Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo won his third race of the season, the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), and the dramatic outcome of the race had huge Championship implications. Pole-sitter Dani Pedrosa led from the start but crashed his Repsol Honda RC212V on lap four, handing the lead to Valentino Rossi, the current MotoGP World Championship point leader. Rossi led until lap nine when Lorenzo drafted him down the front straightaway and beat him into Turn One. One lap later, Rossi ran wide in Turn One and then crashed while braking for Turn Two. Lorenzo’s lead instantly jumped from nothing to nine seconds. He then extended his advantage to nearly 13 seconds at one point, before cruising home to a win that cut his points deficit to Rossi in half, from 50 to 25 points. San Carlo Gresini Honda’s Alex De Angelis came home second to earn the first podium finish of his MotoGP career. Marlboro Ducati’s Nicky Hayden chased De Angelis for most of the race but toward the end he came under fire from Pedrosa’s teammate Andrea Dovizioso. Dovizioso put heavy pressure on Hayden, but the “Kentucky Kid” would not be denied his first podium of the season and as a Ducati rider. Hayden’s countryman Colin Edwards raced for a podium position in the first half of the event, but he could not match Hayden’s or Dovizioso’s pace and had to settle for fifth on his Monster Tech 3 Yamaha. Pedrosa was able to remount his Honda and continue in the race, and he salvaged 10th place and six valuable Championship points. Rossi tried to continue but retired to the pits. FIM MotoGP World Championship Indianapolis Motor Speedway Indianapolis, Indiana August 30, 2009 Race Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), 28 laps, 2. Alex De Angelis (Honda), -9.435 seconds 3. Nicky Hayden (Ducati), -12.947 4. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda), -13.478 5. Colin Edwards (Yamaha), -26.254 6. James Toseland (Yamaha), -32.408 7. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki), -34.400 8. Mika Kallio (Ducati), -34.856 9. Toni Elias (Honda), -45.005 10. Dani Pedrosa (Honda), -45.377, crash 11. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), -45.478 12. Randy De Puniet (Honda), -52.294 13. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati), -63.552 14. Gabor Talmacsi (Honda), -75.086 15. Marco Melandri (Kawasaki), -3 laps, DNF, crash 16. Niccolo Canepa (Ducati), -4 laps, DNF, mechanical 17. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), -19 laps, DNF, crash World Championship Point Standings (After 12 of 17 races): 1. Rossi, 212 points 2. Lorenzo, 187 3. Casey Stoner, 150 4. Pedrosa, 141 5. Edwards, 123 6. Dovizioso, 120 7. De Angelis, 88 8. Capirossi, 86 9. De Puniet, 84 10. Melandri, 79 11. Vermeulen, 77 12. Hayden, 73 13. Toseland, 72 14. Elias, 70 15. Kallio, 42 16. Canepa, 32 17. Sete Gibernau, 12 18. Talmacsi, 10 19. Yukio Takahashi, 9 More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: DOVIZIOSO TAKES FOURTH IN DRAMATIC INDIANAPOLIS GP Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso came within half a second of a podium finish today at the Indianapolis Grand Prix as he converted eighth on the grid into a strong fourth place at the finish. The Italian skillfully picked his way through an incident-packed race and in the closing laps he looked destined to overhaul a hard-charging Nicky Hayden for third at the American’s home race. Dovizioso closed to within 0.1s and was perfectly poised to strike until a momentary loss of grip on the last lap forced him to settle for fourth place. Despite missing out on the podium by fractions of a second, Dovizioso was pleased with the overnight improvements to his machine settings, which allowed him to increase his race pace. He will go to Misano next weekend ready for another front-running performance. His Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa looked odds-on for a repeat of his runaway victory at Laguna Seca as he converted pole position into an early lead. Setting a searing pace in front of Valentino Rossi and eventual race winner Jorge Lorenzo, Pedrosa appeared to be repeating the dominance he had shown in every practice session ahead of today’s race. At the end of lap four however he fell from the lead – remounting and putting in a spirited fight-back despite a bent handlebar, no rear brake and a right footpeg that was half worn away. The never-say-die Spaniard was the fastest rider in the second half of the race and battled back to 10th place at the chequered flag to collect six championship points. With barely time to draw breath, the MotoGP paddock now jets back across the Atlantic for the next weekend’s San Marino Grand Prix at the Misano circuit. