Spaniard Pedrosa wins second MotoGP race at Indianapolis

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo turned the Indianapolis Grand Prix into a two-man Spanish show Sunday.

Turns out, it wasn’t that close.

Pedrosa, the fastest rider all weekend, took the lead for good on the fourth of 28 laps and pulled away from Lorenzo and everyone else for a record-setting 10.823-second victory to become the first MotoGP rider to win Indy twice.

“It was a good weekend,” Pedrosa said after his second win of the season. “I think the bike was working well. We were spinning all of practice, but we had a good feeling. So today for the race I was confident.”

For Pedrosa, it was a picture-perfect trip to Indy.

The two-time MotoGP runner-up posted the fastest speed in Friday’s practice, set a new track record in the speed trap, became Indy’s first two-time pole winner with another record-setting performance Saturday and closed it out with yet another record showing Sunday.

He joins the list of Indy’s multiple winners, a list that includes prominent racing names such as A.J. Foyt, Jimmy Johnson and Michael Schumacher.

And he made it look easy.

Pedrosa fended off an early challenge from Ben Spies when the American dropped out on lap seven with a blown engine.

The only other challenge came from Lorenzo in the middle of the race — until Lorenzo got caught up in traffic and started having trouble with his rear tire. Lorenzo lost more than six full seconds over the final nine laps because of the tire problem.

The only other obstacle Pedrosa faced was self-induced.

“In the middle of the race, I made a mistake in turn two,” he said. “When I shifted again to first, the bike had a good kick on me and yeah, I almost lost control, but I kept the bike on the track. I lost one second on that lap.”