Dan used the following kit to get these shots:

• Nikon D200
• Nikon D70
• Nikon 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED (aka Nikon D80 kit lens)
• Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX
• Nikon SB-600 Speedlight

Clicking on the images will display a higher resolution version.

Rossi can’t help himself: Karting, Laguna Seca 2009.

Canepa, Turn 2, Laguna Seca 2009.

Nicky Hayden, Laguna Seca 2009.

The leaders, Laguna Seca 2009.

Jorge Lorenzo, Laguna Seca 2009.

Dani Pedrosa, Laguna Seca 2009.

As a result, the top score last week was a meagre 4 points. All of the top three punters were Hayden stalwarts and picked up three points for their Nicky Minella (remember that name if you ever have kids @daveminella!) and a single point for their podium predictions. Congratulations to @bonadjalins, @harleymac1, and @danzero: you all win a copy of Ring of Fire. Details of how to claim your prize at the end of this post.

I also have a prize for the most inventive Minella at Laguna. Honorable mentions go to @johnchapin and @leighberwick who really pushed the boat out with mentions of vomit on the racing line and the degree to which Edwards would strip if he won the race (just half-way ladies!). In the end though, I was unable to separate the top two entrants: @pintoffuc and @daveminella: you both win a copy of Ring of Fire. Here are their entries in all their glory:

@pintoffuc: Hayden above 8th, Melandri below 6th, Vermeulen above Capirossi, Gibernau last, Pedrosa overtakes 1 or + at the start, Lorenzo loses 1 or + at the start, At the end Rossi and Dovizioso wheelie on finish line, Lorenzo stand-up wheelies on finish line and then shakes left fist. Lorenzo sets his flag on Turn 5 and Rossi climbs podium left-foot first.

Chosen for the mix of finish position, start stats, celebration predictions and even which foot first on the podium.

@DaveMinella: In 2008, there were four different manufacturers in the top four spots. This will not happen in 2009.
None of the top four finishers will be from the same country.
There will be at least two crashes. None will occur on the same lap. All will be single-bike incidents.
There are five riders who’ve ridden in all four Laguna races since 05 (Hayden, Edwards, Melandri, Capirossi, Rossi). They all will finish the race.

Chosen for the depth of research done to support the Minella, the use of manufacturer positions and the idea of the delta on last year’s race.

If you are one of the lucky winners, please use Twitter to direct message @motogpblog with your email address. I’ll then contact you directly to sort out the delivery of your prize.

UPDATE: David also took a host of pictures through the weekend.

While qualifying sessions for a MotoGP race are always exciting, they also usually provide a good glimpse into what to expect for the race itself. A statement made in qualifying can usually be backed up in the race, and riders having trouble rarely make a significant improvement prior to the race. Qualifying at this year’s Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca however, left everyone with more questions than answers. Eugene Laverty summed it up fairly well in his tweet on Saturday, “@eugenelaverty: 800s decided they’d had enough & acted like 500s tonight.”

While it started off fairly tame with a sole crash from Talmacsi, by the end of the session, there were MotoGP bikes flying everywhere. Lorenzo, apparently not satisfied with his first off in turn 10, took a spectacular flight through the air in the exact same spot after setting the fastest lap so far, and catapulted himself a good distance down the road landing very hard on the pavement in a very scary crash. Stoner, having been off the track at least once before in the session, managed to follow Lorenzo into the air a few minutes later in turn three. Both men were carried off in stretchers – Lorenzo in obvious agony as he tried to walk away and then failed, and Stoner simply not trying to get up.

When the checkers flew for the session, two of the top three qualifiers, including the pole man Jorge Lorenzo, were highly questionable for the race. Valentino Rossi, who was strong all weekend so far, aside from changing bikes at least four times during qualifying, held second position over Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, who set quiet but fast laps all session, ended in fourth.

The two Americans were fairly grumpy. Colin Edwards, coming off a very strong showing in Assen, couldn’t get the front end of his bike to work and ended in seventh and Nicky Hayden who was visibly angry on Friday, managed to get up to eighth, but you could see he expected more. He still found time to work hard for the fans, however.
No one was sure whether or not Lorenzo or Stoner would be able to start the race. And, if they did, what kind of shape would they be in? Questions.

Race day showed the fortitude of both front-row starters who went down on Saturday, with Jorge being almost literally carried to his bike. Many were understandably predicting a repeat of the “Rossi Show” from Assen. Little Dani had other ideas however.

