The US round has always given the MotoGP fans some of the best battles since its entry onto the MotoGP calendar in 2006. This year too the US round of the MotoGP World Championship witnessed the two title contenders Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner engaged in a furious dogfight for the 32-lap race. As the race started, Lorenzo was quick to bag the lead going into turn one while Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa got behind him in second followed by Casey Stoner. The Australian soon made his pass on his team-mate Pedrosa to take second and to prevent Lorenzo from escaping upfront.

The leading trio then distanced themselves from the remaining grid with Pedrosa running in third while Stoner staying close on the heels of Jorge Lorenzo. In fourth place it was Factory Yamaha’s Ben Spies showing strong pace on home soil while warding off attacks from Tech3 Monster Yamaha pair of Andrea Dovisioso in fifth and Cal Crutchlow in sixth. Stoner tried to make a move on Lorenzo on plenty of occasions and the Spaniard managed to keep his composure for 21-laps before giving into pressure from the Australian as the reigning world champion passed Lorenzo in one smooth maneuver to take the lead. Riding in third position, Dani Pedrosa tried to close in on the leading duo during their tussle but could not match the pace and had to stay put in third.

Once in the lead, Stoner, who was running soft compound Bridgestone rubber on both wheels, upped his pace and opened up a sizeable lead to take victory as the 32-lap race drew to an end followed by Lorenzo in second and Dani Pedrosa in third. Lap 21 saw some interesting changes as fourth placed Ben Spies crashed out of the race coming out of the corkscrew after the swingarm on his Yamaha YZR-M1 broke thus bringing an end to his possible third fourth place finish of the current season. With Spies out of contention, Tech3’s Dovizioso and Crutchlow moved up the order, both fighting hard for fourth but eventually the Italian Dovizioso managed to keep his place and finish in fourth while the Brit Crutchlow finished in fifth.

For sixth place, it was the pair of MotoGP rookie Stefan Bradl of LCR Honda and Ducati’s Nicky Hayden engaged in a nail-biting scrap, which was eventually won by the more experienced Nicky Hayden who passed Bradl with six laps remaining to finish in sixth while the German lad came in seventh. Finishing the list of top ten finishers were Alvaro Bautista of San Carlo Gresini in eighth, Aleix Espargaro riding for ART Power Electronics Aspar in ninth and Ducati mounted Karel Abraham of Cardion AB MotoRacing in tenth. Espargaro’s ninth was the first top ten finish for the CRT team in the debut season of the class and it helped the Spaniard level on points with Frenchman and CRT rival Randy de Puniet. Tenth place starter, Valentino Rossi expected to perform better with new parts on his Ducati race-machine yet again struggled on the American soil and eventually crashed out on the third last lap and suffered a DNF.