Indianapolis. One of the most famous circuits in the World, even if it is mainly for the oval based racing that takes place using far too many wheels. Though of course there is a long and glorious history of motorbike racing here as well, both on the oval and the infield circuit. It's the place where Barry Sheene had his infamous high speed blowout which first put him into the headlines in the UK for anything other than his racing and marketing skills. It's also the place where Valentino Rossi won in hurricane conditions a couple of years ago. And where the same genius fell off in an unforced error last year.

The Brickyard, as it's known, is a tight, technical circuit with a couple of high speed sections. It's essentially flat, though as bumpy as anything and the surface is unpredictable, especially when the weather changes. Which it does, frequently. In short, it is not an easy circuit to learn, or to ride well. Getting that last few percent requires an enormous amount of skill, an extremely well set up machine, tyres working perfectly and, frankly, a considerable amount of courage. Even that isn't necessarily going to be enough.

Free practice was dominated by Casey Stoner, the Australian seeming to have finally found a setting on the Ducati which works, at least at first. All the usual suspects were also gathering around the top, of course, with Pedrosa, Dovizioso and Lorenzo all having a peep at the top of the board before being usurped. Nicky Hayden, Ben Spies and Colin Edwards were all looking strong at their second home round, too, while Valentino Rossi, still not fully fit, sat at the back of the leading group. Rossi has been struggling to find a setup that works for him since his accident. Perhaps some of the legendary self confidence has been dented, perhaps the bike really isn't working quite as well. Just possibly, The Doctor has realised than actually he doesn't have to stick his neck out any more - he could just retire and live his days in luxury. But I suspect that the bike just isn't working for him, a theory borne out by the fact that the World Champion crashed out in practice, unhurt but certainly unimpressed.

Of course, free practice doesn't count for a great deal, as I believe I may have mentioned once or twice. Qualifying raised a few eyebrows as local (well, relatively local) boy Ben Spies took steps to ensure that Yamaha didn't have any regrets about giving him a full factory ride next season by sticking the satellite Tech3 machine on pole. Which is pretty impressive considering that the second placed rider, Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo, was a full two tenths of a second slower on the pukka factory machine. More usual in terms of gap, though a best for him, was the couple of thousandths between Lorenzo and third placed Nicky Hayden. Hayden has never qualified the Ducati on the front row, so to do so at home (or, again, as close to at home as he'll get) was a real treat. Andrea Dovizioso took his turn at the top of the timesheet, but the ultimate pace of the hour long session was too much, and the Italian ended up heading the second row from his team-mate, while Casey Stoner finished sixth, slithering the Ducati around in an attempt to improve and nearly coming to grief but getting nowhere fast.

Someone else who pushed as hard as possible was Valentino Rossi. Rossi, though, pushed a little bit further and had his second crash of the weekend with just five minutes to go. No injuries again, but seventh isn't where we expect The Doctor to be sat on the grid. Marco Simoncelli joined Rossi in the gravel in the dying moments of the session, qualifying eighth ahead of Colin Edwards who remained surprisingly up-beat and was looking forward to the race as his setup on race rubber (as opposed to qualifiers) looked pretty good.

Race day dawned clear, sunny, dry and hot. Really hot. Uncharacteristically hot. The Indianapolis circuit is notoriously unpredictable for grip, and as the heat and humidity both ramped up the circuit became less and less grippy. As demonstrated by Valentino Rossi, who was running second fastest behind Pedrosa when he slid off for the third time, managing to get back to the pits and continue the session, albeit ending up further down the table than might be expected.

But as we all know, all warmup really serves to do is remind the riders which way the track goes and make a final check on settings. It really has no significance outside of head games. No, on Sunday there's only one thing that counts. The race.

