For all of us on bikes…

It was a brilliant race for the young (but already retiring ) Casey Stoner at the 2012 Laguna Seca USA MotoGP. Starting from 2nd position on the grid, and being the only leading rider on Soft rear tire, Casey got off to a “slow” start, allowing Dani Pedrosa to take the second and Jorge to retain the lead. It all started to look too familiar with Jorge opening a small gap in the beginning of the race. Casey got past Dani and set to pursuit Lorenzo to try and take the lead.

By the middle of the race, we thought it’s all over (again) as Mr.99 opened a nice 2 second gap, but it turned out that it was just a small rest period for Casey and his now warm rear tire. Going into the last 1/3 of the race, Jorge had “a near crash moment” on top of the corkscrew and that was the green light for Casey to put the hammer down. Like the years before Stoner made his move on the fastest part of the circuit (main straight) taking the lead. He never looked back, finishing 3.429s in front of the Spaniard. The overall standings are as follows: Jorge Lorezno 205, Dani Pedrosa 182, Casey Stoner 173.

2012 MotoGP Laguna Seca Results:

1 25 1 Casey STONER AUS Repsol Honda Team Honda 158.4 43’45.961
2 20 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 158.2 +3.429
3 16 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 157.9 +7.633
4 13 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 157.3 +18.602
5 11 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 157.2 +18.779
6 10 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 156.8 +26.902
7 9 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 156.7 +28.393
8 8 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 155.4 +50.246
9 7 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Power Electronics Aspar ART 153.7 +1’18.993
10 6 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Ducati 153.6 +1’22.076
11 5 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Power Electronics Aspar ART 153.3 1 Lap
12 4 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Avintia Blusens BQR 152.9 1 Lap
13 3 5 Colin EDWARDS USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing Suter 151.6 1 Lap
14 2 22 Ivan SILVA SPA Avintia Blusens BQR 151.4 1 Lap

Ben Spies had “another” bad luck day as his swing arm collapsed on the bottom of the corkscrew, taking him out of the race. He was in comfortable 4th. Valentino Rossi crashed as well, loosing the front end of the bike. His trust in the Ducati is yet again damaged.

Not Classified

46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Ducati Team Ducati 156.2 3 Laps
11 Ben SPIES USA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 157.4 11 Laps
77 James ELLISON GBR Paul Bird Motorsport ART 151.9 13 Laps
9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Came IodaRacing Project Ioda 151.4 14 Laps
54 Mattia PASINI ITA Speed Master ART 152.2 21 Laps
24 Toni ELIAS SPA Pramac Racing Team Ducati 134.1 31 Laps
51 Michele PIRRO ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini FTR 0 Lap

Source: MotoGP

Tags: 2012, Casey Stoner, Championship, corkscrew, Honda, Jorge Lorenzo, Laguna Seca, MotoGP, Repsol, USA, Yamaha

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2012 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Casey Stoner, Honda, Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP, News, Racing, Yamaha. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.