Dani Pedrosa seized the lead on the seventh lap and then fended off a fierce challenge to post his third MotoGP win of the season on Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Spain’s Pedrosa covered the 28-lap, 118.048km circuit on his Honda in 47 minutes, 31.615 seconds while American Ben Spies, who began the race on the pole, finished second in 47:35.190.
Pedrosa said he was pleased with his ride and the way he handled the hot temperatures on Sunday.
“It was very, very warm out there. You know, you didn’t cool down in the 45 minutes you’re out there,” Pedrosa said. “The track was slippery, the bike always starts to be very greasy. So many crashes because of the bumps and the track temperature.”
“It was very important to be focused in every corner and make no mistake with the bumps, especially at the end when the tires are more damaged,” he said.
Jorge Lorenzo of Spain had his worst finish of the year when he placed third. Lorenzo, well on his way to a world championship, finished more than 12 seconds behind the winner.
Lorenzo saw Pedrosa gain some ground in the series. With six races remaining, Lorenzo has accumulated 251 points. Pedrosa is second at 183 and Italian Andrea Dovizioso is third with 126.
Spies, starting on the pole for the first time in his rookie season, held the lead for six laps.
Pedrosa completed an inside pass on the front straightaway of lap seven and slowly pulled away from the American.
“We can’t complain,” Spies said. “We had a good start and led some laps. Didn’t set the world on fire, but we had a good pace. It just wasn’t fast enough.”
On the opening lap, Dovizioso rode his Honda from fourth to second place with Nicky Hayden dropping to third.
Pedrosa passed Hayden on the next lap. Marco Melandri of Italy crashed on the third lap when Lorenzo, who had started second, slipped to fourth.
Pedrosa passed Dovizioso for second in turn one of the fourth lap and from then on he and Spies battled for the lead.
The Spaniard trailed Spies by .888 seconds after four laps, cut the difference on each of the next two laps before moving ahead. His lead after seven laps was .015 and steadily grew on 10 consecutive laps.
He had the fastest lap of the race on lap at one minute, 40.896 seconds.
Earlier, a 13-year-old racer was run over and killed after falling off his bike during a warmup lap.
After his crash, Peter Lenz was struck by a 12-year-old racer who was not hurt.
Lenz was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died three hours later.
Despite his young age, Lenz’s family said he was an experienced junior rider. He had won nine national championships in his six years of riding bikes.
Lenz was scheduled to race in a US Grand Prix Racers Union event ahead of the MotoGP Series events.
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