American Nicky Hayden won the United States motorcycling Grand Prix for the second straight year on Sunday, strengthening his grip on the title chase as Valentino Rossi failed to finish.
Hayden, who won here last year when the MotoGP series returned to the US for the first time in a decade, started from the second row and seized the lead on the 17th lap.
”I felt a lot of pressure,” Hayden admitted. ”I didn’t want to let the home team down, but also wasn’t going to let pride get in the way and make a risky mistake.”
He completed the 115,52km race — run under a scorching California sun — in 45min 4,867sec and finished 3,186sec ahead of his Respol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa of Spain.
”It was really physical out there,” Hayden added of the blistering weather, which saw the air temperature listed as 39 degrees Celsius at race time. ”But that’s why you get up every morning and train. In some races that maybe hasn’t been as important as in this one.”
Pedrosa felt the difficulty of the conditions, too.
”The conditions were tough and it was a long race,” he said. ”My tyres were sliding all the time but the result was a perfect one-two for the team.”
Italian Marco Melandri was third, followed by American Kenny Roberts jnr and Australian Chris Vermeulen, who started from pole position and held the lead for the first 16 laps of the 32-lap race.
Pedrosa had to work his way past several rivals, and his duel with Australian Casey Stoner saw Stoner slide off the track and out of the race on lap 15.
Melandri was one of several riders to benefit when seven-time and reigning champion Rossi fell prey to engine failure on his Yamaha while lying in fourth place three laps from the finish.
One lap later, Vermeulen fell off the pace and Melandri and Roberts both got past.
”Hard, hot and long,” was Melandri’s take on the race, so tough that a podium finish felt like a victory.
”I felt like I won the race today [Sunday],” he said. ”I wasn’t fast on the first few laps. At the end of the race I was quite fast, then passed Vermeulen to get on the podium.”
The victory gives Hayden 194 points, while Pedrosa is second in the standings with 160 ahead of Melandri (150).
Rossi, who arrived in California lying second in the standings after his victory in the German Grand Prix last week, found himself in fourth on the same 143 points. — AFP
