It's almost certainly come too late to mount a title challenge, but Dani Pedrosa finally broke his two wins in a season barrier at Indianapolis on Sunday.
The Repsol Honda rider had taken two wins every year since his 2006 debut, and three wins from eleven 2010 starts marks a clear step forward in the Spaniard's career.
"Yes, I cross the barrier of two wins, so I'm very happy, and I hope we can keep this rhythm," said Dani. "We are doing good lately in the races, no mistakes, and I hope I can do some more good results."
The third win wasn't handed to him either. Pedrosa had qualified only fifth and was still fourth at the end of lap one, but soon picked off his opponents.
Ducati's Nicky Hayden was overtaken on lap two, then Pedrosa negotiated team-mate Andrea Dovizioso on lap four to hold second behind Ben Spies.
Star rookie Spies, running (like most of the field) the softer rear tyre, had bolted from pole and quickly put several bikelengths between himself and the field.
Pedrosa, on the harder rear tyre, took three laps to reel in the American, then simply blasted past him out of the final turn on lap seven and rode to a 3.5sec victory.
"I had to choose the hard tyre because on the softer one, my bike generates too much temperature in the tyre," explained Pedrosa. "That means I start to lose stability going into the corners, so I had to choose the harder one. I had no choice."
And it wasn't just his tyres that were getting hot.
The scorching 35 degree air - and 56 degree track temperature - was as high as anything on the world championship calendar.
"This was close to one of the hottest days in Malaysia or Qatar in the daylight," revealed Pedrosa. "The track was slippery, because when the asphalt always get over 50 degrees, it always starts to feel very greasy, you know. But the same thing for everybody."
The other additional challenge at Indy was the bumps.
"There were a lot of crashes because of the bumps and the track temperature. If you just miss one line in one corner, you can be immediately on the ground," said Pedrosa.
"So it was very important to be focused in every corner and make no mistake with the bumps, especially at the end when the tyres were worn.
"It was hard to stay focused because it was very tiring and - I had tube to drink water but, I don't know why, it was not working.
"So I'm tired but very happy because last year I crashed here when I could win the race, but this time I did."
Pedrosa's 2009 fall came while leading the race.
"This doesn't make up for last year. Last year is lost. But, yeah, it's a little less pain. When you have the chance to win and you didn't do it, it feels bad. But today I was able to do it, so I'm very happy.
Despite the win, Pedrosa is still 68 points behind title leader Jorge Lorenzo - third on Sunday - with seven rounds to go, the first of which is next weekend at Misano.
"Misano is a track I like. I've been always quite fast, but we have to work harder on the setup because the Honda there is always a little bit hard to ride," he revealed.
"Our engine is a little bit - it's fast, but in the corners it's always very aggressive. So to control on this is difficult, but we will have to work very hard from Friday, and we'll try our best. And I hope we can do there a great result, also."
If Pedrosa or team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, fifth on Sunday, can win one of the remaining 2010 races it will mark Repsol Honda's best season for wins since 2006, when Nicky Hayden and Pedrosa took two wins each.
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