2010 MotoGP Options

[DrG]

The first race of the season was a night race at Losail in Qatar.

Congratulations to Valentino (Yamaha) for 1st, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2nd & Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) for 3rd.

Casey Stoner (Ducati) got pole with Valentino (Yamaha) 2nd, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 3rd, Randy De Puniet (Honda) 4th, Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 5th, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 6th, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 7th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 8th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 9th & Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 10th.

Dani Pedrosa (Honda) got a great start to shoot up from 7th on the grid to lead the field into turn 1 &, as the opening laps unfolded, Dani, Valentino, Casey & Nicky Hayden were all battling at the front. Casey managed to get past everyone to be leading the field with Valentino right behind him. A difficult weekend ended in disappointment for Mika Kallio (Ducati) when he crashed out early on &, as the action on the field continued, there was to be another Ducati to suffer a premature end. This time it was Casey, who lost the front end going into turn 4 on lap 5. Casey had been the huge favourite to take victory at this circuit for the 4th consecutive year. Casey's crash elevated Valentino to 1st place with Dovizioso & Hayden in hot pursuit behind him. Lorenzo was also on the move & was in 4th place at the midway point of the race. Rookie Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) was forced to retire after becoming the 3rd rider to fall. Meanwhile, Dovizioso started to challenge Valentino & at one point took the lead only for Valentino to come back past him. Hayden then swapped places with Dovizioso as the pair intensified their fight for 2nd & 3rd position. Lorenzo got past Dovizioso & then made his move to get past Hayden into 2nd place as they entered the final lap. As Valentino crossed the finish line just over a second ahead of the rest of the field, Lorenzo took 2nd with Dovizioso claiming 3rd in a sprint for the line as he held off Hayden by 0.011s. Ben Spies (Yamaha) was the highest finishing rookie with a superb 5th-placed finish having started in 11th place. Another rookie Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) crashed out late when in 13th place having held his own for much of the race.

Anyway, the other results were Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 4th, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 5th, Randy De Puniet (Honda) 6th, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 7th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 8th, Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 9th & Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 10th.

The American rider Ben Spies (Yamaha) will certainly be one to watch this season. He is partnered with fellow Texan Colin Edwards so I expect the team mates to get along pretty well. Ben is also the 2009 Superbike World Champion & is a protégé of the great Kevin Schwantz. Andrea Dovizioso had a great season as a rookie last year & has started this season on a high note especially compared to his more experienced team mate Dani Pedrosa. I would think that if Dani doesn't have a great season this year &, certainly a better one than Dovizioso, he may be out of Honda next year especially as he was doing a lot of b!tching about Honda at the end of last year. Considering that Dovizioso was on the podium for the 1st race of the season, the bike is obviously up there & it certainly had a lot of speed down the start/finish straight. Nicky has also improved greatly this year after Ducati made some changes to the bike. They have sacrificed some speed to give the bike more grip & this seems to be suiting Nicky a lot more than the bike did last year. This was also the 1st time that Valentino has won at this circuit & the 1st time he has won the 1st race of the season since 2005. It will be interesting to see how the season unfolds & I think it could be a really good year of racing.

The next race will be at Motegi in Japan

This post has been edited by DrG: Apr 14 2010, 07:38 PM

[DrG]

The second race of the season should have been at Motegi in Japan the weekend before last but because of the volcano ash from Iceland hanging over Europe & stopping all flights it was cancelled & will now be on in early October. So the second race of the season was last weekend instead at Jerez in Spain.

Congratulations to Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) for 1st, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2nd & Valentino (Yamaha) for 3rd.

Dani Pedrosa (Honda) got pole with Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2nd, Casey Stoner (Ducati) 3rd, Valentino (Yamaha) 4th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 5th, Randy De Puniet (Honda) 6th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 7th, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 8th, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 9th & Marco Melandri (Honda) 10th.

Polesitter Dani Pedrosa (Honda) got a great start to lead the field into turn 1. Valentino also got a great start & went from 4th to 2nd to be behind Dani into turn 1 followed by Nicky Hayden, Casey Stoner & Jorge Lorenzo. On lap 3 Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) crashed out & shortly after Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) also crashed out. On lap 8 Ben Spies (Yamaha), who had been up near the front but then started going backwards, retired to the garage with a front tyre problem.