When the lights went out, Dani rocketed to the front leaving Rossi, Stoner, Lorenzo and Dovizioso chasing hard. Also notable, were Elias and Hayden, who managed to get away with the leaders. Elias was right there behind Dovi and Lorenzo with a small gap back to Hayden.

Rossi and Stoner would change places a few times on the first few laps trying to hunt down Dani, as would Lorenzo and Dovizioso. Hayden stayed consistent and slowly made up the ground to the lead pack.

With 26 laps to go, the Repsol Honda front end issues that had plagued both Dani and Dovi in previous races reared it’s ugly head again when Dovi threw it away in turn six ending his race. Following the race, Dovi admitted that he had damaged his clutch lever on the cones n the front straight trying to pass Valentino early in the race which made it hard for him to manage the engine braking. Another question added to the list: “Would Dani’s front end last the race?”

On the next lap, Gibernau ended his somewhat lackluster effort at Laguna losing the front end at turn eleven and Capirossi also called it a day with mechanical problems. Attrition was mounting.
With Dovi out of the way, Lorenzo started to focus on Rossi and Stoner in front of him, slowly closing the gap, and Hayden, showing his best form of the season, got around Elias for fifth. Meanwhile, Dani kept building a gap at the front.

Eight laps in, it was Pedrosa, followed by a small gap back to Stoner and Rossi, another gap of about three seconds back to Lorenzo, then another few seconds back to Hayden and Elias. Rossi would wait another two laps before making a nice move inside Stoner at turn six to take second and start to try and close the almost four second gap to Pedrosa.

Meanwhile, back in the pits, Toseland was black flagged for a jump-start followed by failing to take his ride-through penalty within three laps. Riders out so far: Talmcsi, Dovizioso, Gibernau, Capirossi and Toseland.

With twelve laps to go, Stoner’s “Phantom Menace” would start to show again while, at the same time, whatever go-fast juice Dr. Costa injected into Lorenzo started kicking in and Jorge closed the gap to Stoner and threw a nice pass on him at turn eleven taking third place. Jorge was on fire. Once past Stoner, he wasted no time closing several tenths per lap on Rossi. With five to go, Lorenzo was right on Rossi’s tail and, waiting very late on the brakes going into turn eleven, tried a misjudged pass and almost went down in the attempt. Rossi waited for Lorenzo’s bucking bike to slide by then turned under him and left him back in third place. Lorenzo had made his move and blew it. He would have to settle for third.

With three to go, Pedrosa had a two second gap on Rossi, followed by Lorenzo, a fading Stoner and then a consistent Hayden and Elias. It would seem all was done, except for the fact that somehow, Pedrosa grossly overestimated his gap and backed way off on the last lap. Rossi sensed the mistake, hit the afterburners down the hill following the corkscrew, managed to almost close the gap by turn ten and came into the last corner right on his tail, leg off and waving wildly as he tried to make it work in the last corner and do to Dani what he had done to Jorge in Catalunya. He came up about a foot short and a surprised Dani Pedrosa managed to hold on for the win just ahead of Rossi.

Following the race, it looked as if Stoner was closer to death than he had been the prior day following the crash and Lorenzo couldn’t even hold the bottle of champagne on the podium. In stark contrast however, Nicky Hayden had a smile as big as the carbon fiber swing arm on his Ducati and for once Dani Pedrosa cracked a grin.

Final Results:
1. Dani Pedrosa - Honda
2. Valentino Rossi – Yamaha
3. Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha
4. Casey Stoner – Ducati
5. Nicky Hayden – Ducati
6. Tony Elias – Honda
7. Colin Edwards – Yamaha
8. Chris Vermeulen – Suzuki
9. Randy De Puniet – Honda
10. Marco Melandri – Kawasaki
11. Alex De Angelis – Honda
12. Niccolo Canepa – Ducati
13. Andrea Dovizioso – Honda (DNF)
14. Sete Gibernau – Ducati (DNF)
15. Loris Capirossi – Suzuki (DNF)
16. Gabor Talmacsi – Honda (DNF)
17. James Toseland – Yamaha (DQ)

The MotoGPBlog Man of the Weekend is a real tough one for Laguna Seca. Local emotion would dictate Nicky Hayden for his best race of the season and first real competitive race since starting his ride with Ducati. The heart of the racer would force one to lean towards Jorge Lorenzo for getting back on his bike and putting in a seriously competitive race in the face of obviously serious and painful injuries. However, the real Man of the Weekend, as difficult as it is for me to admit, has to go to Dani Pedrosa. Not because he won the race, but because he dominated the race in the face of his recent front-end woes and after being almost completely ignored by both the media and the pundits for his chances this weekend. He even managed to ignore a very distracting manager who did his best to climb out onto the track in the middle of the race to help his little friend along (We were taking up a collection in the suite for the man who had the guts to go out there and “help” Puig onto the track before the race ended.)