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO “After the warm-up today we made a radical change to the set-up and I have to say that my team has worked really well because, thanks to this modification, my feeling with the machine improved a lot in the race. I could ride faster than during the practice sessions and my rhythm in the race was also consistent. Considering how the weekend had gone up to this point, finishing fourth is quite positive result. We still have to improve though of course. I was close to Nicky and I tried to overtake him several times by taking big risks. It’s a pity to finish fourth because the podium was not impossible. The important thing is that we have taken an important step forward. We are close the podium and we will start again in Misano building on this good base.” DANI PEDROSA “This result was a real shame, but sometimes it happens. We did a great job all through practice and qualifying, I was confident for the race and of course I was hoping to win today. I was pushing very hard at the start of the race and perhaps I pushed too much. There was some cloud cover today and maybe the front tyre was a little cooler than before, but whatever the reason, I made a mistake and lost the front. I’m sorry for the team because they’ve worked really hard for me, and also to the fans who’ve given me great support. I wanted to win in American again but it wasn’t to be. There was some damage to the bike – the handlebar was bent inwards and the footpeg was worn away quite badly, but actually I was able to recover and ride at a fast pace to take some points at the end. Looking on the positive side, we’ve been very fast here and that means we can take a lot of confidence to Misano next weekend.” KAZUHIKO YAMANO – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER “Andrea came very close to the podium and improved his pace from practice and qualifying so this was a positive step for him. A top three finish would have been very satisfying for him here and he wasn’t far away. It’s his home race next and this result will give him even more motivation for that. Things had looked really good for Dani this weekend and obviously we were hoping for another win, like Laguna, in front of our American Honda fans. He was very fast through every practice session, was on pole position and was leading the race so it was very unlucky that he had that fall. He showed his fighting spirit by coming back through the field. Although this race result wasn’t what we were expecting, the Repsol Honda Team can go to Misano next weekend ready to battle at the front again.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Lorenzo dominates for his third win on Bridgestone tyres Round 12: Indianapolis GP Race Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sunday 30 August 2009 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Hard. Rear: Hard, Extra hard (asymmetric) Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo took a dominant victory at the second Indianapolis Grand Prix today, using the harder option front and softer option rear asymmetric Bridgestone slicks to set the fastest lap and a new lap record in the process. Completing the top three were two new visitors to the MotoGP podium in 2009; San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Alex de Angelis who recorded his best ever MotoGP finish in second position and Ducati Team’s Nicky Hayden, the American scoring his best result and first podium of the season on home soil. De Angelis used the same slick tyre compound options as Lorenzo, but Hayden made best use of his softer front slick to climb from sixth on the grid to a hard-fought third, resisting increasing pressure at the end of the race from Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso on a harder front slick. Lorenzo’s victory exactly halves teammate Valentino Rossi’s championship lead, leaving the race for the 2009 MotoGP World Championship wide open with five races remaining in the first year of Bridgestone’s tenure as Official Tyre Supplier. Mikio Masunaga – Bridgestone Corporation Vice President and Senior Officer “I would like to congratulate Jorge Lorenzo and the Fiat Yamaha Team for their excellent victory here today in Indianapolis. America is a very significant market for Bridgestone Corporation and we are honoured to be able to come here for the second time this season as MotoGP’s Official Tyre Supplier. I would like to thank all the teams and Dorna for their continued support and for organising another fantastic grand prix.” Tohru Ubukata Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department “Yesterday Dani set a new pole position record on Bridgestone tyres, and today Jorge set a new lap record on our tyres so this has been a good weekend for us at Indianapolis. We saw some good battles, particularly between Nicky and Andrea, and James and Marco. I’d like to congratulate Alex and the San Carlo team for his first MotoGP podium, and also Nicky and the Ducati Team for a very well deserved third place at his home grand prix. “I am pleased with the durability of our tyres over a race distance as Indianapolis is an abrasive circuit and some riders, like Alex, set their fastest lap right at the end of the race. The fight between Nicky and Andrea also gave us a good comparison between the softer and harder front tyres, and their close battle shows the wide operating range of each of the compounds we have developed this season. Even in the last laps Nicky and Andrea were evenly matched on laptimes, demonstrating the crossover in performance of tyre compounds we have achieved as sole tyre supplier.” Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamaha Team Race Winner “What a race! You know, in a world championship like this you have to always be on the limit to win. In the last two races I was on the limit and crashed, but today the situation changed completely. Today everything felt great on the bike and I think I could have done a 1m 39.8, but when Valentino crashed I closed the throttle a bit. Before this race I said the championship is almost impossible, but now it is possible for sure. I had a lot of fun in the last lap and I am very happy!” Top ten classification (Sunday 15:00 GMT-4) Pos. Rider Team Race time Gap Front tyre Rear tyre Tyres 1 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team 47m13.592s Hard Hard Bridgestone slick 2 Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini 47m23.027s +9.435s Hard Hard Bridgestone slick 3 Nicky Hayden Ducati Team 47m26.539s +12.947s Medium Hard Bridgestone slick 4 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team 47m27.070s +13.478s Hard Hard Bridgestone slick 5 Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech3 47m39.846s +26.254s Hard Hard Bridgestone slick 6 James Toseland Monster Yamaha Tech3 47m46.000s +32.408s Hard Hard Bridgestone slick 7 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 47m47.992s +34.400s Hard Hard Bridgestone slick 8 Mika Kallio Ducati Team 47m48.448s +34.856s Medium Hard Bridgestone slick 9 Toni Elias San Carlo Honda Gresini 47m58.597s +45.005s Hard Hard Bridgestone slick 10 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 47m58.969s +45.377s Hard Hard Bridgestone slick Weather: Dry. Ambient 21°C; Track 35°C ( Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Capirossi salvages seventh at Indianapolis Loris Capirossi put a difficult weekend and an equally tough start to today’s Indianapolis Grand Prix behind him to battle his way to seventh place at the chequered flag. Capirossi got a poor start compared to his usual high standards and was then further hampered on the second corner when a couple of riders – including team-mate Chris Vermeulen – collided and forced him onto the grass. Capirossi kept control of his bike but had to fight his way through the field from the back of the pack. He made gradual progress and got into seventh place with three laps remaining and, although he closed the gap dramatically on the rider in front, he was unable to make up any further places as he ran out of laps. Vermeulen fared even worse from the second corner incident. He was hit by Mika Kallio and pushed very wide onto the grass. He too was fortunate to stay on the bike, but when he re-joined he was a long way from the main field. Vermeulen found his best rhythm of the weekend for the rest of the race as he too progressed through the pack. He made his way up to ninth but a slight mistake cost him a couple of positions on the last lap and he brought his Rizla Suzuki home in 11th place. Today’s race was watched over 75,000 spectators at the awesome Indianapolis Motor Speedway and they were treated to an eventful spectacle. Dani Pedrosa crashed whilst leading and then championship leader Valentino Rossi also crashed when in second place, to leave Jorge Lorenzo to take a comfortable victory on his factory Yamaha. Rizla Suzuki now heads straight back to Europe for the 13th round of the World Championship at Misano in Italy next Sunday. Loris Capirossi: “The final position is not too bad, but I am disappointed with my start because it was not very good and on turn two I was involved in a big casino with some other bikes – luckily I didn’t come off as bad as Chris! I kept up a good pace and I overtook a lot of guys, I had a good rhythm throughout the race and if I’d have had that rhythm without the incident early on and the bad start I think I could have challenged for a top-five place. I want to thank all my guys for another good job this weekend and they are all working hard to discover the best performance for the new chassis, I already think it is a lot better than the old one, but we still don’t know its full potential. We got good data from the race and it was a better result than the grid position, but we expect more and we will be pushing hard in Misano!” Chris Vermeulen: “I got a good start off the line and made up a few places on the outside at turn one, but on turn two I got hit by Kallio and pushed out on the grass and I lost a lot of time. I was about last and had a lot of work to do from there. We made some changes to the bike for the race and I did my quickest run this afternoon from the whole weekend. I moved up some places and towards the end I was fighting for ninth, but had a bit of bad luck on the last lap and a couple of guys got past me. It was certainly the best we have been all weekend and we have some positive things to take to Misano.” Paul Denning – Team Manager: “The race was the best performance we have seen all weekend, both out of the riders and the bikes. We’re able to draw some positives in terms of confirming the correct direction with the new chassis and finding some setting data for it for the next GPs. Both of the guys pushed hard and gave everything today, but it is difficult for the team to achieve its full potential when both the riders are on the grass and at the back of the field on the second corner! The podium was beyond us today, but we had the potential to fight for a top-five and that will be our target as we go straight to Misano next weekend.