At the midway point in the race Dani was leading Valentino by a second & a half with Lorenzo a further two seconds back, having methodically gotten past Casey & then Nicky. The fight for 7th place was really exciting with Honda team mates Marco Melandri & rookie Marco Simoncelli swapping places constantly for quite a few laps. As much as I enjoyed the battle I was also hoping that they wouldn’t take each other out which thankfully they didn't. At the same time Lorenzo was closing the gap on Valentino in 2nd. On lap 21 he passed Valentino & turned his focus on hunting down Dani. Two Spaniards at a Spanish race you just knew that neither would give up. With 2 laps to go, Lorzeno caught up with Danni & made his move to pass but Dani held his line & the two touched. So it came down to the last lap &, as Dani pushed it wide at the Dry Sack corner, Lorenzo passed him to assume the lead & kept it until the end finishing 0.54 seconds ahead of Dani with Valentino just behind them. The two Spaniards touched so many times in the last couple of laps that you got the feeling that Valentino was sitting back watching them hoping they would take each other out. At times I must admit that I thought they may do so cause Lorenzo was so strong but Dani just wouldn’t give up his leading position which you can understand considering he had lead the race from the start until just half a lap from the end.

Anyway, the other results were Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 4th, Casey Stoner (Ducati) 5th, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 6th, Mika Kallio (Ducati) 7th, Marco Melandri (Honda) 8th, Randy De Puniet (Honda) 9th & Alvaro Bautista (Suziki) 10th.

It was a shame that Ben Spies (Yamaha) had a problem early in the race & had to retire as I was curious about where he would have ended up. I do think that he will be a real talent in MotoGP in the future. It was great to see Nicky Hayden do so well after so many problems since he joined Ducati. What is a worry though is the fact that, since Ducati changed their bike, Nicky is doing better but Casey is not. Maybe for the 1st time since Casey joined Ducati he has a team mate that is demanding that they improve his bike as well & the compromise between the two is a bike that Casey is not as happy with, I don't know, but it is curious that Nicky has improved this year & Casey has had two offs in the 1st two qualifying sessions/races of the season. Valentino was riding with a bad shoulder after having come off his bike during a motocross incident in their off time & it hadn't quite had enough time to heal which is why I think he made it so easy for his team mate Lorenzo to pass him near the end of the race. Plus knowing how important making good points in every race is to winning a championship, with Valentino going for his 10th championship, I don' think he is as willing as he has been in the past to play around & risk loosing those all important points. I guess that we will see about that. I was certainly impressed by how mature the ride by Lorenzo was compared to last season. Except at the end when after had won he ended up jumping fully clad including helmet into the pond at the track. He was so waterlogged that he needed help to get back out. It was really funny but I think that he was trying a bit too hard to outdo anything Valentino has done before. Funny but a bit too obvious. His thing used to be planting a Lorenzo’s Land flag when he won but now he seems to be trying too hard to be Valentino Rossi when he should be concentrating on being the next Valentino Rossi, if you get what I mean.

Anyway, the next race will be at Le Mans in France

[DrG]

The race last weekend was at Le Mans in France.

Congratulations to Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) for 1st, Valentino (Yamaha) 2nd & Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) for 3rd.

Valentino (Yamaha) got pole with Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2nd, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 3rd, Casey Stoner (Ducati) 4th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 5th, Randy De Puniet (Honda) 6th, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 7th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 8th, Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 9th & Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 10th.

A superb start from polesitter Valentino saw him lead into the 1st corner ahead of Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Hayden & Stoner. Lorenzo soon passed Pedrosa to take 2nd place & then set off after Valentino. A decisive moment in the race came on only the 2nd lap when Stoner slid out at turn 6, was unable to get back on his bike, & was out of the race with his 2nd DNF of the season. Shortly after Ben Spies (Yamaha) also crashed out of the race. Then Capirossi was forced to retire after damaging his bike when he too went down.

On lap 7, the fight for the win started when Lorenzo passed Valentino for the lead only to have Valentino to come back past him immediately. Undeterred, Lorenzo pushed on & passed Valentino again on lap 10, this time making his move stick. Lorenzo immediately started to open up a gap. As the two Yamaha team mates battled for 1st & 2nd another team mate war was happening behind them. Repsol Honda's Dovizioso & Pedrosa were having a battle for 3rd place with Hayden right behind them in 5th place waiting to see what would happen.

At the front, Lorenzo's lead over Valentino had stretched to over 4 seconds with only 4 laps to go. Pedrosa & Dovizioso were still locked in a battle for 3rd place &, on the last lap, Dovizioso forced his way past Pedrosa. Hayden then started attacking Pedrosa which lead to Pedrosa making a mistake & going wide & Hayden immediately passed him. Lorenzo crossed the start/finish line to take the win by a gap of 5.67 seconds over Valentino with Dovizioso taking his 2nd podium of the season in 3rd place.

The other results were Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 4th, Dani Pedrosa (Hondai) 5th, Marco Melandri (Honda) 6th, Randy De Puniet (Honda) 7th, Hector Barbera (Ducati) 8th, Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 9th & Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 10th.

