My prediction ended up being almost as wrong as a prediction can be!
The race started out as a battle between Pedrosa, Rossi, and Lorenzo. It was obvious early in the race that one of these three would be the winner because they just walked away from the rest of the field.
The first wrinkle came when Pedrosa crashed early in the race. That meant it would be a Rossi/Lorenzo battle and I settled in to watch.
The second wrinkle came soon after Pedrosas crash when Rossi crashed! It was a crazy crash. As he was entering a turn on the brakes his front wheel locked and he want down instantly and hard with the bike making a Fourth of July worthy shower of sparks.
From that point on it was Lorenzo 10 to 12 seconds ahead of the rest. There was nobody else that even had a chance of catching him. The most entertaining part of the race was watching Pedrosa starting in last place 28 seconds behind the next rider move up to 11th place.
It would have been great to see the three battle it out, and even better if Stoner had been there, but nobody else could even think about challenging Lorenzo so the race was pretty much a 25 lap Lorenzo exhibition ride.
On to todays pictures!
Hayden had some new plastics for the race.
Kevin Schwantz did a few laps on his 93 500.
Here are a few shots from the victory lap.