Pedrosa Beats Spies for Indy GP Win

Dani Pedrosa took his third win of the MotoGP season today, as he beat out Ben Spies and season leader Jorge Lorenzo for the Indy GP victory. It is the first time Pedrosa has won more than two races during a MotoGP season, but the Repsol Honda rider still sits 68 Points behind Lorenzo.

Pole sitter, and American favorite, Ben Spies, led the race until the 8th lap, where he was passed up by Pedrosa. Spies was the only rider who could keep Lorenzo in his sights, but Pedrosa slowly pulled away to a comfortable victory of more than 3 and a half seconds.

Spies may be disappointed that he missed a prime opportunity for a race win, but the rookie still collected his best finish at the MotoGP level, and his second podium of the season.

Season leader Jorge Lorenzo had his worst finish of the season at the Indy GP, which says a lot about how Lorenzo has been riding so far. Lorenzo has finished on the podium at every race so far this season, but his streak of top two finishes came to an end today at Indy. Lorenzo finished three seconds behind his 2011 Fiat Yamaha teammate, claiming the last spot on the podium, and keeping Pedrosa from cutting too deeply into his lead. Lorenzo will have a 68 point advantage going into next weekend's race in San Marino.

Valentino Rossi was able to come back from a poor qualifying to take the fourth place spot ahead of Repsol Honda rider, Andrea Dovizioso. Nicky Hayden, who started from the front row for the first time in his MotoGP career, managed a 6th place finish for the day.

Hayden's teammate Casey Stoner was not as fortunate. Stoner was among the fastest riders on the track throughout the weekend, but he'll walk away from the Indy GP with a DNF.

Spies has been the most talked about rookie this year, but Marco Simoncelli and Alvaro Bautista both had great races today at the Indy GP. Simoncelli and Bautista took 7th and 8th respectively, finishing ahead of Alex Espargaro and Hector Barbera, who rounded out the top ten.

On the overall standings, Lorenzo now has 251 points to Pedrosa's 183. The third place spot is currently held by Pedrosa's teammate, Dovizioso, but Casey Stoner is only 7 points behind. Valentino Rossi maintains his fifth place position, but Ben Spies is catching up to the veteran, and currently sits just 4 points back.

MotoGP - Indianapolis GP - Race Results