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: LORENZO TAKES COMMANDING WIN AS ROSSI SLIDES OUT Jorge Lorenzo took an emphatic third victory of the season at Indianapolis this afternoon, halving Valentino Rossi’s championship lead in the process as his Fiat Yamaha team-mate slid out. The determined Spaniard was joined on the podium by Alex de Angelis and Nicky Hayden, with Tech 3 Yamaha riders Colin Edwards and James Toseland both putting in good rides to finish fifth and sixth. Dani Pedrosa took the hole shot with Rossi in close pursuit but Lorenzo got a poor start, forcing him to make one of his favourite ‘por fuera’ moves, around the outside of three riders. The leading trio quickly pulled several seconds ahead of the chasing pack but on lap four Pedrosa slid out, leaving the Yamaha pair alone once again at the front. There was little between the rival team-mates and on the ninth of 27 laps Lorenzo made a brilliant move on Rossi, passing him on the brakes into turn one. Just two laps later the World Champion ran slightly wide and, finding himself on a dirty part of the track, lost the front and went down. He remounted in 16th place but a problem with his throttle forced him to retire soon after. With no other challengers in sight, Lorenzo just had to bring his number 99 Yamaha home safely and he did so in fine style to win the second Indianapolis Grand Prix, in the Centenary year of the historic track. The youngster has now cut Rossi’s lead to 25 points with five rounds remaining and just one week before the second of Rossi’s home races at Misano in Italy. Jorge Lorenzo Position: 1st Time: 47’13.592 “This is fantastic for me and for my team! I’ve had two crashes in a row but now I’ve won, and my closest rivals have crashed instead. Of course I’m sorry for them but these are the highs and lows of racing and it’s an amazing result for me. I was strong all weekend and I really want to thank my team for giving me a great bike. I had a hard start and I had to try very hard to pass people and get back to third, but then I had a good rhythm and I was able to go with Valentino and Dani. Once Dani had gone I knew it would be a hard fight between me and Valentino and in fact when he crashed I didn’t realise for a while, because I misread my pit-board and thought it said +0! Anyway, my bike was great and from then on it was quite easy, I just stayed focused. I had great fun on the slow-down lap with the fans and I am so happy to win here at this amazing track. The championship was almost gone but in one day things have changed a lot. It will be hard but we won’t give up!” Valentino Rossi Position: DNF Time: “Today is a disappointment of course! We struggled here with the setting all weekend but we made an improvement today and I got a good start and was able to stay in touch with Pedrosa. Once he fell, I knew it would be between Jorge and I but I honestly don’t know how it would have finished, because Jorge was very fast today. Of course, it would have been better to have finished second than not to finish at all! Unfortunately I ran wide on to a dirty part of the track at turn one and lost the front. I tried to carry on but there was a problem with my throttle and it wasn’t possible. I want to congratulate Jorge for his victory and now we look forward to coming back to the front at Misano. We are still leading the championship and this is the most important thing.” Daniele Romagnoli Team Manager “We couldn’t ask for more today. Jorge did brilliantly all weekend and the team did a great job to improve his bike in order to close the gap to Pedrosa. Jorge was very confident in the race, thanks to another step forward we made with the setting after the warm-u,p and he rode very well. Of course we were lucky today and I am sorry for Valentino, but after Brno we had a huge points gap and now things have changed a lot so we have to make the most of it. We never gave up and this is a great reward for everyone.” Davide Brivio Team Manager “This hasn’t been the best weekend for us! It was a bit of a strange crash, and this is why as soon as Valentino got back he wanted to check the data. It seems he just found himself on a dirty part of the track and so when he braked he lost the front and that was it! He tried to carry on but it wasn’t possible this time, so we have to accept that our championship lead is a bit smaller now! Well done to Lorenzo and the other side of the garage, and now we look forward to Misano in a week’s time.