It was incredible. I could never have imagined such a race. Such ferocity. Such rivalry. The drama that ensued. The joys and tears.

I hope ALL motoGP fans or even mini-fans watched the race yesterday.

The Greatest Race

Here’s a quick summary of yesterday’s mega awesomeness.

Lorenzo starts pole position, followed by Rossi and then Stoner. The red light goes off, and the three played a tight race. I mean wheel to wheel tight. Rossi overtakes Lorenzo. Then Lorenzo took the lead back.

After half the race, Stoner couldn’t keep up with the crazy Yamahas. He had to contend with Dovizioso for third. All this time, the rest of the race has got fierce battles going on simultaneously. But the camera had to focus on the two Fiat team mates.

Rossi stayed extremely close to Lorenzo, doing his classic Rossi pressure. Usually, the guy in front would crack and Rossi would take the chance and slide through, then leave the poor bugger alone. But that’s not the case of Jorge Lorenzo. He’s a daredevil on his own grounds. Lorenzo got to be the champion of the 250 cc because he’s got the same crazies as Rossi.

Lorenzo didn’t budge. But when its 3 laps to go, Rossi slid through at the smallest gap. Incredible. But no, Jorge wouldn’t let the italian go through to win at Catalunya, Jorge’s own home ground. And guess what, Lorenzo beat Rossi again. Rossi stayed right on Lorenzo’s rear tyres. And now we enter the last lap, in what appears to be the greatest battle in history of motorcycle racing.

3 corners to go, Rossi cuts through Lorenzo. 2 corners. Lorenzo slips through. LAST CORNER. Valentino Rossi goes through and sped off to the flag. Jorge Lorenzo came second. Stoner had a dogfight with Dovizioso but managed to stay third.

But the drama’s just begun.

Rossi was happy, Lorenzo seem disappointed. Stoner; He cried. He couldn’t get off the bike. His wife was patting him on the arms. Then he went off and broke down, away from the camera. He caused a delay in the winners getting on the podium.

Rossi paid homage to the Spanish crowd by bowing to them face to face. Then Lorenzo did the same, showing his respect and appreciation to the fans. It was awesome. Historic. Epic.

Then they went to podium. Stoner was up there, but he was limp. As if he couldn’t carry himself. He could barely pop the champagne. His face was red.

The two Yamaha Gilas went crazy with the champagne.

Then the interview; Lorenzo said something that sounded a bit like a brushoff to Rossi’s comments. Oooh, is it gonna be a great rivalry between these two? I wouldn’t mind watching that!

Valentino Rossi is the greatest rider the world has ever known.

It has been a day of races. Earlier at noon, Motogp was held in Motegi, Japan. And later at night, the historical F1 Singapore Night Race. And even though F1 was so much closer to home, well, it IS home, I still felt more excitement watching motogp, where the 2008 world champion was decided today.

Valentino Rossi could win the championship title just by finishing top 5, in the worst case scenario where the number 2 man, Stoner finishes first. But that’s not Rossi’s style. He had to go out and WIN the race. And what a fight he gave.

The first 1/3 of the race was superbly nailbiting. With the top racers of the season battling neck to neck for a lead. It was Rossi vs Stoner vs Pedrosa. Closely followed by the likes of Nicky Hayden and Jorge Lorenzo. It was awesome!

But later on, Pedrosa dropped behind a bit, and faces Lorenzo in a hard battle for third position. Meanwhile Stoner and Rossi had it out, again! How many races this season have seen these two racers battle out in close quarters!

If Faster, the docudrama hosted by Ewan McGreggor, was made featuring Rossi and Biaggi rivalry, there should be a sequel to really portray an even more awesome rivalry between the superskilled and crazy Valentino Rossi and the rather skilled, arrogant but with a hot wife Casey Stoner.

Stoner’s trying his best not to be the villian, as Biaggi had before. But I just don’t like him. It’s his style. He’ll ride fast at first (thanks to his Ducati) and lead alone. But he’ll never be able to confidently overtake someone as well as Rossi or Pedrosa could. He’s pretty cowardly when it comes to overtaking. Plus, he’s never happy with any results if its not 1st. One time he actually shakes his head in disapproval to his crew as he rolls in 2nd.

