The signs that Dani Pedrosa was completely at ease at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway started Friday morning and into today’s 28 lap race as the Repsol Honda rider completely dominated the processional race with a blistering pace – almost always below the circuit record – which was virtually impossible for anyone to touch and he would cross over the finish line with more than a 10 second margin and take his second victory of this 2012 season and doing so, reduced the gap to championship leader Jorge Lorenzo to just 18 points.
Jorge Lorenzo settled for a safe second place after deciding to go with a soft rear tire, but a bad start and finding himself bottled behind Andrea Dovizioso for several laps stopped him from any having any chance to try to catch and imperious Pedrosa.
If Lorenzo seemed happy with second place – but angry with wildcard rider Steve Rapp who seemed unaware that he was to give track space when he was lapped by the Spaniard – the same can’t be said for team mate Ben Spies who suffered still another incredibleand impossible technical issue after his Laguna Seca swingarm collapse.
The American had been the fastest Yamaha rider this weekend, even better than his titled team mate and even if he was struggling with a shoulder issue following his highside in qualifying he gained the lead of race from the third turn on lap one until Pedrosa blasted past him on lap seven.
Spies was still travelling in a comfortable second when the engine of his M1 blew on the straight and he had to park his dead bike and collect another zero points.
Andrea Dovizioso took the final podium spot after he passed the very stoic Casey Stoner.
The Australian who was riding with big ligament damage and a chipped bone in his right ankleand gave proof that even injured he is still a grittyand fast rider as he powered passed Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl and then caught Dovizioso and seemed to be able to break away, but as the very long race continued the Italian upped his pace and re-caught the Repsol Honda rider with seven laps to go.
Stoner valiantly tried to take back the position, but his injury finally began to take the toll and he finished 4th and was completely drained when he returned to his pit garage to a big applause.
Alvaro Bautista finished fifth almost 8 seconds ahead of Stefan Bradl who wore out his tires.
Valentino Rossi had another horrible race, he was more than 57 seconds from race winner Pedrosa and finished in a very lonely and desperate seventh.
Karel Abraham managed an 8th spot after passing Yonny Hernandez (9th) and Aleix Espargaro who rounded out the top ten.
Toni Elias finished in 11th for Pramac Ducati.
It was a war of attrition for the CRT riders, Mattia Pasini crashed on the first lap, Michele Pirro and Danilo Petrucci suffered technical issues on the first lap and Randy de Puniet also suffered a technical problem.
MotoGP Indianapolis Race Results:01- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – 28 laps in 46’39.
631 02- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 10.
823 03- Andrea Dovizioso – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 17.
310 04- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 19.
803 05- Alvaro Bautista – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 22.
556 06- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 30.
072 07- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 57.
614 08- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1’08.
442 09- Yonny Hernandez – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 1’11.
106 10- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 1’14.
079 11- Toni Elias – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 1’26.
305 12- Ivan Silva – Avintia Blusens – BQR FTR – + 1’40.
274 13- Colin Edwards – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – Suter BMW – 1 lap 14- James Ellison – Paul Bird Motorsport – ART GP12 – 1 lap 15- Steve Rapp – Attack Performance – Attack Performance APR – 1 lap 16- Aaron Yates – GPTech – BCL GP212 – 1 lap