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Edwards and Toseland both in top six with impressive Indy result Colin Edwards and James Toseland claimed impressive top six positions for the Monster Tech3 Yamaha team with hard fought performances in today’s dramatic Indianapolis Grand Prix in front 75,000 spectators. Edwards came home a solid fifth with the Texan disappointed not have been closer to the front in his second home race of the season. After Dani Pedrosa crashed out of the lead Edwards was briefly third before he began to struggle with some rear grip issues. Today’s results saw Edwards to retain fifth position in the championship standings. With a daring early charge from 10th on the grid Briton James Toseland scored his equal best result of the season with sixth place after an thrilling late race battle with Marco Melandri. After Melandri had briefly got ahead on lap eight Toseland was back in sixth on lap 10 and then rebuffed every challenge until Melandri crashed out of seventh position with two laps remaining. The race was won by factory Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo. Colin Edwards 5th — 123 point “It wasn’t as much fun as thought it was going to be, to be honest with you, I had hopes of better result at my home race. I did the same times I did all weekend but I struggled with some grip issues, it just felt like everything was pivoting on the rear, it was like speedway, as soon as I got the bike on the side the rear came around and that is not the fast way. I couldn’t put any load on the rear. At the end of the day we had the same tyres as the guy who won the race so whether it was so mething in our set-up or riding style, I don’t know. All I could was watch Nicky and Andrea walk away from me and I took some big risks on the brakes. Once Nicky got by it became hard to manage and I think we turned a tyre on the rim, I had a lot of vibration over the final ten laps.” James Toseland 6th — 72 points “It’s very pleasing to finish in the top six, I know I’m capable of these sort of results and need to be doing it very weekend. It was an entertaining race for me, pushing my way through from tenth on the opening lap and today I don’t think I lost any friends doing that. Later in the race I had a great battle with Marco Melandri until he made a mistake with two laps go, I thought it would be a fight right to the end with him. I didn’t have good feeling in the warm-up so I was little worried for the race but we softened the bike up a little and I was able to keep my pace fr om qualifying. Melandri was really strong in turns one and two but i just kept covering my line, kept my head down and kept pushing. Now I’m really looking forward to Misano next week, a track I know very well from superbikes.” Herve Poncharal – Team Manager “A very good weekend for us to have two riders in the top six. Colin had a great start and was right with the front group which was very exciting for us, it was pity that with some small problems he couldn’t follow the pace. And special congratulations to James, it wasn’t an easy weekend for him and he made a very good recovery from tenth on the grid. It was a shame for the show that both Pedrosa and Rossi crashed but for our team we got some very good points to enable us to consolidate fourth position in the Team Championship. And congratulations to Jorge to win after all the problems he has had recently.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: The battle for the 2009 FIM World Championship was blown wide open on Sunday at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix as Jorge Lorenzo scored a great win and his Fiat Yamaha colleague Valentino Rossi suffered his first DNF of the year. Lorenzo eventually crossed the line with a 9.5s winning margin to cut Rossi’s championship lead in half, as the deficit dropped from 50 to 25 points, with five races remaining. Behind Lorenzo there was a great ride from San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Alex de Angelis who did his quest to remain in MotoGP no harm at all in second place, gaining his first ever premier class podium from fourth on the grid. Nicky Hayden also rode brilliantly after qualifying sixth, repeating his 2008 Indianapolis podium, this time in third position his best result to date with Ducati. Hayden got the better of Andrea Dovizioso, despite a stiff challenge from the man who replaced him in the Repsol Honda team, the Italian yet again having to settle for fourth on the last lap. World Champion Valentino Rossi hit the ground on lap nine when battling for the race lead with Lorenzo, the Italian able to remount and try to continue, only to have to retire a couple of laps later due to the damage his M1 machine sustained. It is the first time Rossi has failed to finish a race since Valencia in 2007. Earlier on there was also a crash for Dani Pedrosa on the fourth lap when the pole man was leading the race. He bravely picked up his RC212V and rejoined in last place, doing well to finally finish in 10th position. Adding to the American representation towards the front Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) finished in fifth place, whilst there was a late crash from Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing) when battling with James Toseland (also Tech 3) for sixth. Melandri’s mishap left the Englishman to again match his best ever MotoGP result. The top ten also featured Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), Mika Kallio (Ducati) and Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini). A special mention must go to Pramac Racing’s temporary replacement rider Aleix Espargaró who earned three points in 13th place on his MotoGP debut. 