by Tracy Hagen

The second-half of the 2011 MotoGP season kicked-off in Laguna Seca, and in much the same way that the first-half started at Qatar with Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner a convincing winner, followed by Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo in second and Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa in third.

The 25-year old Australian wheelied his powerful Honda over the finish line after being frustrated in the last three races by tires and set-up issues. Stoner leads the championship by 20 points over Lorenzo.

Lorenzo’s race started off perfectly, as the world champion converted pole position into P1 and held it for the 26 laps of the 32 lap race. By lap 17 Lorenzo nearly had a full second over Pedrosa and Stoner. Then Stoner came alive, first swooping past Pedrosa on the inside as the pair were about to drop through the Corkscrew on lap 18. By lap 24 Stoner was less than two-tenths of a second behind Lorenzo even though Stoner was riding tighter lines than Lorenzo.

The pass for the lead, and the win, came at an improbable point of the track. Exiting the last turn, Lorenzo’s Yamaha started to slide away from him as the rear wheel spun up. Stoner pounced on luckless Lorenzo and aimed for an outside pass on the front straight. To pull off the pass, Stoner had to go beyond the demarcated track surface as Lorenzo moved all the way to the edge of the track. To be fair, Lorenzo’s line is the line he took on all previous laps. Riding across track, turf, and trash, Stoner passed Lorenzo right in front of the grandstands. It was a ballsy pass not unlike what Valentino Rossi did to Stoner at the Corkscrew in 2008.

Pedrosa, winner of the 2009 Laguna Seca GP as well was the race in Germany last Sunday, finished a solitary third.

Ben Spies was fourth overall, and the first of the four Americans. Spies started on the second row, right behind teammate Lorenzo, but did not get off the line quickly. Spies spent the first four laps making up for the poor start, and then the next 20 laps catching the lead group. Spies copped a pass on Honda’s Andrea Dovisioso for his hard work.

Sixth and seventh were the fickle factory Ducatis of Rossi and Nicky Hayden, respectively. Rossi, again, was on the GP11.1 evolution bike with a seamless transmission gear change, while Hayden raced his usual GP11.

Colin Edwards finished his uneventful race in eighth aboard the Tech 3 Monster Yamaha.

Ducati rookie Karel Abraham almost earned ninth but finished eleventh after his suspension broke on the penultimate lap. Hector Barbera (Ducati) and Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) completed the top ten.

Loris Capirossi finished twelfth and in pain, as his injured shoulder wasn’t fully recovered. His teammate, Randy De Puniet, scratched after crashing earlier in the weekend and picking up a few fractures.

Toni Elias, the Moto2 champion, started from the last row and finished last in perhaps his last race on the LCR Honda. Elias, a MotoGP winner in the 990cc era, was behind his guest teammate Ben Bostrom until ran off the track on lap 6, Turn 2. Bostrom quit the race soon after a second run-off two laps later.

The Laguna Seca cornerworkers had three visitors: Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha), Marco Simoncelli (Honda), and Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki). All three escaped injury.

The championship resumes at Brno on August 14, an event where mid-season motorcycle updates often appear. There are a lot of bikes needing such this year.