And his victory celebrations can bore me to death. Makes the entire race not worth watching. Unlike Rossi’s antics every time he wins a race.

And what a show he gave when he clinched the 2008 World Champion title today. He went to a table which mysteriously appeared in the middle of the track, and made some dealings with a man in a suit. Reports later claim that he’s going to the Doctor’s office to get his “Doctor”’s license back. And he wears a shirt that says “sorry for the delay”. All these to signify his return to the champion position after two years of letting it slip to Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner.

Boy, do I write a lot when I’m sleepy.

The F1 night race was my first time watching an F1 race, ever. Still I didn’t watch it fully. Just the first few laps and the last 18 laps. It bored me a little, but the crashes made it slightly more interesting.

The circuit looks great, except for the fact that the entire circuit was lined up with cages. That totally removes the “Need for Speed” image I had in my head when they say ‘Night Race’. But still, it looks impressive when they zip by all the familiar landmarks in Singapore.

It’s not really an interesting race, well, except for the fact that Stoner crashed OUT… AGAIN!

This time, I actually felt pity for the dude. I’d wanted Rossi to kick his ass the old fashion way, beating him in the race itself. But the overambitious whiny Aussie kept pushing himself too hard and he fell down in the last three races, crashing out in the two of them, causing V.Rossi to take the lead and now get a 70+ point lead in the tables.

That’s not all that makes me happy. Jorge Lorenzo, who’s had a poor couple of races, crashing out in some, has come back to 2nd place today! It was a beauty watching two FIAT Yamahas leading the pack, and I’d be even happier if Pedrosa could take 3rd, but I guess Tony Elias got a break today, clinching his rare podium finish.

Pedrosa’s a good racer. Crazy devil, my friend would call him. Lorenzo finished poorly in the last race but I guess that’s just him pacing to strike more ‘gold’ as his helmet suggested. (He wears a golden Chupa-chups helmet)

I was lucky enough to watch the repeat telecast of the race, but I had to run off before the celebrations and the crazy antics I’m sure Rossi did. All thanks to a cockup in my reservist unit, causing me to go back to the faraway camp just to sort things out. Damn.

1. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team (B) 44min 41.884 secs
2. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha Team (M) 44min 45.047 secs
3. Toni Elias SPA Alice Team (B) 44min 53.589 secs
4. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (M) 44min 59.354 secs

Pics and Stats from fasterandfaster.net

The day of the Doctor’s return had arrived. Where to begin?!

Rossi’s victory antics were very welcomed today. Lorenzo’s racing well despite broken ankle

Valentino Rossi, SEVEN time motogp champion, has finally returned to the podium, clinching first place. I seriously hope this is a first of many, for this season. He only managed to claim the 1st position a couple of times in the last season, which led to Stoner’s eventual victory as champion. And who knows what the hell happened when Nicky Hayden won the championship the year before that.

Rossi was on form today, even though the road was glistening after the rain. He had a fantastic neck to neck race with Dani Pedrosa, who currently leads the championship. Dani eventually trailed off after breathing down Rossi’s back tires for 3/4 of the race. Awesome action for the number 1 spot.

Stoner had a ‘lonely’ ride at third place, enough to be clear of the pursuing Lorenzo, but too far behind to catch up with Rossi & Pedrosa. He seemed pissed. Right after the race, he began discussing technicalities with his pit crew, who didn’t look too interested. What’s happening to him? Adriana’s still hot.

But I still think the star is Lorenzo! He had an accident on the track on Friday. And rumours are circulating that he might miss Shanghai. Instead, not only did he attend the race, he climbed from 8th position all the way to 4th, and almost made it to third. He finished fourth, behind Stoner, ahead of other Motogp veterans.

Lorenzo’s injury on Friday. Shanghai pit girls.

The dude’s awesome. What I really wanna see is Lorenzo and Rossi leading the championship, battling hard every single race. But Pedrosa’s really good too. Oh well, this is truly turning out to be a great season.

