Two in a row for Casey Stoner in California

CASEY Stoner, of Australia, claimed his second consecutive Moto GP US Grand Prix at the Laguna Seca Raceway in California, finishing ahead of Spaniards Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa on Sunday.

Reigning world champion Stoner completed the 32 laps in 43 minutes, 45,961 seconds, three seconds ahead of Lorenzo, who started at pole.

Stoner earned his fourth win of the season on the same circuit he was crowned champion in 2007 and last year.

He was the lone top rider on soft Bridgestone tyres. “With the soft tyre, we knew that we would have to be a little bit gentle on it,” he said. “If we pushed on it very hard the whole way through the race then it wouldn’t last.”

The podium spots were iden- tical to last year’s. As he did last year, Lorenzo led the race at first, but could not hold off the Aussie and surrendered the lead on lap 21. “Casey was the best, fastest and most consistent,” Lorenzo said.

Pedrosa placed third — as he did last year — crossing the finish line more than seven seconds behind the winner.

The World Championship ranking remains unchanged with Lorenzo in first place with 205 points followed by Pedrosa (182) and Stoner (173). It was Stoner’s fourth win of the year, to go with victories in Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands.

It was a three-man race as fourth-place finisher Italian Andrea Dovizioso finished more than 18 seconds behind Stoner but ahead of team-mate Cal Crutchlow.

Nicky Hayden, who finished sixth, was nearly 27 seconds behind the winner. Sapa-AFP