Wet and Wild

Normally wet races aren't particulary exciting. The fast riders go slow to ensure a finish of some sort while middle of the pack riders bet everything, hoping for a rare podium finish. Not this time. Lorenzo has become an incredibly smooth rider since 2010. He's rock solid and carves beautiful lines around a race track. All that smooth as silk riding translated into pulling away from the pack on the rain-soaked LeMans circuit. Pedrosa had his usual rocketship start, but he just doesn't like the wet so faded after not too many laps. Stoner stayed just behind Lorenzo ... but he recently announced his retirement planned for the end of this season, so his motivation is down a peg or two.

Now comes Rossi. From a third row start, he found the Ducati extremely stable in the wet and seemed to have more control in the corners than he usually does on a dry track. This seemed to click somewhere deep in his cortex and the old Rossi was raised from the dead. He battled with Dovi and Crutchlow for third, but they both eventually had off-track excursions trying to keep up. With Stoner in his sights, and the odd lapper to get in Stoner's way, he managed to catch Casey and dice it out with deep, tight passes in slippery corners. It all paid off in the end and Rossi grabbed the second step on the podium. Amazing. It's hard to say whether making it to the front of the pack has rekindled his drive to win, or whether it was just a rainy day fluke. One of the best wet races ever.

It's hard to say what will happen next. Stoner's retirement might take the edge off his motivation and Rossi's success may bring him out of "retirement". Certainly the bike is up to the task and the wet weather handling improvement may offer some clues to finally fixing the dry track problems. It seems to imply the chassis is still too stiff. Then there's Lorenzo. He's a match for Stoner's speed and he's got the smooth lines of Biaggi ... except he doesn't crash. He's also now leading the points race by eight points. The next dry race will be interesting. If Lorenzo beats Stoner, then the 2012 Championship could be his.

Special mention goes to Cal Crutchlow. Albeit he has lots of rain-riding experience coming from the UK, but outside of the Rossi-Stoner battle, his chicane shortcuts and hard diving passes inside Dovizioso in waterlogged corners were the most exciting moments of the race.