One observation I made is that so far, every race had been won by a different racer. 1st race won by Stoner, 2nd race won by Pedrosa, 3rd by Lorenzo, and 4th race by Rossi. For the 2nd till 4th race, the podium people are always the same. The championship is really anyone’s game right now.

Anyways, photo courtesy of various sources and especially to fasterandfaster.net. Head over there for more.

I knew that this day would come. Lorenzo would eventually win his first motogp victory. And he won with such style and finesse that I think he might one day succeed Rossi as the crowd favourite.

The standings are as follows:

1. Jorge Lorenzo [48] – Yamaha Fiat Team
2. Dani Pedrosa [2] – Honda Repsol Team
3. Valentino Rossi [46] – Yamaha Fiat Team

And what did Lorenzo do when he won? He rode on the last ‘courtesy’ lap with a flag in his hand, and when he reached the crowd, he did a ‘moonwalk’ and planted the flag of his name in the sand. Later, in the podium, he did a stupid little dance. Haha. You’ll never get this with someone as boring as Stoner. Rossi’s victory antics are also amusing to watch, but he hasn’t won yet… Although I think this season MIGHT just be his comeback season.

Only time will tell.

Later…

Valentino Rossi (46) and Jorge Lorenzo (48), team mates in what I foresee to be a tight and fierce rivalry in the races to come. [source] I’m glad that fasterandfaster website got a proper domain name. It’s a great site with lots of awesome motogp pics and news.

The latest motogp race, held in Spain, saw home boy Dani Pedrosa winning 1st place, followed by Rossi (yeah!) and super motogp rookie, current 250cc world champ, Lorenzo (hells yeah!).

Rossi, Pedrosa and Lorenzo. Great riders. Well-deserved podium finish. [source]

I really loved this race. The final results was one reason, but the other reason is that the super boring world champ, Casey Stoner, went out early in lap 2! He overshot his corner and ended in the sand pits. But he tried to come back, struggling from last place to 11th.THEN HE WENT OUT AGAIN! Hahaha! I was freakin’ happy. Really sick of seeing him win every single freakin’ time. Unchallenged, and totally boring.

Rossi vs Lorenzo is definitely an awesome sight to watch. They both ride with the same outfit, and the friendly rivalry looks really fierce. I saw them make hand gestures to each other throughout the race. Don’t know what they mean though. They weren’t offensive gestures, by the way.

After the race, they showed Stoner sitting down, really upset that he went out early. When I saw that, I kinda felt sorry for him. But a friend told me, that there’s no need to, coz’ he got a hot wife. True that.

I had missed the live telecast due to the exams, but I caught the repeat telecast of MotoGP Qatar later at night, after evading any smses or web feeds regarding the results. So to me, it was as good as live.

Everything was sparkling. It’s the first night race, much like how Singapore’s gonna hold the first F1 night race. The flood lights made everything sparkle and shine. Quite a breathtaking sight. And it’s even more breathtaking to see the new bikes, like Stoner’s new number 1 Ducati, and the highlight: Rossi and Lorenzo sharing the same uniform and bike, under yamaha.

I had hopes that Rossi’s poor performance last season was just a one time thing, and so when Rossi took the first position early in the race, I was enthralled! Then Lorenzo caught up to 2nd! I was freaking excited now… Two crazy ass riders leading the race. Both under the same team. The boring Stoner took 5th.

But as the events played out, Stoner slowly crept up to 1st and led. Lorenzo beat Rossi, and led a high speed chase on Stoner. Rossi now dangles in 3rd. Then Pedrosa pushed Rossi back to 4th.

But that’s not the worst for the 5 time world champ, as some new rookie began overtaking Rossi. He battled for 4th place and actually won Valentino Rossi. By now my thoughts were: Rossi’s reign has truly ended. Stoner’s taken over the throne. And the only contender worth watching out for is the crazy spanish dude Lorenzo, who I must say, reminds me a lot of Rossi himself.