It was obvious that Lorenzo's bike was much faster than Valentino's. Once he got past Valentino he just took off & lap after lap was pulling away from him. I'm not sure what happened with Casey but two DNF's so far this season is not good. Especially as Nicky seems to be doing so much better. There is a rumour going around that Casey is talking to other teams with a view to moving teams next year & specifically to Honda. What this would mean for the current riders at Honda I don't know. Certainly Dani Pedrosa has not exactly lived up to the promise he showed in his 1st season there & Andrea Dovizioso is doing extraordinarily well in only his 2nd season at Honda. Dani has also been extremely critical of Honda & that wouldn't endear him to anyone. This same rumour also has Valentino moving to Ducati next year to replace Casey. Not sure about that one. I'm still waiting to see how Ben Spies will go this season as he had another DNF. It would be nice to see him do a full race as I do think he has immense talent. Once again, at the end of the race when Lorenzo had won, he ended up doing another stunt that was more a Valentino stunt than one of his own. I don't know if he is trying to out-psych Valentino by doing this but, to me, he seems to be trying too hard to emulate Valentino when he should be concentrating on creating his own thing. Unless he is getting to Valentino mentally, which I doubt because Valentino is Valentino & hasn't achieved what he has by cracking under the pressure, Lorenzo just looks like he's trying too hard to be like him. If I was Valentino, the next time I won a race, I would have a flag made up saying Valentino's Land & plant it like Lorenzo used to do

Anyway, the next race will be at Mugello in Italy, Valentino's home race, & you can be sure that Valentino will go all out to win this one & even more sure that Lorenzo will be out to try & stop him

[DrG]

The race last weekend was at Mugello in Italy. Being Valentino Rossi’s home race & one that he has won many times you would expect him to do well here. Unfortunately, during practice 2 on Saturday morning he had a highside crash at turn 13 which threw him off the bike & he suffered a displaced & exposed fracture of his right tibia. In other words, he had a broken leg but a very serious broken leg where the bone was protruding from the skin & he was helicoptered to the Centre for Orthopaedic Trauma in Florence where he underwent an operation on Saturday that, thankfully, was successful. He was interviewed on Sunday before the race & said that he was doing extremely well &, apparently, he watched the race on TV. No one yet knows how long he will be out but predictions range from two-five months so I guess we will have to wait & see. The main thing is that his leg is going to be ok & he should be able to return to racing 100% fit. This is the first time in his career that Valentino has not participated in his home GP at Mugello & also the first time he has missed a race since his debut in the 125cc class in Malaysia in 1996, breaking a record run of 230 successive GP starts.

Anyway, congratulations to Dani Pedrosa (Honda) for 1st, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2nd & Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) for 3rd.

Dani Pedrosa (Honda) got pole with Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2nd, Casey Stoner (Ducati) 3rd, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 4th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 5th, Randy De Puniet (Honda) 6th, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 7th, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 8th, Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 9th & Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 10th.

Dani Pedrosa got a superb start from pole & headed into the 1st corner in the lead & from there he never looked back as his lead was never under threat during the whole race. This was his first win for the season & he had only converted three of his previous 14 pole positions into wins prior to this race.

Dovizioso & Spies had a great start from the second row & Dovizioso was up to 3rd before the end of the opening lap as they both managed to pass Stoner. Marco Melandri (Honda) was riding hard as he edged his way up to 6th having started from 14th on the grid. Hayden suffered a disappointment when the front of his Ducati folded as he went thru the downhill turn 12 on lap 5.

Just past the halfway point of the race Pedrosa's lead had stretched to 7.300s & he kept edging away from the rest of the field. Lorenzo & Dovizioso were more closely matched & Lorenzo couldn't shake off Dovizioso no matter how hard he tried &, at one stage, were trading places which helped Pedrosa at the front. Much further back positions 4th to 6th remained open as Melandri, De Puniet & Stoner exchanged blows with Spies not out of the chase either. Mika Kalio (Ducati) crashed out to bring a difficult weekend, affected by a lingering shoulder problem, to an end.

As the final laps counted down, Pedosa's win looked even more secure & it was left up to Lorenzo & Dovizioso to decide the remaining podium spots. Finally, Lorenzo was able to open up a slender advantage over Dovizioso that he did not surrender for the remainder of the race. The final lap delivered a great fight for 4th place as Stoner went thru on both Melandri & De Puniet who continued to battle until the end.

The other results were Casey Stoner (Ducati) 4th, Marco Melandri (Honda) 5th, Randy De Puniet (Honda) 6th, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 7th, Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 8th, Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 9th & Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 10th.

