MotoGP Blog

To call this an analysis of the race is a bit rich. I’ll focus on the end game, for that is where the drama lies.

From the off, five riders were in the hunt for the podium: Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner, Pedrosa and Dovizioso. The speed of Pedrosa was amazing, given the pain and medication he is currently in and on, his tumble in QP not helping his recover at all. His challenge for the front positions was to fade as the race progressed, as tiredness grew and drugs wore off. He would finish a creditable 6th.

Another man suffering was Casey Stoner, starting the day ill with cramps in his legs and back. He would battle race-long with Dovizioso and win out over the young Italian, but pay the price in exhaustion. Barely able to stand in the winners enclosure, his third place was a testament to the Australian’s tough and uncompromising character. He gave his all.

Up at the front, it was all about Rossi and Lorenzo. Laps one to three, Lorenzo lead. Laps four to twelve we Rossi’s, and thirteen to 22 were Lorenzo’s. Whoever was in front pushed hard, evidenced by the dangling legs of both riders on corner entry. When trailing, both riders seemed more composed and able to keep the pace of the leader. As a result, neither could escape and the gap was seldom above a quarter of a second.

Rossi, having watched Lorenzo for nine laps, made his move to break Jorge in the midst of lap 23. It was almost like vintage Rossi, playing with his opponent before executing a carefully planned, devastating overtaking manoeuvre to dispatch his opponent once and for all. Rossi made his pass on the start/finish straight, drafting past Lorenzo and leaving his braking very late. JL kept his head and a tighter line, soon closing the small gap Valentino had opened. He would be in Rossi’s slipstream for the straight, passing him on the inside after the line so the stats. show Rossi leading the lap. Lorenzo then moved back to the racing line in the braking zone for turn 1, only to have Rossi outbrake him right on the outside. So far out to the edge of the track was Rossi that was out on the rumblestrip and had to pull in his knee to get through on Lorenzo, see the first picture in this post. It was a high-risk pass, and he looked to have run wide, but somehow between his Yamaha’s front set-up and the Bridgestone front, he forced the bike around the right-hander. Lorenzo continued to hunt him down, remaining calm and close. Half-way through the lap and Rossi appeared to brake test Lorenzo to unsettle him two corners from the back straight, and gain enough of a lead to prevent the draught-pass. It did not work.

The Last Lap
It will probably be the lap of the season. It will be long remembered as a classic, clean contest between two riders at the top of their game.

Lorenzo passed Rossi on the straight, again after the start-finish line and this time did not allow Rossi the room for his cheeky knee-in move. They were side-by-side through turn 1, Rossi trying to hold position for the inside of turn 2. Lorenzo reads this and slams the door shut, forcing Rossi to back off and gaining a valuable tenth. Through turn 3 now, and Lorenzo remains composed, although his body language on the bike shows the effort he is putting in. Hanging off the bike so much his head is level and almost below his throttle hand on the right-hander, there is not doubt he is at 100%.

Turn 4 and Rossi stuffs it up the inside in a classic block-pass manoeuvre, but success is short-lived. Before the corner is over, VR has run wide and Lorenzo needs no second invite to swing back inside to regain the lead.

Lorenzo makes his Yamaha as wide as he can, and through turns 5 to 9 there is nothing Rossi can do. Now onto the short back straight to turn 10 and Lorenzo takes a very defensive inside line into the achingly long turn 10. Rossi is forced wide and again has to concede the corner to Lorenzo.

The lap is fast reaching it’s conclusion, with just turns 11, 12 and 13 remaining. Lorenzo holds his line in 11 and 12, and leads onto the minuscule straight joining 12 to 13. He maintains the racing line, brakes and tips it in. “Nobody passes here,” he must have said to himself “I have this won” only to have Rossi fly past on the inside in a crazy move that was, to all intents and purposes, win it or bin it. That Yamaha front end worked again well, for although Rossi’s corner speed was slower than Lorenzo, who almost collided with Rossi at the apex, he was baulked sufficiently to cause a momentary hesitation and win the race by less than a 1/100th of a second.

Fantastic racing, fantastic skill, and a fantastic spectacle. Rossi has a challenger in Lorenzo who will not be easily cowed and has comparable skill and machinery. A statistic bandied about before the race was that Rossi has been beaten by his team mate 12 times in the MotoGP class. Six of these have been by Lorenzo. True, for many of Rossi’s races his team mate was Edwards, who you could say was fairly unlikely to challenge Valentino in this way. With Lorenzo, Yamaha have a second, strong championship challenger who is not there to make Valentino look good. Ducati must be very jealous.