So, all the questions were answered. Yes, both Jorge and Casey managed to race, but neither managed to grab one of the top two spots. Nicky managed to get a much better grip on his Ducati and put in a very respectable race. Edwards never really managed to get a grip in the front end of his Yamaha. Rossi could not repeat the go-show from Assen. And, yes boys and girls, the front end of the Honda managed to hang in there and help propel Dani Pedrosa to an impressive and well-deserved victory at Laguna Seca.

The Championship points are still very close with only 16 points separating the top three. Any one of the three top men still has a good chance of pulling it off. Next up: German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.

A poor start did for Lorenzo. He kept his composure to minimise the damage by fighting his way past determined Hondas and a Ducati, but he was never able to match Rossi for pace. An ill Stoner and disappointed Edwards followed in 3rd and 4th, with a season-best for Vermeulen in 5th.

The Hondas both fell at the same corner, in the same way: a front-end wash-out. The revised chassis available to the Repsol riders seems not to be working with the Bridgestones as yet. It is now 12 months since Honda last won a race, and this is not something that HRC will be happy to tolerate, made worse by the double DNF.

Beyond this, the race was for 6th, with Toseland, Capirossi, de Puniet, Kallio, Hayden and Elias in a race-long joust for the points. Toseland would lead the scrap for most of the race, with Mika gaining a brief advantage occasionally. On the final lap, Kallio would fall, and Capirossi and Elias would make their play for 6th. The final chicane would see Elias run hot into it, forcing his bike and Capirex onto the gravel, allowing JT and de Puniet to pounce and gain the spoils. It was a race-long battle as intriguing as most, with that final chicane again throwing up surprises for the race finish. Happiest of all of these riders will be Nicky Hayden, for once controlling a bike which allowed him to express some portion of his talent.

MotoGPBlog Man of the Weekend: Valentino Rossi, of course. The Centenary Man.

Prizes will be awarded as follows:
Top three scorers for the round (not overall) will win a copy of Ring of Fire.
The most inventive Minella entry in MotoGPBlog’s opinion will also win a copy.

In the event of a tie in scoring for the round, position in the overall championship standings will be used to determine the winners - the higher placed entrant getting the prize.

Get thinking of those Minellas now!

I also need to mention @jeffritter955 with an awesome 21 point Minella, predicting the top ten placings. Brave man. @pintoffuc is also up there as usual with a six-parter, 18 pointer.

Other than that, Dani is conspicuously absent from the picks, with Dovi being the Honda of choice. Speaking of choice, what is your pick? Enter via twitter, and check the rules.

From the off, five riders were in the hunt for the podium: Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner, Pedrosa and Dovizioso. The speed of Pedrosa was amazing, given the pain and medication he is currently in and on, his tumble in QP not helping his recover at all. His challenge for the front positions was to fade as the race progressed, as tiredness grew and drugs wore off. He would finish a creditable 6th.

Another man suffering was Casey Stoner, starting the day ill with cramps in his legs and back. He would battle race-long with Dovizioso and win out over the young Italian, but pay the price in exhaustion. Barely able to stand in the winners enclosure, his third place was a testament to the Australian’s tough and uncompromising character. He gave his all.

Up at the front, it was all about Rossi and Lorenzo. Laps one to three, Lorenzo lead. Laps four to twelve we Rossi’s, and thirteen to 22 were Lorenzo’s. Whoever was in front pushed hard, evidenced by the dangling legs of both riders on corner entry. When trailing, both riders seemed more composed and able to keep the pace of the leader. As a result, neither could escape and the gap was seldom above a quarter of a second.

Rossi, having watched Lorenzo for nine laps, made his move to break Jorge in the midst of lap 23. It was almost like vintage Rossi, playing with his opponent before executing a carefully planned, devastating overtaking manoeuvre to dispatch his opponent once and for all. Rossi made his pass on the start/finish straight, drafting past Lorenzo and leaving his braking very late. JL kept his head and a tighter line, soon closing the small gap Valentino had opened. He would be in Rossi’s slipstream for the straight, passing him on the inside after the line so the stats. show Rossi leading the lap. Lorenzo then moved back to the racing line in the braking zone for turn 1, only to have Rossi outbrake him right on the outside. So far out to the edge of the track was Rossi that was out on the rumblestrip and had to pull in his knee to get through on Lorenzo, see the first picture in this post. It was a high-risk pass, and he looked to have run wide, but somehow between his Yamaha’s front set-up and the Bridgestone front, he forced the bike around the right-hander. Lorenzo continued to hunt him down, remaining calm and close. Half-way through the lap and Rossi appeared to brake test Lorenzo to unsettle him two corners from the back straight, and gain enough of a lead to prevent the draught-pass. It did not work.