Well, now that Valentino is out of the mix for the championship this year, it will be interesting to see what will happen. I was quite surprised to see Lorenzo so far behind Pedrosa as I, & everyone else, was expecting to see him blitz it. Didn't happen & even the English commentators were debating whether his lack of pace during the race was down to the fact that he didn't have Valentino’s data to act on. It certainly should be interesting to see what happens for the rest of the season. I did feel really sorry for Nicky Hayden as he has been doing so much better this year & it has been Casey that hasn't been. Nicky's front end lose is a bit of a worry as it imitates Casey's problems so far this year. Either way, I can say that the racing hasn't been boring so far this season.

The next race will be at Silverstone in England which should be really interesting. This is the first time that the MotoGP bikes have raced there as in past years they have raced at Donington

[DrG]

The race last weekend was at Silverstone in England. Normally the bikes have raced at Donington & it was the first time the bikes have raced at Silverstone for quite some years. It meant that all riders were in the same boat as no one had raced here before & it made for an exciting qualifying & race.

Anyway, congratulations to Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) for 1st, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 2nd & Ben Spies (Yamaha) for 3rd.

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) got pole with Randy de Puniet (Honda) 2nd, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 3rd, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 4th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 5th, Casey Stoner (Ducati) 6th, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 7th, Marco Melandri (Honda) 9th & Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 10th.

Lorenzo got a great start from pole followed by Pedrosa & they immediately got into a duel which saw them swap the early lead a number of times on the opening lap. Randy de Puniet, Dovizioso & Hayden were all right up there as well whilst Stoner dropped to the back of the field from his starting position after getting a bad start because of what looked like a clutch problem & Melandri suffered disappointment after crashing out on the first lap.

Lorenzo wasted little time in finding a rhythm & by lap 7 his advantage was a substantial one at over 5 seconds. Meanwhile Dovizioso & de Puniet, having passed Pedrosa, were having an intense battle for 2nd with Hayden hot on their heels. Spies was also making progress as he moved thru the field to latch onto the chase for a podium spot.

Halfway thru the race Stoner's lap times were almost identical to race leader Lorenzo but in 8th place he was forced to hunt down Pedrosa but found it hard work trying to pass the Spaniard. He eventually passed him on lap 13 & proceeded to chase down the other riders in front of him. Loris Capirossi's race ended early when he crashed out at Copse as he ran off & fell whilst trying to overtake Hector Barbera (Ducati). Meanwhile, up the front end, Dovizioso, de Puniet & Hayden were separated by less than half a second as they continued their tussle for the final two podium spots with Spies just behind them watching what was happening & Lorenzo out front with a lead that was now an unassailable one unless something unexpected happened.

With 3 laps to go Hayden & Spies both managed to pass de Puniet & Stoner got sniff of a chance to get in the hunt. He soon made a move on de Puniet to slot into 5th place. The final lap provided a fitting climax as Spies got thru on Hayden at Farm Curve after Hayden went slightly wide to take 3rd place. Dovizioso’s 2nd place was his 4th podium finish & best result of the season so far.

The other results were Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 4th, Casey Stoner (Ducati) 5th, Randy De Puniet (Honda) 6th, Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 7th, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 8th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 9th & Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 10th.

None starter's in the race were Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) who was taken to hospital to assess his condition following a crash in the morning warm up session &, of course, Valentino who is still recovering from his broken leg. Valentino's chief engineer Jeremy Burgess or JB as everyone calls him was a guest on our MotoGP show here in Oz & said that Valentino is out of hospital & is doing as well as the Doctors had hoped he would & is in extremely good spirits. He hopes to return to racing at Sachsenring in Germany on July 18 but Jeremy is hoping he takes a little longer as Sachsenring & the next track at Laguna Seca are very fast & twisty & he thinks that Valentino would be better off coming back to slightly slower more laid back tracks after that having not raced for a few races & needing to ease his way back into it. I would tend to agree but I guess it will end up being Valentino's decision. I must say that I have been very impressed with the two young riders Dovizioso & de Puniet. Especially Dovizioso as he is doing better so far this season then his team mate Danni Pedrosa & with a lot less experience. I am also extremely impressed with Aleix Espargaro on one of the non factory Ducati's. I had never heard of him before he joined MotoGP this year but he has been up near the front for most of the races so far this season. He is doing better than a lot of the more seasoned riders & that has got to be impressive to anyone.

Anyway, the next race will be the Assen TT in the Netherlands which is always a great race

[DrG]

The race last weekend was the TT Assen in the Netherlands which is always a good race. It was also the 80th anniversary of the Dutch TT.

Congratulations to Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) for 1st, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2nd & Casey Stoner (Ducati) for 3rd.

