MOTORCYCLING Live

0' Pedrosa slips up and Rossi is right on his tail, but he only has two more corners to go and manages to hold Rossi off to take the chequered flag!

3' Suddenly Pedrosa's lead is evaporating. Rossi is 1.9s behind the Repsol Honda now!

4' Lorenzo skips a little as he dabs on the brakes, but he rides the wobble to pass inside Rossi and moves up to second! He can't complete the pass though, and Rossi remains in second.

5' Lorenzo is right on Rossi's tail now. The Italian has to worry about him as much as taking Pedrosa!

6' Rossi knocks an impressive 0.4s off of Pedrosa in the last lap - can he repeat the feat a couple more times?

8' Stoner is really flagging now, and has dropped over five-and-a-half seconds off the pace. There's not enough time for Hayden to catch him - is there?

9' Third-placed Lorenzo knocks a cool half second off Rossi - his last lap was in th 1:21.9 area.

10' Nicky Hayden is leading as the best of the rest in fifth, some 12 seconds behind Stoner.

11' Rossi has brought the gap down to less than three seconds behind Pedrosa.

12' Stoner is visibly fading now, and Lorenzo takes full advantage to move up into third!

13' Of the four riders who have come off - Dovizioso, Gibernau, Capirossi and Canepa - only Canepa has made it back on to his bike, safe in the knowledge he'll be collecting points.

14' Pedrosa is currently on 67 points in the standings - some 64 points behind leader Rossi.

15' Rossi takes his latest lap a tenth quicker than Pedrosa, but he's hoping for a slip from the leader now.

17' Rossi is still over three seconds behind Pedrosa. Lorenzo drifts wide going round turn two! He is a big enough gap to stay comfortably in fourth ahead of Hayden though.

18' Lorenzo has opened up a gap of over six seconds from home rider Nicky Hayden, but he's over three seconds behind Pedrosa.

19' Pedrosa is edging away from Rossi now. The championship leader has it all to do if he is to catch him - just the way Vale likes it!

20' Toseland has the unwelcome sight of a black flag to let him know that he won't be scoring any points today.

21' Rossi goes past Stoner, who looks as though he is beginning to tire. Stoner is suffering from a mystery illness that is baffling all of medical science!

22' 13 riders left ion the field with 10 laps gone here at Laguna Seca. Let's hope we don't get any more retirements.

23' Pedrosa sets the fastest lap - he's time trialling now as he keeps on extending his lead.

24' Pedrosa manages to find an extra 0.3s lead over Rossi.

25' Now Dovi has gone! he slides off casual as you like at a corner. That means Lorenzo has moved up to fourth.

26' James Toseland has picked up a time penalty for jumpiing the start.

27' Valentino Rossi has just set the fastest lap so far, but he still trails Stoner and Pedrosa.

28' Capirossi goes into his garage - his race is over too.

28' Capirossi has a skid off of the track. He looks as though he's having problems, and is in danger of dropping lower than his current ninth.

29' Gabor Talmasci hits the gravel - he's out of the race!

30' Rossi is late on the breaks as they go over the line and Stoner moves past him into second.

31' Pedrosa and Rossi lead the the quartet that has pulled away, with Stoner going through the corkscrew with them.

32' The riders are away! Dani Pedrosa flies right past Lorenzo and Rossi into the lead!

- It's still not too late to sign up for the Eurosport Player and watch the race LIVE on your PC - Click here to subscribe!

- The riders are about to go around the track on their warm-up lap. The race will be 32 laps long, with each lap roughly 2.4 miles long.

- You can see how they line up on the grid here: Lorenzo takes pole but suffers crash

- Here's how the 2009 MotoGP championship stands going into this race: MotoGP rider standings

- Lorenzo only went fifth-fastest in the warm-up earlier today - Stoner headed that field with a quickest lap of 1:21.918. Not quite the 1:22.678 that Lorenzo clocked up in qualifying, but that was a pre-airborne Lorenzo.

- Don't forget you can follow the race LIVE at 9.30pm on Sunday on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521); Also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click here to subscribe

- Both pole-sitter Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner are fit to race today after their big high-side crashes during yesterday's qualifying session. championship leader Valentino Rossi will sit between them on the front of the grid at Laguna Seca.