The weekend’s MotoGP at Laguna Seca was a great one for Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner who managed to take a well-deserved victory ahead of Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo and his rival, Dani Pedrosa.
Stoner, who had previously decided to take a chance on a softer rear tyre, was already finding his pace by the second lap and he soon sailed past Pedrosa to chase Lorenzo up front. Behind the top three was an eager Ben Spies, heading up the next group with Andrea Dovizioso, Cal Crutchlow and Stefan Bradl.
By lap 13, the leading three were powering forward, but a wobble by Pedrosa caused him to fall back a full second behind Stoner. Two laps later and Stoner had caught up with Lorenzo, repeating last year’s winning move into turn one and taking charge of the race. The lap was a bad one for the Yamaha team however, with Spies crashing out as a result of a swingarm problem.
With only three laps remaining, Stoner showed no signs of slowing down, keeping Lorenzo at bay with a gap of a second. Pedrosa meanwhile seemed content to tick along maintaining his third place. Another crash took place at this point, with Rossi spiralling out. Thankfully, he was unhurt, but his future with Ducati was brought into further doubt as a result.
In the end, Stoner held his nerve well enough to take the flag with a three second lead over Lorenzo who took second and Pedrosa in third.
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