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) got pole with Randy de Puniet (Honda) 2nd, Casey Stoner (Ducati) 3rd, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 4th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 5th, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 6th, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 7th, Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 8th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 9th & Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 10th.

Both Spies & Pedrosa got a great start & went up four places from their grid positions to slot into 2nd & 3rd behind Lorenzo into turn 1. Lorenzo then started to open up an early lead &, for the first couple of laps, it looked like he would race clear of the rest of the field as he did at Silverstone but both Pedrosa & Stoner passed Spies on lap 3 & managed to catch him. Dovizioso then passed Spies as well & moved into 4th place. By midway thru the race he was a second ahead of Spies who was ahead of de Puniet by just over 1.5 seconds. By this stage, Stoner was looking for a way past Pedrosa but could not find one. Lorenzo started to again edge away & was extending his advantage little by little lap by lap. Behind them, Spies closed right up on Dovizioso & passed him & de Puniet was then on the tail of Dovizioso as the trio remained closely grouped.

At the front the gap between Lorenzo, Pedrosa & Stoner became larger whilst de Puniet & Dovizioso fought intensely up to the last lap as de Puniet experienced a few moments as his tyres started to go off. Lorenzo eventually crossed the finish line 2.935 seconds ahead of Pedrosa in 2nd with Stoner taking his 1st podium of the season in 3rd.

The other results were Ben Spies (Yamaha) 4th, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 5th, Randy De Puniet (Honda) 6th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 7th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 8th, Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 9th & Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 10th.

None starter's in the race were Marco Melandri (Honda) who dislocated his left shoulder after he crashed in the second free practice on Friday &, of course, Valentino who is still recovering from his broken leg. Valentino has sent a message to fans etc which says that he is happy with his recovery so far after being out of hospital for two weeks. He is walking on crutches & is finally able to start putting pressure on his broken leg & is happy both physically & emotionally & hopes to be back racing by Brno in the Czech Republic on 15 August. So we will see. The rumours about him going to Ducati next year & Casey going to Honda are gathering momentum. According to the rumours, Yamaha told Valentino that they couldn't pay him as much next year & would have to reduce his salary slightly which he then found out would be going to Lorenzo. As you can imagine, he wasn't exactly happy about that. And, according to the rumours, he has been offered a fantastic deal by Ducati to go there next year. So, who knows? It certainly would be interesting to see if he could develop the Ducati like he has done the Yamaha especially as Casey is having so much trouble with the Ducati so far this year. And the Italians would go mad. An Italian rider like Valentino on an Italian bike, you could just imagine it. Anyway, I am still totally impressed with Ben Spies (Yamaha) & Aleix Espargaro (Ducati). First full season in MotoGP for both of them & they are consistently in the top ten. Not bad by any standards

Anyway, the next race will be at Catalunya in Spain & you can bet that both Dani Pedrosa & Jorge Lorenzo will be going all out to be the top Spaniard rider for this race

[DrG]

The race the weekend before last was at Catalunya in Spain.

Congratulations to Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) for 1st, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2nd & Casey Stoner (Ducati) for 3rd. This is the same podium as the previous race which I suppose with Valentino out is not really a surprise but it is nice to see Pedrosa & Stoner doing so well.

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) got pole with Casey Stoner (Ducati) 2nd, Randy de Puniet (Honda) 3rd, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 4th, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 5th, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 6th, Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 7th, Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 8th, Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 9th & Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 10th.

Pedrosa made one of his great starts & went from 4th to 1st into turn 1. He then ran wide coming out of the turn to go from 1st to 9th by the end of lap 1. He managed to recover in the early laps, however, & before long he was back up to 3rd place. Dovizioso started a fight for the lead with Lorenzo on lap 3 when he overtook Lorenzo to move into 1st place but it was a lead that Lorenzo regained on the next lap. Meanwhile, Stoner, chasing 3rd place, ran off track & dropped to 5th as de Puniet & Pedrosa came thru. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) had a run-off as he pushed hard to move up the field & then crashed out on lap 6.

Lap 14 proved to be eventful as first Simoncelli crashed out when in 6th as he chased his best premier class finish to date. Then, in a decisive moment in the race, Dovizioso also went down as he pushed himself when chasing Lorenzo at the front. He did manage to rejoin the race but down in 15th place. With that, Lorenzo was clear of every one else by 5.5 seconds with less than half the race to go. Stoner & Pedrosa started battling for 2nd place with de Puniet further back in 4th. Lorenzo's lead proved to be too much & he crossed the finish line 4.754 seconds clear to take his 5th win of the season. Pedrosa won the scrap for 2nd by just two-tenths from Stoner.