250cc In what will be the first and last ever 250cc race at Indianapolis, a good performance by World Champion Marco Simoncelli (Metis Gilera) kept his championship hopes alive as he crossed the line in first place, two seconds ahead of current standings leader Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing Team). With the cancellation of last year’s 250cc contest at Indy due bad weather and the arrival of the new Moto2 class next season, this was a one-off race and Simoncelli wrote his name into the history books with his fourth win of 2009. Simoncelli now trails the Japanese rider by 27 points with five races remaining. Aoyama suffered a big front end moment with four laps to go and dropped back from Simoncelli, but he is still consistently scoring points. Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar Team) lost ground in the championship as he finished third, though he remains second in the standings, 16 points behind Aoyama. Pole man Mike di Meglio (Mapfre Aspar) was fourth, 12 seconds back on Simoncelli, whilst Roberto Locatelli (also Metis Gilera) and Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team) were fifth and sixth. 125cc A five-way battle which lasted for the majority of the 125cc race went down to the very last lap and ultimately ended with Pol Espargaró (Derbi Racing Team) earning his first Grand Prix win. The 18 year-old Spaniard made up for his disappointment in last year’s event, when he just missed out on the win, by judging the race to perfection and holding off his rivals on the last lap to win by 0.120s from Briton Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar). Simone Corsi (Fontana Racing) finished in third place, three tenths down on Smith, to claim his second podium of the season. The front quintet crossed the finishing line with just 1.8s separating them, with Nico Terol (Jack & Jones Team) in fourth place and championship leader Julián Simón (Bancaja Aspar) fifth. More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing Team: THREE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS FOR ESPARGARO. UNLUCKY CANEPA FORCED TO RETIRE Emotional debut since the first turns for the new Pramac Racing Spanish rider Aleix Espargaro. The young rider, who started from the last position on the Indianapolis Grand Prix starting grid, has found him self in tenth position after a few turns but in one of them he was caught in the group and touched Elias going off the track. He managed to go back on track but it wasn’t easy to ride by him self as he was so far from the group. The Catalan rider didn’t give up and made it to finish in thirteenth position in his first MotoGP race conquering three world championship points. His teammate, Niccolò Canepa, was having a good race but an anomaly at the electronic system forced him to retire during the twentyfourth lap when he was twelfth. After the second and last 2009 MotoGP round in the United States of America, the world Championship goes back to Europe where in seven days there will be the Misano Grand Prix. Aleix Espargaro – Pramac Racing – 13th in the race – 20th in the Championship “I have started really well, but after only a few turns I was stuck in a group of riders and I couldn’t manage to avoid Elias. I am very sorry for this also because he is a good friend. I managed to step back on track, but alone wasn’t easy to ride. I tried to maintain a good rhythm and at the end I conquered three points in my first MotoGP race: not so bad. Now I know a bit better the bike and I believe we can do much better in Misano on a circuit that I particularly like.” Niccolò Canepa – Pramac Racing – Retired- 16th in the Championship “Today I was having a good race, I could have fought with Elias and Vermeulen, but when a few laps were missing a problem to the electronic system has suddenly switched off my bike. A pity because I was keeping a good rhythm and I could have fought to enter the top ten with the riders that were in front of me. I am very sorry because I needed a good result and I now hope that I will have the possibility to achieve it in Misano.