Ian Wheeler foresees a close race

With a front row of Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso and not much separating the second row of Dani Pedrosa, Ben Spies and Valentino Rossi at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix following qualification on Saturday, motogp.com’s Ian Wheeler gave his thoughts on the session and Sunday’s race.

“Casey Stoner had staked his claim for pole position and he worried a few people because it looked like he’d done it on a hard rear tyre due to an error with the markings, but it turned out to be the softer medium option,” explained Ian thanks to his Pit Lane presence. “There were a few worried looks in the Yamaha box when he went fastest and they could not see any white stripe on the TV monitor! Stoner’s pace is good, as is Jorge Lorenzo’s… expect them to be at the front tomorrow. The biggest news here is Andrea Dovizioso, he’s won a MotoGP race already – at Donington last season – but has never qualified on the front row for MotoGP until today. He looked quite happy to be there!”

Ian continued: “I think the biggest problem here for Valentino Rossi is the Corkscrew. It puts a lot of pressure on his injured right leg and his injured shoulder too, but it’s only two turns on the whole circuit. I expect him to be up there tomorrow because he is Valentino Rossi after all! I think Ben Spies’ expectations are quite high this weekend. As usual he is playing it down and saying eighth place is what he’s aiming for, but I think he would be very disappointed if he went away without a podium. Dani Pedrosa won last time out, won here last year, and is sure to be the first rider into turn one tomorrow, and you can never rule him out. I think we will see a close race here tomorrow.”

You can test your own expertise against that of Ian’s by playing the Official Fantasy MotoGP 2010 game. Submit your predictions for Sunday’s race now and be in with a chance of winning some great prizes!