The other results were Randy De Puniet (Honda) 4th, Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 5th, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 6th, Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 7th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 8th, Marco Melandri (Honda) 9th & Hector Barbera (Ducati) 10th.

With this win, Lorenzo became the first Yamaha rider to win three successive premier class races from pole position since Eddie Lawson did in 1986. Lorenzo is now 52 points clear of Pedrosa at the top of the championship table which is just over two wins so he could DNF twice & still be leading the championship by 2 points. Andrea Dovizioso remains in 3rd with Nicky Hayden, Randy de Puniet & Casey Stoner all leapfrogging the absent Valentino Rossi to fill positions 4-6.

Ben Spies continued his progress with his 6th place finish on yet another new circuit for him & Marco Melandri had a great finish on his return from a dislocated shoulder which saw him sitting out the last race. Andrea Dovizioso finally finished 14th which is a shame as he was really the only rider that put the fight to Lorenzo before crashing out. I guess the big news is that Ducati & Honda have finally announced that Casey will be leaving Ducati for Honda next year. Honda have said that they also hope to keep Dani Pedrosa & Andrea Dovizioso next year which would mean that they will be running a three bike team. I have heard that both Dani & Andrea have a clause in their current contract that says if they finish the season in particular positions in the championship then Honda have to keep them next year. If true, at present, they are both in those positions on the championship table. The other big news is that Valentino has tested his fitness on a Yamaha Superbike twice in the last week or so & has announced that he will be back for the race this coming weekend just six weeks after breaking his leg. Quite amazing really but I hope that he is not coming back too early. Rumour has it that he has been encouraged to do so by the management of MotoGP as his following is so huge that ticket sales have been way down for the races where he has been absent & TV audiences have halved in some countries. I know my husband doesn't bother watching the races without Valentino participating.

Anyway, the next race will be at Sachsenring in Germany

[DrG]

The race the weekend before last was at Sachsenring in Germany. The biggest thrill, at least for me, was the return of Valentino Rossi only six weeks after breaking his leg. Amazing really!!!

Congratulations to Dani Pedrosa (Honda) for 1st, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2nd & Casey Stoner (Ducati) for 3rd. The same podium as the previous two races but at least this time it was in a slightly different order.

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) got pole with Casey Stoner (Ducati) 2nd, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 3rd, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 4th, Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 5th, Hector Barbera (Ducati) 6th, Randy de Puniet (Honda) 7th, Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 8th, Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 9th & Marco Melandi (Honda) 10th.

The race ended up being in two parts. The first part was red flagged on lap 9 when a crash by Randy de Puniet at turn 4 brought down both Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) & Aleix Espargaro, neither of whom could avoid de Puniet's bike which was on its side on the track & which burst into flame after being hit. The order of the top five at that stage was Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Stoner, Dovizioso & Rossi.

There was a 25 minute interval before the second part of the race began. The trio involved in the accident were unable to line up for the shortened 21 lap second part of the race. Bautista & Espargaro because they failed to return to pit lane with their bikes within five minutes of the red flag & de Puniet was physically not able to restart having sustained fractures in his left tibia & fibula in the accident which is exactly the injury Valentino had. Should be interesting to see how long it takes him to return to racing.

As he had done in the original race, Pedrosa got his nose in front on the 1st lap, but Lorenzo quickly assumed the lead. Mika Kallio (Ducati) slid out at turn one in an unfortunate end to his weekend. The top order was much the same as it had been before the red flag with Lorenzo holding off Pedrosa, Stoner in 3rd & Valentino & Dovizioso battling for 4th. Valentino passed Dovizioso before too long & Dovizioso was caught by the chasing pack shortly after. The battle between Lorenzo & Pedrosa was developing into a thriller with the two Spaniards swapping the lead as they constantly looked for ways to pass each other. Pedrosa was at his best as he set a new circuit lap record on lap 10 & then again on lap 12, assuming the lead & breaking his own record from the previous year & consistently riding in the low 1.22’s.

There was a good scrap going on for 5th between Simoncelli, Dovizioso & Nicky Hayden (Ducati) with the latter two going thru on the rookie when he had a wobble but held onto his bike. Valentino was defying his precarious physical condition to engage in a great contest with Stoner for 3rd, the two side by side with only a few lap to go & taking their duel to the bitter end. Pedrosa crossed the finish line 3.355s clear of Lorenzo thanks to a faultless ride & Stoner managed to edge Rossi for 3rd with a final corner move.

The other results were Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 4th, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 5th, Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 6th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 7th, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 8th, Hector Barbera (Ducati) 9th & Marco Melandri (Honda) 10th. Valentino's 4th place finish on his return from injury was a really impressive result.

