Exactly as Expected But ...

The Catalunya MotoGP turned out exactly as expected, but in spite of that, it was the most exciting race of the season. Air temperature: 40C, track temperature: 52C ... all bikes running "extra-hard" compound on the right side of the rear tyre. Classic, textbook Rossi race as the Doctor followed Lorenzo with a good start from both. Rossi cruised behind Lorenzo for the first 3 or 4 laps, waiting while his fuel load dropped and tyres scrubbed in. He then passed Lorenzo to set the pace, pulling his teamate clear of the other riders ... not that he needed any help. The race then broke into multiple two man battles: Rossi-Lorenzo, Stoner-Dovizioso, Pedrosa-Capirossi. At mid-race, Rossi calmly slowed, allowing Lorenzo past. He then followed and harrassed Jorge, showing him his front tyre multiple times, but visibly holding back on passing. Crossing the line with three laps to go, Vale pulled the pin and the race was on. This will be remembered as one of the all time great front runner battles. The Fiat Yamaha crew were glued to the monitors, sh*tting bricks. It looked certain that the two riders were going to take each other out in a tangle of twisted metal, shattered carbon fibre and broken bones. Rossi topped it off with a classic last-corner diving pass to take the checkered flag, his 99th GP win, by a mere 0.095 seconds. Behind them, Casey managed to stay in front of Dovizioso and grab the last podium step, just 5/100ths of a second ahead. Next group about 20 seconds back of the leader were the trio of Capirossi, Pedrosa and Edwards ... Colin must be devastated that he missed a 6th place finish ... must've had a bad start. Toni Elias DNF'd when he lost the front on a fast lefthand corner, both bike and rider sliding smoothly across the tarmac, hitting home track gravel. All three podium finishers are now tied with 106 points each in the championship, with 11 rounds to go. Having Lorenzo added to the Rossi-Stoner mix has sure made this a great year for MotoGP racing.