MOTOGP 2013 - RD9 - LAGUNA SECA - JUST BIKES

MotoGP 2013 - Rd9 - Laguna Seca

Both championship contenders had missed the previous round at the Sachsenring, which was won by Pedrosa's Repsol Honda team mate, Marc Marquez. That win moved the Spanish rookie to the head of the MotoGP world championship standings coming into the Red Bull US Grand Prix.

Both Pedrosa and Lorenzo were late inclusions for Laguna Seca, with each rider determined to race, mainly to prevent the other from gaining a championship advantage. Despite his stellar performances so far his season, Marquez was expected to struggle at Laguna Seca, as he had never ridden the circuit before.

QUALIFYING
In qualifying, Germany's Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) achieved his first-ever MotoGP pole position, with a 1'21.176 lap time. Bradl's debut pole was also the first to ever be achieved by a German in the premier class. Sharing the front row were Marquez and GO&FUN Honda Gresini's Alvaro Bautista. Marquez's challenge for pole ended when he crashed close to the end of the final qualifying session.

Valentino Rossi (Yamaha Factory Racing) qualified fourth, alongside Cal Crutchlow (Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha), who crashed in an earlier qualifying session, while Lorenzo and Pedrosa qualified sixth and seventh respectively.

Australia's Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini CRT) qualified 22nd

RACE
Bradl got the jump early from pole, while Rossi managed to get past Marquez, who was as low as fourth in the opening laps. Lorenzo, still riding injured and obviously restricted, was further behind, followed by Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini).

By the end of lap 4, Marquez had passed Rossi in a daring move at Laguna Seca's famous Corkscrew Corner, and was chasing down Bradl. The Bradl-Marquez-Rossi train remained unchanged for the mid-part of the race, while behind them, Lorenzo and Pedrosa were battling in fourth and fifth position. When Pedrosa moved ahead of his rival at the Andretti Hairpin, Lorenzo was unable to counterpunch, and the two settled into damage-limitation mode until the finish.

After moving into second, Marquez showed uncharacteristic patience to follow Bradl for more than a dozen laps before pulling off a clean manoeuvre for the lead at the end of the 19th lap. At the back of the field, Staring had managed to pass Lukas Pesek (Came IodaRacing CRT), Yonny Hernandez (PBM ART CRT) and Hiroshi Aoyama (Avintia Blusens CRT) to be in fifteenth (and a chance of scoring championship points) with fourteen laps remaining.

In the closing stages, Marquez and Bradl began to open up a gap on Rossi at the front of the field, who himself was in danger of being overtaken by Bautista. Despite a swap for eighth and ninth place between Ducati Team's Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden on lap 30, the placements remained unchanged to the chequered flag, with Marquez hanging on the record his second win in a row. The result makes the 20-year-old Spaniard now the youngest rider to achieve back-to-back wins in the premier class, breaking the record previously set by Freddie Spencer, as well as being the first rookie to win at Laguna Seca.

"Before I came here, I was expecting to struggle more," Marquez said in the post race interview.

"At the beginning, with a full fuel tank, I was little bit scared because - with all of those bumps - it's so easy to lose the front. I overtook Valentino (Rossi) then caught Bradl.

"I'm very, very happy because it's a new circuit and I've got 25 points. I'm very happy because it's great to go into the summer break with this result."

Marquez's winning margin was 2.29 seconds over Bradl, who Laguna Seca result was his first ever MotoGP podium, with Rossi a further 2.2 seconds back in third. Bautista was on Rossi's tail right to end, finishing fourth, followed by Pedrosa and Lorenzo. Cruchlow, Hayden, Dovizioso and Hector Barbera (Avintia Blusens CRT) completed the top ten.

Former 250cc, 125cc and Moto2 rider, Alex de Angelis, finished eleventh, filling in for the injured Ben Spies in the Pramac Ducati satellite team. Further back, Staring was lapped on his way to 17th place as the penultimate finisher. After a string of crashes in the Sachsenring round, the result, and early competitiveness at Laguna Seca, would have been a welcome confidence booster for the Aussie.

Randy de Puniet (Power Electronics Aspar CRT) retired on lap 4, followed by Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha's Bradley Smith four laps later. Michael Laverty (PBM CRT) and CRT championship leader Aleix Espargaro (Power Electronics Aspar CRT) both crashed out within the opening five laps, but were uninjured.

Marquez's third victory of the year equals the sum of reigning World Champion Lorenzo so far this season, and also extends his championship lead to 16 points over Pedrosa (163 to 147). Lorenzo is currently third overall on 137 points. Importantly for Marquez, he has finished on the podium in every race he has completed this season, the only blot on his copybook being a DNF at Monza's round 5 of the championship.

The off-podium results and non-starts for Pedrosa and Lorenzo have also moved Rossi and Crutchlow into championship contention on 117 and 116 points respectively, albeit as longshots.

With the first half of the season now complete, MotoGP heads into its summer break before returning at Indianapolis in mid-August.