Two weeks ago we were in Brno, in the Czech Republic. DORNA logic sees us back in the United States just a month after racing at Laguna Seca in California before finally going back to Misano, just a couple of hundred miles from Brno on the Adriatic coast for the next round in just one week. Madness.

Indianapolis is the closest thing you'll find to an historic racetrack outside of Europe. It's also the highest seating capacity permanent sporting venue in the world, so whatever else you may want to say about it, they're clearly doing something right. Obviously the really big crowd draw is the Indy 500 car race which uses the speed bowl that goes around the outside. But the truly interesting racing happens on the relatively new infield circuit. It's a recent addition to the calendar there, too, with the first MotoGP in 2008 being the first time bikes had raced there since 1909.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson. Casey Stoner came back across the pond with a nearly unassailable lead in the championship. Though with the season as long as it now is there were still seven rounds to go - six after this weekend - so he needs a lead of a hundred and fifty one points to make the title his. That's going to take a while to achieve though of course as the number of races remaining goes down then the points buffer he needs reduces as well...

As if to prove a point, Stoner was second to local(ish) boy Ben Spies in the first free practice, taking the top step in the next two sessions. Colin Edwards was up there as well, showing that the Tech3 Yamaha is well sorted and that there's definitely life in the old dog yet. Dani Pedrosa, Marco Simoncelli and Jorge Lorenzo also made forays toward the top of the leaderboard, remaining within the top half dozen in each session. You may have noticed that Valentino Rossi hasn't appeared so far. The 2008 race winner, along with the rest of the Ducati camp, was having the usual torrid time, struggling with setup, a lack of grip and feel and general problems. Both Hayden and Rossi have asked Ducati for some major changes to try to make the bike less stiff, but at the moment their requests seem to have fallen on deaf ears. They managed fifth and sixth in the first session, but in truth never really threatened the leaders and as everyone else found their setup and upped the pace they essentially stayed still.

Qualifying is rather more important than practice, of course. Fora while we thought that Ducati had pulled something out of the bag as Rossi went to the top of the timesheet about six minutes in. Unfortunately he crashed shortly afterwards, showing just how hard he had to push the Ducati to get even close to a competitive lap. And Ben Spies relegated him to second under a minute later anyway, the Texan proving to be devastatingly fast around here. But not fast enough. Casey Stoner was the next to take the top spot, which he held for just over two minutes before beating it again and again. In total there were six fastest laps set after Spies, and all six were set by Stoner. Nobody else really got a look-in, though Ben Spies continued to push hard and keep the Australian honest, ending up just half a second slower, a quarter of a second ahead of his team-mate Lorenzo who closed off the front row. Row two was headed by Pedrosa, just over a second off pole, with Dovizioso and Colin Edwards alongside him. Row three had Marco Simoncelli one point three seconds off pole ahead of Nicky Hayden and the ever improving Alvaro Bautista. And the top ten was completed by Hector Barbera, just ahead of Cal Crutchlow and Randy de Puniet, still less than two seconds off pole in twelfth place. And Valentino Rossi? The Doctor found himself fourteenth, over two seconds off the pole time. Not what he signed up for I suspect.

Race day turned out to be warm and dry. No sign of Hurricane Irene spoiling things in the way that Ike did in 2008. Warmup saw Ben Spies go fastest with Pedrosa, Stoner and Lorenzo all within touching distance. Nicky hayden seemed to be having a slightly better time of it in fifth while Rossi also improved to tenth. Rossi improved to tenth. That's not something I ever expected to write, or something I like writing, to be honest.

But of course warmup means approximately nothing whatsoever. There are no points aside from the psychological ones gained by going faster than everyone else. Best get on with the racing, then.

