanks to the drop of some riders and to the overtake that I had made on Bautista, I was riding in eighth position with almost four seconds behind Simoncelli.
During the eighth lap I was passed again by Bautista, who was faster than me at that time.
Together we started to run with a very fast pace and in seven laps we sew up the gap we had from Simoncelli.
I was fighting with Simoncelli and Bautista for the seventh position, but in a curve due to a hole in the asphalt I have instantly lost the front tyre and found myself with my face on the asphalt.
I could easily fight with the others for the seventh position or at least I could gain a top ten position.
I am very disappointed with how things went, but as so often is happening during this season for one reason or another I cannot get the results I deserve.
”Colin Edwards – DNF“I went for the hard tyre because I’d done a 41.
6 on that tyre on Friday and felt pretty comfortable and confident.
I’d not been able to make the soft tyre last close to race distance.
I’d started to have a problem after eight or nine laps with it, so with the temperature and humidity coming up I was getting excited about using the hard tyre.
But I had a problem with edge grip from the start and I was having an issue turning.
I was riding on the limit but way off the pace so I pulled in for the softer tyre and did a few laps and my lap times were immediately better.
The tyre choice cost me today but congratulations to Ben.
He’s just riding at an amazing level and second in this field is something to be proud of.
” Marco Melandri – DNFI am really disappointed with this race.
We improved our pace a little but like always I was struggling so much in braking and couldn’t get the bike stopped.
I wasn’t happy to just settle for the position I was in and wanted to attack Valentino, but lost the front without any warning on the way into the corner.
We’ve spent all season trying to fix the same problem and don’t seem able to find a way around it.
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