Interestingly enough, not only was the race red flagged, but qualifying was also red flagged after Lorenzo's bike had an engine failure heading into turn 1 & started spewing oil on the track before catching fire as Lorenzo pulled off the track. Unfortunately he didn't get off the racing line before pulling off the track & Ben Spies & Randy de Puniet both hit the oil & crashed out with both riders flying off the track with de Puniet hitting Spies' bike as he slid past. De Puniet went for x-rays on his right leg which confirmed no breaks & he was able to start the race the next day only to crash out & break his leg as reported above.

The race last weekend was at Laguna Seca in the USA. This is always an exciting race, one where I hold my breath so many times especially when they go thru the corkscrew, & this was no exception.

Congratulations to Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) for 1st, Casey Stoner (Ducati) 2nd & Valentino Rossi for 3rd. Finally a different podium & extra exciting to see Valentino up there again.

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) got pole with Casey Stoner (Ducati) 2nd, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 3rd, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 4th, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 5th, Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 6th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 7th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 8th, Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 9th & Hector Barbera (Ducati) 10th.

Another lightening start from Pedrosa saw him lead into turn 1 on the 1st lap & he appeared to be making a similar break as he had done in the previous race. He led for the early part of the race setting a fierce pace with Stoner in 2nd & Lorenzo in 3rd until Lorenzo managed to get past Stoner. Unfortunately, with Lorenzo pressuring him for the lead, Pedrosa crashed out at turn 5 on lap 11. From then on Lorenzo looked extremely comfortable at the front as Stoner couldn't keep up & dropped right back. Meanwhile, Dovizioso & Rossi were fighting for the final podium position. Valentino seemed to tire part way thru the race & Dovizioso managed to get almost a 2 second margin over him. Then suddenly Valentino seemed to get a second wind & was right up behind Dovizioso & managed to pass him for 3rd place with 5 laps to go.

As the tyres started to go off towards the end of the race there were changes further down as Ben Spies (Yamaha) & Nicky Hayden (Ducati) fought for the honour of being the highest placed American, a duel that had many exciting moments. Lorenzo eventually crossed the finish line comfortably ahead of Stoner with Valentino managing to hang on for the final podium spot. Marco Simoncelli suffered a disappointment with crashing out two thirds of the way thru the race when battling with team mate Marco Melandri for 8th while Aleix Aspargaro fell 3 laps from the end when in a top 10 position.

The other results were Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 4th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 5th, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 6th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 7th, Marco Melandri (Honda) 8th, Mika Kallio (Ducati) 9th & Loris Capirossi 10th.

Valentino's 3rd place finish was just amazing especially as this is such a demanding track physically & he had been saying right thru practice that his injuries were hurting much more at this track then they had at Sachsenring. He used his walking stick to walk to the podium & even sat down on the podium step before he was joined by Lorenzo & Stoner. During the press conference after the race he did look absolutely exhausted. They now head into a 3 week break which should help him get back to total fitness, hopefully, before the next race.

Anyway, the next race will be at Brno in the Czech Republic which is the race that everyone thought would be Valentino's first race back from injury

[DrG]

The race the last weekend before last was at Brno in the Czech Republic.

Congratulations to Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) for 1st, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2nd & Casey Stoner (Ducati) for 3rd. No surprise with the podium as it has been the same three for the last three races. It would be nice to see someone else up there but I think this will continue for some time yet.

Dani Pedrosa (Honda) got pole with 2nd, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 3rd, Casey Stoner (Ducati) 4th, Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 5th, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 6th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 7th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 8th, Hector Barbera (Ducati) 9th & Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 10th.

Both Pedrosa & Spies got a great start followed by Lorenzo but with Stoner trying to get up the inside of Lorenzo into turn 1. Lorenzo managed to come back across the front of him & cut him off to stay in front. The camera then cut to the other riders behind, probably because Valentino got a bad start & was in 8th place, & when it came back to the front Pedrosa & Lorenzo where in an early battle for the lead with Lorenzo winning the battle. Lorenzo & Pedrosa exchanged the fastest lap time in the early stages of the race as they set the pace but Lorenzo slowly began to pull away, the pair well ahead of Stoner in 3rd place.

There were two early falls with Loris Capirossi & Andrea Dovizioso both down inside the opening three laps. Dovizioso was lucky not to get hit as he & his bike ended up in the middle of the track coming out of turn 9. He managed to sprint off the track before the rest of the field came past & they managed to avoid his bike which was luckily was visible to everyone before they came across it. Dovizioso rejoined the back of the race but was forced to retire shortly after. Mika Kallio (Ducati) was another victim of misfortune as he also crashed out.

