Stoner Dominates 2011 Red Bull Indianapolis GP
August 28, 2011 | By Paul Kelly
Casey Stoner completed his domination of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Sunday, running away from Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa to win the fourth annual MotoGP race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Stoner, from Australia, beat Pedrosa to the finish by 4.828 seconds. It was his seventh victory of the season and first at IMS. His previous best finish at the Brickyard was fourth in 2008.
“For the race, we knew we had a good setup,” Stoner said. “We knew we had the pace. I struggled a little bit the first few laps, but once we got going, we managed to get the lap times we sort of thought we could get to.
“It was a lot of hard work out front, trying to stay consistent, trying not to make mistakes and trying not to run wide onto that greasy part of the track. Very happy to win here at the Brickyard.”
American Ben Spies finished third on a Yamaha Factory Racing machine.
Stoner, who started from pole, dropped to third on the first lap. But he passed reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo for second on Lap 2 and then passed Pedrosa for the lead on Lap 7 of the 28-lap race with an inside pass in Turn 1.
Spies started second but dropped to ninth on the first lap. But he methodically picked off rivals over the ensuing laps to record his second consecutive podium finish at IMS. He placed second last year.
"We didn’t make the greatest start," Spies said. "It felt like an OK start, but it just didn’t add up when we got out of Turn 1. And then me and (Andrea Dovizioso) made some contact in Turn 4, and that was our race. But it was at least pretty interesting."
It was a mixed day for the other two American riders in the field. Colin Edwards placed seventh on a Monster Yamaha Tech 3. Nicky Hayden finished a disappointing 14th on his Ducati after racing as high as fourth on the first lap.
Hayden was the only rider to select a medium compound Bridgestone front tire in a gamble to gain more grip. But it backfired, as the hard tire selected by other riders proved more durable.
In the other World Championship classes, Marc Marquez and Nico Terol won from pole in the Moto2 and 125cc classes, respectively. Chris Fillmore won the second AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 race of the weekend.