by Tracy Hagen

World Champion Jorge Lorenzo’s campaign to retain the MotoGP crown took a much needed turn for the better Sunday with a convincing win on his Yamaha over rivals Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner at Misano, round 13 of the 2011 championship. Lorenzo’s third victory of the year stopped Stoner’s three race win streak and cut the Australian’s points lead from 44 to 35.

Right up until the sighting lap everyone expected Stoner, starting from pole on a Honda, to run away with the race. Then spots of rain could be felt but not seen, and the speculation shifted to possibility of a wet race. Indeed, the track was declared wet before the race was a lap old. But neither Stoner or the weatherman were able to stop Lorenzo, who shot into the lead at Turn 1 and did not melt under the heat Stoner applied over the first ten laps. Then Stoner cooled off, and, on the record, cited his own physical condition rather than motorcycle set-up problems for his off-form ride. Stoner was eventually overtaken by teammate Pedrosa on lap 22 of 26 cruised home in third.

The biggest battle of the day was the race for fourth, which eventually went to Honda’s Marco Simoncelli. Fourth was initially owned by Andrea Dovisioso (Honda) who was chased by Ducati’s Valentino Rossi. Simoncelli passed Rossi at the end of the fourth lap with an aggressive but clean Rossi-esque pass on a that forced the Italian superstar to back-off to avoid contact with the Italian shooting-star. Simoncelli then passed Dovisioso on lap 7 with another clean pass. Ten laps later Simoncelli had a one second advantage on Dovisioso and looked relatively safe. But starting on lap 21 Dovisoso started to catch Simoncelli, and Yamaha’s Ben Spies was gaining ground as well. With four laps to go Simoncelli’s lead was a scant quarter-second and shrinking. Dovisioso’s first pass attempt on lap 25 failed, but the second attempt was a success. Dovisioso led for two laps, shadowed by Simoncelli and Spies. The final lap was all fireworks, with Simoncelli moving up to fourth, then back to sixth, and finally back to fourth. Brilliant.

Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista finished eighth after battling the Monster Yamaha’s of Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow. The two Yamahas slowed as the race went on, with Crutchlow getting passed by Hector Barbera (Ducati) with three laps to go. Edwards was passed by both plus Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) and Karel Abraham (Ducati) to finish a very disappointing thirteenth.

If Edwards was looking for a drinking buddy after the race, Loris Capirossi or Nicky Hayden would have made good choices. Capirossi pitted twice after getting extra media attention for announcing his retirement from motorcycle racing, while Hayden crashed out on the third lap while trying to make up for a miserable start.

Next race: Aragon, September 18