The riders became more separated as the race reached its finale & Lorenzo cruised across the line 5.494 seconds ahead of Pedrosa to extend his lead in the championship over his fellow Spaniard to 77 points. Stoner finished in 3rd almost 6 seconds back & moved into 3rd in the championship table ahead of Dovizioso. A frustrating weekend for Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) was finalised as the rookie slid off the track on the last corner of the final lap having just passed Marco Simoncelli (Honda) who finished 11th.

The other results were Ben Spies (Yamaha) 4th, Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 5th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 6th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 7th, Marco Melandri (Honda) 8th, Hector Barbera (Ducati) 9th & Randy de Puniet (Honda) 10th.

Randy de Puniet's 10th place finish was especially amazing as this was his 1st race back after breaking his leg less than 4 weeks ago. Simply amazing as even Valentino took about 6 weeks to come back & people thought that was amazing. A lot of people were wondering if he had come back too early but, I can understand why he did, he needs to show his mettle to solidify a ride for next year. Even so, I’m still totally impressed.

Of course the big news after the race, in what was probably the worst kept secret in MotoGP, was the announcement that Valentino is going to Ducati next year & has signed a two year contract with them. Will certainly make next year rather interesting especially as MotoGP are going to 1000cc's which means that all teams will be starting from scratch, so to speak, & everyone will be in the same boat. Ben Spies is rumoured to be replacing Valentino at the Yamaha factory team but no one is really sure as to who will be in their satellite team in his place or whether his current team mate, Colin Edwards, will be re-signed or will go elsewhere or who else will make up the team. I guess we will find out in time &, now that Valentino has made his announcement, I expect there to be a lot of movement for riders & teams next year as most were waiting to see where Valentino was going before making any decisions/announcements.

Anyway, the next race will be at Indianapolis in the USA, always an interesting race, in two weeks time

[DrG]

The race last weekend was at Indianapolis in the USA.

Congratulations to Dani Pedrosa (Honda) for 1st, Ben Spies (Yamaha) 2nd & Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) for 3rd.

Ben Spies (Yamaha) got pole with Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2nd, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 3rd, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 4th, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 5th, Casey Stoner (Ducati) 6th, Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 7th, Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 8th, Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 9th & Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 10th.

Starting from the second row Pedrosa was on the pace early on & by lap 2 he was in 2nd position as he set his sights on Spies in 1st place ahead of him. At the end of lap 7 Pedrosa overtook Spies on the start/finish straight & never relinquished the lead eventually crossing the line 3.575 seconds clear of Spies. For Spies, 2nd place marked his best result to date & a second podium in what has already been a fantastic debut season. Spies started from pole – the first of his MotoGP career - & his race result capped off a great weekend which also saw him confirmed as a factory Yamaha rider for 2011 replacing Valentino Rossi. Completing the podium was Lorenzo who had started from 2nd on the grid but dropped to 5th at the start of the race. That failed to affect his concentration, however, & he battled his way past Dovizioso & into 3rd just before the midway point in the race finishing just over 3 seconds off Spies as his phenomenal record of having finished in the top two in every race this season was finally broken.

It was a complicated weekend for Valentino after he crashed out three times before the race even started. The first crash was during practice, second crash during qualifying & third crash was in the warm up practice before the race. This track is really bumpy in the corners & totally unsettles the bikes &, as Jeremy Burgess his Chief Engineer said, with Valentino's injured leg he couldn't get it down far enough to be able to control the bike when it got loose. Luckily he was able to keep the bike upright during the race. Not so lucky were Marco Melandri (Honda) who crashed out during lap 2 on what was his 200th grand prix start & Casey Stoner who lost his front end & crashed out on lap 8. Colin Edwards was forced to retire on lap 17 with rear tyre issues & Mika Kalio (Ducati) crashed out at turn 10 on lap 18 when he hit a bump.

The other results were Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 4th, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 5th, Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 6th, Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 7th, Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 8th, Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 9th & Hector Barbera (Ducati) 10th.

Lorenzo looked really p!ssed off after the race. There is no reason really that he should be as he is still 68 points ahead of Pedrosa in the championship table with, I think, only seven races to go. I am really impressed with Ben Spies & I think that he will be a championship contender in the near future. As it is, he is sitting in 6th place on the championship table in what is essentially his rookie year. Not a bad effort really considering that he doesn't know a lot of the tracks he is racing at. After the announcement about Ben going to the factory team next year, the Yamaha Tech 3 team have said that they are hoping to re-sign Colin Edwards for next year in what he has said will probably be his last year in MotoGP before retiring & they are also looking at signing Cal Crutchlow, the young British rider currently racing for Yamaha in World Superbikes. I personally haven't seen him race but I have heard that he is pretty good.

Anyway, the next race will be at Misano in San Marino next weekend