 1 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 The Dry Lagoon in Monterey California. The famous corkscrew, turns 8 & 8a, site of Rossi's two incredible passes on Stoner last year, is in the top left. |
 2 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Flashing back to last year, this is the first of the passes at the corkscrew that Rossi put on Stoner. With this pass Rossi had moved into the lead on lap 1. |
 3 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 This is the pass on lap 4 that is still talked about. It may have looked like Rossi was out of control but he said that he'd run off there during practice and knew that the ground was firm - an outrageous combination of daring and skill. |
 4 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 On the Thursday of this year before the race, Valentino engaged in a few demonstration laps with ex-Yamaha World Champions Kenny Roberts, Wayne Rainey and Eddie Lawson in Yamaha carts. |
 5 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 He couldn't help himself and turned it into a race which he won. |
 6 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Valentino's toughest competitor this year is Jorge Lorenzo. During Qualifying on Saturday afternoon, he crashed twice. The second was a monstrous highside at turn 10 that left him badly injured. |
 7 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Valentino was never comfortable with his settings, but rode within the limits of his tyres all weekend. He was one of four riders to get through the weekend without crashing. The problem was that the Bridgestone tyres were not dual compound and the right side of the tyre would not warm up on a track consisting mostly of left-handers. |
 8 Sport and Racing Motorcycle Photographs Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Front row: Jorge LORENZO, Valentino ROSSI, Casey STONER Second row: Dani PEDROSA, Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Tony ELIAS Three Hondas in the lead group. Could this be the start of a turnaround in their fortunes? |
 9 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Pedrosa gets his usual blinding start from the second row and leads into turn 2, the Andretti Hairpin. He is closely followed by Stoner and Rossi. |
 10 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Lorenzo gets a terrible start from pole and drops behind the leaders. Dovizioso is doing well in fourth. |
 11 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Into turn 3, the leaders are bunched up. This is the first of the righthanders and all riders get through without crashing. |
 12 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Rossi takes second place from Stoner at the corkscrew but Stoner takes it back again. After several laps both Rossi and the injured Lorenzo overtake the very ill Stoner. Pedrosa eventually stretches his lead over the Yamaha pair to 3 seconds. And the race is a procession until near the end. |
 13 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 This is a nice picture of Rossi riding along the heights of Rahal Straight as he approaches turn 7. |
 14 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 As the laps count down, with three laps to go, Lorenzo closes right up and prepares to attack Rossi. |
 15 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 With two laps to go, Lorenzo attacks on Turn 11 but loses traction and runs wide. This puts him 1 second behind Rossi after which he concedes second place to Rossi. |
 16 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Thinking that he could cruise home for the win, Pedrosa eases back too much and falls into Rossi's clutches on the last lap at turn 11. Rossi makes a half-hearted attempt at a pass but with his two main rivals behind him, decides to concede. |
 17 08 Laguna Seca 3, 4 y 5 de julio de 2009 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Pedrosa squeaks home by .344 of a second and takes Honda's first win in over a year. He remains the only person to have won riding an 800cc Honda. |
 18 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Rossi claims to be satisfied with second considering that he was not satisfied with his bike's setup. He moves another 4 points ahead in the Championship. |
 19 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Lorenzo has a badly bruised shoulder and injured feet. He can hardly walk. |
 20 08 Laguna Seca 3, 4 y 5 de julio de 2009 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Pedrosa stands on the top step of the podium and still isn't as tall as Rossi. |
 21 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 A heartfelt cheer went to Nicky Hayden who qualified in 8th and finished 6th. Toseland was disqualified for ignoring a ride-through penalty for a jump start of which he was unaware. The tyres were bad at this round with another four crashers during the race. Only four riders did not crash on the weekend, Rossi and Pedrosa among them. |
 22 Round 8 - Laguna Seca, Sunday, July 5, 2009 Dovizioso had his second crash in a row and this put him back to 6th place. Colin Edwards is the best of the non factory riders at this stage. |
