Lorenzo Outlasts the Competition at Indianapolis

photo courtesy of motogp.com

...While he was at it, he perfected what shall forever be known as the "Lorenzo Leap".

There's a certain amount of ridiculous available to the world of racing each weekend. The level of ridiculous is directly proportional to the number of races happening in said weekend. With the large number of big-time races happening this weekend, there was plenty to go around.

Unfortunately, the IRL and Formula 1 did not use their full allotment of ridiculous -- otherwise a non-big-two would've won Chicagoland and Giancarlo Fisichella would've passed Raîkkönen's Ferrari to win Belgium -- so the leftovers were released into the public domain. Since the MotoGP race at Indianapolis was the last major event of the weekend, it got its pick of the remains.

As such, the following happened. Dani Pedrosa, far and away fastest on the straightaways, made it down the main straight (quite quickly) three times as the leader before his bike slid out from under him in the final corner of lap 4. That left Yamaha buddies Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo to duke it out until lap 9, when the single most ridiculous racing-related incident of the weekend took place:

Valentino Rossi CRASHED!

Check it out, here's the proof!

So that left Jorge Lorenzo to, for the first time since the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, have a race all to himself.

Scoring one for the home team, for Ducati, and for his future employment, was Nicky Hayden. Hayden survived the race, passed Colin Edwards, and held off Andrea Dovizioso to land on the right side of that picture at the top, in third place. Of note: this was Ducati Corse's FIRST top-flight MotoGP podium by someone other than Casey Stoner -- impressive.

One thing Lorenzo understands fully is that victory at Indianapolis means you get to do this:

The final result:

1 J. LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 47'13.592
2 A. DE ANGELIS San Carlo Honda Gresini + 9.435
3 N. HAYDEN Ducati Team + 12.947
4 A. DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team + 13.478
5 C. EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 26.254
6 J. TOSELAND Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 32.408
7 L. CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 34.400
8 M. KALLIO Ducati Team + 34.856
9 T. ELIAS San Carlo Honda Gresini + 45.005
10 D. PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team + 45.377
11 C. VERMEULEN Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 45.478
12 R. DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP + 52.294
13 A. ESPARGARO Pramac Racing + 1'03.552
14 G. TALMACSI Scot Racing Team MotoGP + 1'15.086

Not classified
M. MELANDRI Hayate Racing Team 3 Lap
N. CANEPA Pramac Racing 5 Lap
V. ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 16 Lap