Lights out and although Pedrosa made a brilliant start as usual, it was Dovizioso who ended up as the leading Honda behind the on-a-mission Ben Spies and ahead of Nicky hayden and Dani Pedrosa. Jorge Lorenzo, unusually, got a poor start and dropped back some way, regrouping and ending the lap fifth, just ahead of Valentino Rossi. Spies, meanwhile, opened a half second gap over Dovizioso in just one lap. Impressive indeed. Marco Melandri made a great start, too, slotting in behind Rossi and looking great on his two hundredth GP. Unfortunately that only lasted a lap and half, as he lost the front turning in and exited in a cloud of dust, gravel chippings and small bits of carbon fibre. The lead group didn't break straight away from the rest of the pack, and though Spies was really pushing hard to try to gap Dovizioso he couldn't quite do so. But Pedrosa managed to bridge the gap between himself and his team-mate and on lap four he just powered past and set off after Spies. At around the same time, Rossi got past Hayden, who seemed to be struggling with the Ducati, as were most of the other Ducati riders. A couple of laps later, Casey Stoner, recovering from a truly diabolical start, slipped past his team-mate before losing the front and sliding out in a rather messy, though happily painless, style. Further back, Colin Edwards had gone for the hardest tyre available and, while the logic was impeccable, the fact was the decision hadn't paid off. He pitted to change tyres, immediately produced a competitive laptime but at two laps down decided to preserve his precious engine and retired. Probably a wise choice but unfortunate for such a talented rider to be in the middle of such a run of poor luck.

Back up at the front, Dani Pedrosa finally closed Ben Spies down and slipped past, clean as you like, to take the lead. But Spies wasn't broken, and kept the pressure up with a view to getting back in front. To no avail, though. Pedrosa and Spies were in a class of their own, at least for a while, opening a gap over the rest of the field, but Pedrosa's Honda definitely had the legs over the Yamaha and the Spaniard inexorably pulled clear. Behind, Jorge Lorenzo was remaining clear of Rossi, though there was no sign of a breakaway. Both were extending their lead over Hayden and closing on Dovizioso. But that Honda is fast, and it took all Lorenzo's considerable skill to get past. It then took Rossi a few more laps to close the gap and pass the Honda, by which stage his lack of fitness was taking a toll and he couldn't push to catch Lorenzo. Which was interesting, because he was lapping at an almost identical pace, suggesting that if he had been fit then he might have been on the podium.

While this was going on, Mika Kallio was crashing his Ducati in an almost identical manner to Stoner, Alvaro Bautista was riding the wheels off the Suzuki dicing with Marco Simoncelli and Hiroshi Aoyama, in his first race since his return from injury, was battling along bravely ahead of Randy de Puniet at the back.

So a race which on paper looks rather dull, with very little position swapping and quite big gaps between riders managed, against all odds, to be interesting to watch. I'm not sure why. Dani Pedrosa finished first, breaking his perceived limit of two wins a season and closing the championship gap on Jorge Lorenzo by nine points. Ben Spies finished second, his best result to date, comfortably ahead of Lorenzo in third, his worst result of the season. Valentino Rossi came in fourth, a fair result after a torrid start to the weekend, while Nicky Hayden did well to get the recalcitrant Ducati in sixth behind Dovizioso. Hayden's campaign was hindered somewhat by his left knee slider coming off in the early stages of the race and flapping uselessly around, tantalisingly out of reach to replace or ditch completely, for the rest of the time.

So that's really closed things up in the championship. Lorenzo now only has a sixty eight point lead. It may be huge, but with seven rounds still to go there's a potential hundred and seventy five points on offer so all he needs is an injury and... Perhaps more interesting is the scrap beginning for third place. Just seventeen points separate third place Dovizioso from seventh place Nicky Hayden. That's pretty easy to make up...

Next week we're in Misano. Well, you are. We're at the Nurburgring for SBK. But we'll be there in spirit. Enjoy!

SB

US MotoGP Results

1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
2. Ben Spies (Yamaha)
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
4. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)
6. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)
7. Marco Simoncelli (Honda)
8. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki)
9. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati)
10. Hector Barbera(Ducati)

MotoGP standings (after eleven rounds)

1. Jorge Lorenzo 251
2. Dani Pedrosa 183
3. Andrea Dovizioso 126
4. Casey Stoner 119
5. Valentino Rossi 114
6. Ben Spies 110
7. Nicky Hayden 109
8. Randy de Puniet 78
9. Marco Simoncelli 63
10. Marco Melandri 61