Jorge Lorenzo. Amazing debut, getting 2nd place on his first MotoGP race.

All that’s left to watch now is Lorenzo, the champion of the 250cc fighting Stoner, the champion of the previous season’s MotoGP.

The only good thing about Stoner winning the race is that we get to see more of his wife, Adriana.

Stoner and Adriana

It was nearest to my home, compared to other motoGP locales. But I was glad I didn’t go. Coz it was plain BORING.

But luckily, I started watching the race of 250 cc first. It turned out to be quite good. Sure the bikes weren’t as big as the 800 cc ones, but the race was tight. The top 4 or 5 places were never determined or confirmed. And the racers were quite crazy too, making risky overtakes and such.

I’m not saying it’s more interesting than motoGP 800cc, but it might just be as exciting to watch.

This race, at Sepang, saw the crowning of a world champion for 250 cc. Jorge Lorenzo. The Spaniard. He’s got a hell of a showmanship. He finished third this race but it was enough to get him the points to secure the championship. Then he celebrated with a flair that could only remind me of Valentino Rossi’s celebration & antics. He did all sorts of stunts on his bike during the last ‘courtesy round’ (forgot what it’s called) while holding a Spanish flag. Then he proceeded to act more crazy all the way to the podium.

The 250 race today also saw one of the racers hitting another racer while cornering, resulting in one of them skidding out of the track. It was 2 laps to go and the guy was in the 3rd or 4th position. He got up from the skid and looked to the sky and had a sort of like “Why GOD! Why!?” gesture with his arms and head. Such a waste.

Anyways, MotoGP ranks as follow:

1. Casey Stoner (pfft, again… bloody sick of his monotonous riding)
2. Marco Melandri
3. Dani Pedrosa
4. Randy dePuniet (was just talking about him the other day. My friends said that he’s really good. Now I see why. Next year he’s moving from Kawasaki to Honda I heard)
5. Valentino Rossi (had a bad start at 11th place, and worked his way up to 5th, but couldn’t get past dePuniet)

I was considering going there to watch the race actually. But luckily I didn’t. It was damn boring.

Jorge Lorenzo, 250 cc World Champion 

Phillip Islands is beautiful. It’s a seaside race track, with green fields all around. The weather is nice and sunny. And the race is AWESOME!

The first half of the race is full of action. Malandri and Pedrosa’s exchanging positions constantly, Rossi overtaking every race to get to second place, Hayden’s good start ruined by a problematic bike, and many more!

The commentators kept saying how Nicky Hayden’s reign as World Champion had ended with Stoner taking over the title weeks ago. Then when the race starts, Hayden’s off to chase Stoner’s ass. Even Rossi can’t take him till much later when his bike began to give problems. You could see how furious he was when he made his exit.

Rossi’s team sports a new look, again. Someone should tell him that it’s not the look that will make him win races, its a change of manufacturer. Yamaha’s giving him a lot of problems and as a result, he can’t perform as well as he should be. There were problems with tyres too somehow, with all the racers.

The result of this one:

1. Stoner (Ducati)
2. Capirossi (Ducati)
3. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)

It’s cool to see Rossi finish Podium again, even though it isn’t first. Two red ducatis in the top two is also quite a sight. Capirossi overtook Rossi when it’s almost the end of the race, probably around 8 or 9 laps to go.

Rossi’s new look, again. Source: motogp.com

Before the race, in the ‘On the Grid’ preview show, the Yamaha spokesperson actually said something in the lines of, “We’re happy to have Rossi join us after he’s gained so many championships with Honda. We’re not looking for a leading team member, not looking for a winner. We’re looking for a strong rider to help us improve the bike.”

What the hell man. What the bloody hell. You race to bloody win. MotoGP some more. Rossi should move to another maker. Capirossi’s going under Suzuki next year. Rossi should leave Yamaha for good.

Stoner’s girlfriend, now wife, is pretty hot. Source: dipag.com (obviously)

The side bar video keep cocking up. So here’s the video I was talking about few weeks back in my motogp post. Rossi beats Stoner, absolutely!