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: HAYDEN CELEBRATES FIRST DUCATI PODIUM AT INDY, KALLIO IN TOP TEN Nicky Hayden celebrated his first podium position as a Ducati MotoGP Team rider in the most fitting surroundings possible today, the ‘Kentucky Kid’ producing a sensational performance to finish third in his home race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hayden secured his own little slice of history at the legendary circuit with a battling display, chasing down Alex de Angelis for second place after crashes for both Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi at the front before consolidating third place with dogged defence under pressure from Andrea Dovizioso over the final two laps. Mika Kallio, making his second of three appearances for the team as stand-in for regular rider Casey Stoner, also had reason to smile after a race in which he improved on his qualifying pace by six tenths of a second to secure a top ten finish in ninth place and give himself a welcome confidence boost before the series returns to Italian shores for the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano next weekend. NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati MotoGP Team) (3rd) “It feels great to be on the podium here at Indianapolis and I want to thank all the team, my friends, family and fans for their support because this has been a tough season and I’ve needed every one of them. I was really careful at the start because I watched the 125cc race earlier on and the guy in my grid position made a jump start it made me think that I really didn’t want to do that today! As a result I didn’t get a great start but I saw Lorenzo charge past a few guys, making a hole in the pack, so I tried to follow him. I pushed hard and in the middle of the race I went as fast as I have all weekend, but I didn’t have any more than that. Dovizioso came on strong at the end so I gave myself a little pep talk and made sure I was ready for whatever he had. He was going to have to come up with something special to keep me off the podium here at Indy! Thankfully I kept it together and brought it home. We don’t have long to the next race at Misano but I’m in the mood for a little party tonight. My buddies have seen the sun come up every day since Friday but hopefully they’ve got something left in the tank for me!” MIKA KALLIO (Ducati MotoGP Team) (8th) “We tried some different things with the suspension for the warm-up, which didn’t really work, but we tried something else for the race and it improved. I was able to push harder in the race in practice and my best lap in the race was actually even better than my qualifying time. That is a good thing but overall I’m still not too happy. My feeling with the bike isn’t perfect and for some reason my confidence is low. I don’t know why that is but it makes it hard to be consistent and easy to make small mistakes. The end position is not so bad but I think we could have been half a second quicker today and that would have moved us up some important positions. The goal for the next race is to find that half second and try to get my confidence back. To have at least finished the race after the recent bad luck is a boost and we will try to build on it at Misano.” FILIPPO PREZIOSI Ducati Corse General Director “I want to congratulate Nicky because even in difficult times he has always believed in Ducati and he has never given up, working hard and staying focused. Without his feedback we would have never been able to work out a set-up to suit him and it is in this area, as well as in performance, where a rider makes the difference! I also want to thank Vitto (Guareschi) and all the guys at Ducati Corse, who have worked like Nicky never losing heart. Casey, we’re waiting for you and we know you will be back even stronger than ever.” More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: TOUGH RACE FOR DE PUNIET IN INDIANAPOLIS Indianapolis, 30 August: after yesterdays physically demanding qualifying session, the LCR Honda MotoGP racer Randy De Puniet started from the 12th place for the 28-lap race at the spectacular Indianapolis circuit which celebrate its 100th anniversary. The 12th round of the season got underway at 15:00 local time with sunny skies and ambience temperature of 20°C ahead 146.680 fans. The Frenchman riding the Honda RC212V is still suffering from the motocross injury suffered four weeks ago but after the Czech Republic GP the broken left ankle was considerably improved. However the 4.216 km track is heavily biased with ten left hand corners and six right hand corners which make changing direction very punishing. The 28-year-old got a good start from the fourth row and was up into 10th by the end of the first lap but had to battle through the pain and struggled a lot for a wrong rear tyre choice that prevented him to end in the top ten. Now LCR Team will move straight to Misano circuit for the San Marino e Riviera di Rimini GP on the 6th of September. De Puniet 12th: “In yesterdays’ practices I felt better on a hard rear tyre and that was my choice for todays’ 28-lap race. But obviously it has been the wrong decision! From the beginning I had not enough grip on the left and I could not open the throttle where I would like. I thought that the grip would have improved after a few laps but it did not happen and I struggled for the whole race. At seven laps to go I also went wide on turn two and Elias and Vermeulen were faster than me today. The ankle aches a lot like in Brno but I think that Misano race track will suite me better than Indy”.