Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa has taken his first MotoGP win of the year at Laguna Seca this evening but dropped a second on the final lap which enabled Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi to almost make a pass in the final turn.
Pedrosa's win was Honda's first victory in the blue riband class for more than 12 months which he took after a blistering start from the second row of the grid and never looked back. After being more than three second in arrears, Rossi finished three tenths behind the Spaniard, with team-mate Jorge Lorenzo taking the final podium step.
It was a massive effort from Lorenzo who separated his shoulder in a huge crash in qualifying yesterday, and for Stoner as the Aussie is still suffering from some kind of debilitating conditions which robs him of energy as soon as his heart rate does anyting high.
It was Pedrosa's race from the start as his light weight enabled him to storm into the lead on the run into turn two, closely followed by Stoner, Rossi, Toni Elias and Andrea Dovizioso.
Lorenzo, meanwhile, was sucked back into eighth off the line but managed to climb his way back, passing Elias on lap one as Rossi got past Stoner on the approach to The Corkscrew.
Two laps later, Stoner went back past The Doctor as it looked like the Fiat Yamaha was struggling out of the final turn and then Rossi went wide going into the tight turn two as both Gabor Talmasci and Loris Capirossi went down.
With 27 laps to go, Monster Yamaha's James Toseland was given a ride-through penalty for jumping the start which he studiously ignored and was black-flagged three laps later.
Pedrosa's team-mate Andrea Dovizioso lost the front halfway round lap seven, giving rise to speculation that the new and stiffer front end on the Honda wasn't working well with the hard compound Bridegstones. He sat in the gravel, looking like he had no idea what had happened.
Sete Gibernau also lost the front of his satellite Ducati with eight laps gone as Pedrosa's lead was stretched out to a second and Nicky Hayden went past Elias for fifth place.
Rossi finally got past Stoner with 21 laps to go as Pedrosa's lead stretched out to 1.6 seconds. The Spaniard was lapping quicker than his qualifying times on a full tank of fuel on the hardest tyres, which was some effort from a still-injured rider.
With 17 laps to go, Pedrosa was more than three seconds in front, but Rossi had quickened the pace as Lorenzo was lining up Stoner for a pass. The Spaniard made Stoner look slow as he slid up the inside into the final turn and it looked like Stoner had it his fitness wall.
Pedrosa's lead yo-yo'd from 3.3s to 2.6 and back again in the final ten laps but Rossi was having serious trouble from his team-mate who tried the exact same move he put on Stoner, but ran wide and allowed the Italian to get away.
With three to go, Rossi was lapping 0.5s faster than Pedrosa and made up more than a second on the final but decided discretion was the better part of valour as he wasn't close enough going into the last turn. The Doctor extended his lead in the championship over Lorenzo to nine points.