The Last Lap
It will probably be the lap of the season. It will be long remembered as a classic, clean contest between two riders at the top of their game.

Lorenzo passed Rossi on the straight, again after the start-finish line and this time did not allow Rossi the room for his cheeky knee-in move. They were side-by-side through turn 1, Rossi trying to hold position for the inside of turn 2. Lorenzo reads this and slams the door shut, forcing Rossi to back off and gaining a valuable tenth. Through turn 3 now, and Lorenzo remains composed, although his body language on the bike shows the effort he is putting in. Hanging off the bike so much his head is level and almost below his throttle hand on the right-hander, there is not doubt he is at 100%.

Turn 4 and Rossi stuffs it up the inside in a classic block-pass manoeuvre, but success is short-lived. Before the corner is over, VR has run wide and Lorenzo needs no second invite to swing back inside to regain the lead.

Lorenzo makes his Yamaha as wide as he can, and through turns 5 to 9 there is nothing Rossi can do. Now onto the short back straight to turn 10 and Lorenzo takes a very defensive inside line into the achingly long turn 10. Rossi is forced wide and again has to concede the corner to Lorenzo.

The lap is fast reaching it’s conclusion, with just turns 11, 12 and 13 remaining. Lorenzo holds his line in 11 and 12, and leads onto the minuscule straight joining 12 to 13. He maintains the racing line, brakes and tips it in. “Nobody passes here,” he must have said to himself “I have this won” only to have Rossi fly past on the inside in a crazy move that was, to all intents and purposes, win it or bin it. That Yamaha front end worked again well, for although Rossi’s corner speed was slower than Lorenzo, who almost collided with Rossi at the apex, he was baulked sufficiently to cause a momentary hesitation and win the race by less than a 1/100th of a second.

Fantastic racing, fantastic skill, and a fantastic spectacle. Rossi has a challenger in Lorenzo who will not be easily cowed and has comparable skill and machinery. A statistic bandied about before the race was that Rossi has been beaten by his team mate 12 times in the MotoGP class. Six of these have been by Lorenzo. True, for many of Rossi’s races his team mate was Edwards, who you could say was fairly unlikely to challenge Valentino in this way. With Lorenzo, Yamaha have a second, strong championship challenger who is not there to make Valentino look good. Ducati must be very jealous.

As if to help silence the critics who’ve begun to cast off Grand Prix motorcycle racing as a boring spectacle, Mother Nature has decided to step in this season to add a little bit of excitement to the grid. The rain-drenched first race at Losail was a harbinger of what the weather was to bring to the other tracks at least during the first half of the MotoGP season, and the Le Mans debacle gave us a reason to scratch our heads at the lack of options the teams were given from the back of the Bridgestone truck. Although, for many teams and riders, the French Grand Prix was a demonstration of what not to do during a changing-condition, flag-to-flag race, it seems to have served as a valuable lesson in how to race in wet-to-dry conditions. The entire field seems to have brought those lessons with them to Mugello, and this stop on the MotoGP calendar was anything but boring.

Jorge Lorenzo was the first near-casualty of the early portion of the race as he went down in turn two of the sighting lap. He barely had time to switch bikes, and when he took his position on the grid, he was still covered in fresh dirt. New bike, new tires and a few bumps and bruises all contributed to a horrible start, and he was unable to gain traction when the red lights went off, quickly going backwards from pole position. In what would be another of the afternoon’s surprises, Randy De Puniet briefly took the hole shot before being passed by several riders, including Rizla Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen who charged from the 11th spot to take the lead. The Repsol Hondas fought hard for second, as Lorenzo found himself way back in the pack, trying to play catch up.

Marco Melandri was once again out to prove he could ride the Hayate as he quickly began to move up from 15th. After four laps in front, Vermeulen couldn’t hang on as the track began to dry and lost positions to both Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso. With 20 laps remaining, Lorenzo found the throttle as he set the fastest lap with Melandri all over his rear tire. On the same lap, Stoner lost the battle for the lead to a hard-charging Dovizioso.