Lights out and it should come as no surprise to read that Dani Pedrosa got the holeshot from the second row, with Lorenzo right behind him. Ben Spies got mugged in the first corner and dropped right back. But look at the replay that's not fair. He basically got rammed by Dovizioso in a spectacularly dirty piece of riding that sat him up and pushed him wide on the basis that he didn't have a choice. If Simoncelli had done that I'm sure someone (not Spies) would have complained but as it is things just ran on and the Texan ended up in tenth place with a lot of work to do. End of the first lap, then, saw Pedrosa leading Lorenzo and Stoner from Nicky Hayden, Marco Simoncelli and Andrea Dovizioso. Alvaro Bautista got a good start with the Suzuki, ahead of Colin Edwards who ended the lap ahead of Spies, Rossi (in tenth) and Hector Barbera.

Stoner despatched Lorenzo on the second lap and set off after the rapidly disappearing Pedrosa, while the World Champion got the opportunity to play with his favourite other rider as Marco Simoncelli climbed all over the back of the Yamaha in a vain attempt to get past. Behind them another scrap was going on between Hayden and Dovizioso, at least one of the Ducatis working reasonably well at this early stage while Spies was heading toward the front, fuelled on adrenaline and, I suspect, some quite justified annoyance.

It took six laps for Stoner to reel Pedrosa in and pass him. I'd love to say that there was a titanic scrap but there wasn't. It was a clean pass and the Australian immediately opened a gap. There was a bit more action going on behind as Lorenzo continued to fend off Simoncelli's advances but the Italian's tyres were going off fast on the abrasive surface and he dropped off the pace shortly after. Hayden got past Dovizioso after a few laps trying and was looking good until his soft front tyre went off and he dropped rapidly back, eventually having to pit in. Being the pro he is, though, he came back out on a new tyre and battled on to pick up a couple of points for coming in fourteenth and last, a whole four minutes behind the leader. A couple of laps earlier Valentino Rossi had the unnerving experience of hitting a false neutral whic caused the bike to run wide and off the track, dropping him to last place. It happened a few more times, though without the dramatic consequences, which must have caused him to be a little circumspect if nothing else and makes his ultimate tenth place finish rather more impressive than it might otherwise appear.

Ben Spies rode like a lion. No other way to describe it. I alwoays knew he wa sgood, but to come back up through the field in the way he did was something a bit special. Lap seventeen saw him pass Lorenzo after a few laps setting it up to take the bottom step of the podium. And so it stayed. Though there were flashes of brilliance and the occasional burst of action, like most MotoGP rounds at the moment it was essentially processional and rather unexciting. Stoner's utter dominance makes for unexciting, uninvolving viewing, while the reduced field means that halfway through the race everyone is spread out and riding essentially alone. So we had another slightly dull affair. Stoner eased right off in the last few laps, crossing the line four seconds ahead of Pedrosa. Spies had the pace to match the lead pair but didn't have the time to catch them, finishing six seconds behind Pedrosa despite lapping half a second quicker, while Lorenzo was also suffering from tyre problems and almost fell victim to a last minute surge by Dovizioso. Alvaro Bautista rode perfectly to take the Suzuki to its best race result for a long time. Well earned ffor a realy nice guy and the most professional yet friendly team in the paddock. Colin Edwards was a solid seventh ahead of the leading Ducati of Randy de Puniet and Hiroshi Aoyama on the San Carlo Honda whose smoother style meant that his tyres lasted better.

We're on the way to Misano now. It's Rossi's home town, and if Ducati don't pull something out of the bag there then we may well see bloodshed.

See you there.

Result

1 Casey Stoner (Honda)
2 Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
3 Ben Spies (Yamaha)
4 Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
5 Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)
6 Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki)
7 Colin Edwards (Yamaha)
8 Randy de Puniet (Ducati)
9 Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda)
10 Valentino Rossi (Ducati)

Championship Standing after twelve rounds:

1 Casey Stoner 243
2 Jorge Lorenzo 199
3 Andrea Dovizioso 174
4 Dani Pedrosa 130
5 Ben Spies 125
6 Valentino Rossi 124
7 Nicky Hayden 105
8 Colin Edwards 84
9 Marco Simoncelli 80
10 Hiroshi Aoyama 77

SB