Lap five would find the first rider in the pits as James Toseland came in for a tire change. The early switch would pay off as JT heated the new slicks up quickly and began to make his way back up through the field. Melandri wouldn’t let the Spaniard on the Fiat Yamaha go without a fight, as #33 and #99 knocked each other around the corners. With 18 to go, Vermeulen’s shimmer of glory in what may very well be his last season in MotoGP began to fade just as Valentino Rossi began to make his move. By lap six, Rossi had moved into the second spot while Melandri found himself in sixth position and would soon make quick work of Casey Stoner to move into third behind the #46 and #4 machines. Pramac Ducati’s Nicolo Canepa was the second rider to switch bikes as he came in on lap seven. Hayden & De Puniet followed suit on lap eight.

With 16 to go, the top three were Rossi, Dovizioso and Melandri. Melandri passed Dovi on the next lap, and the Repsol rider subsequently peeled off for a bike change. Pedrosa, Capirossi, Edwards and De Angelis came in as well on lap nine. With 14 to go, Alex De Angelis put his Honda down in the gravel as Melandri took the lead from Rossi. One lap later, Melandri, Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner and Elias came in putting an end to Melandri hopes for a victory and even a podium finish.

Once back on the track, the #33 Hayate began to fade fast just as Toseland was setting the field’s fastest lap times. Dovi took the lead on lap 11, and at the halfway point, Melandri was already back to the sixth spot. Yuki Takahashi took this opportunity to exit the race as he also decided to introduce the shiny side of his Honda to the asphalt. With 11 to go, Dani Pedrosa went down hard as Stoner and then Capirossi edged out Dovi for the one and two spots. Two laps later, Capirex took the lead from the Australian and held it for the next two trips around the circuit, but it just wasn’t to be as the Italian veteran lost a spot to Stoner, then Lorenzo, then Rossi and, finally, a last-lap pass by fellow Italian, Andrea Dovizioso, knocked the Suzuki off the podium. Ducati rider Casey Stoner led Lorenzo and Rossi past the checkered flag giving Ducati its first Mugello win in the 800cc era and giving Valentino Rossi his first loss at the track since he crashed out with two laps remaining in 2001.

The final results for Mugello are as follows:

1 27 Casey Stoner, Ducati
2 99 Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha
3 46 Valentino Rossi, Yamaha
4 4 Andrea Dovizioso, Honda
5 65 Loris Capirossi, Suzuki
6 5 Colin Edwards, Yamaha
7 52 James Toseland, Yamaha
8 14 Randy De Puniet, Honda
9 88 Nicolo Canepa, Ducati
10 7 Chris Vermeulen, Suzuki
11 33 Marco Melandri, Hayate (Kawasaki)
12 69 Nicky Hayden Ducati
13 36 Mika Kallio, Ducati
14 24 Toni Elias, Honda
15 15 Alex De Angeles, Honda
Not Classified
3 Dani Pedrosa, Honda
72 Yuki Takahashi, Honda

It’s difficult to judge who was deserving of the rider of the weekend honors, as there were more than a few moments of glory from riders on every type of machine. Of course, Loris Capirossi showed that he still has some fight left in him as he brilliantly held off charges from the series leaders. Perhaps age or perhaps the under-performing Suzuki is to blame for his late-race fade to fifth. James Toseland deserves a nod for his run from 15th to seventh, and even Randy De Puniet’s eight place finish should be looked at as the Frenchman seems to have forgotten how to crash this season, and currently finds himself in the top 10 in points. Melandri’s charge to the front was spectacular, and had the conditions remained wet, there’s no telling what would have happened with him as well as with Vermeulen. But, the MotoGPBlog Man of the Weekend award for Mugello goes to Jorge Lorenzo who came back from a sighting-lap crash and a horrible launch to regain second place. My black eye for the weekend goes to Ducati, which managed to take away Rossi’s Mugello crown, but once again only barely managed to keep another machine in the top 10.

Next up is Catalunya, where Dani Pedrosa shined last year. Casey Stoner, Loris Capirossi and Valentino Rossi have both stood atop the GP podium, but Jorge Lorenzo, Marco Melandri, Randy De Puniet and Andrea Dovizioso have won there on 250s. The weather shouldn’t play a role in Northern Spain, but with the way this season has started out, nothing is guaranteed.

Our current top two (@DaveMinella and @rumblestrip) scored a big, fat zero so the gap has closed at the top of the overall standings to just 8 points, 3rd to 6th putting pressure on the leaders.

Picks for Catalunya are being accepted from the 7th June, so start your research now! We’re going to have some prizes for round winners in July - watch this space for more news.