Spanish MotoGP - Valencia

Last race of the season, and very little to play for except pride. Vale has won his Championship and Stoner has captured second over Pedrosa. Now for the minor placings. In qualifying earleir Casey took his Ducati to pole position, with Pedrosa, finding new confidence in his Bridgestone tyres on the front row, with Nicky Hayden in 3rd spot.

Ok, you might say, predictable and boring... but as this is MotoGP, it's almost certainly not going to be so. For example: Nicky Hayden posted the fastest times in drier conditions. So ultimately, he's possibly the quickest rider out there. And Colin Edwards and his teammate, our James Toseland are just behind in 4th and 5th. Lorenzo is in 7th, Dovizioso 9th, and Rossi is in 10th spot. This means the mix of usually fast and slow are completely turned upside down, with only Stoner being in a predictable position.

So, either Stoner is going to shoot off and eventually lose everyone, or this is going to be one hell of a race. And because nobody has anything to lose, they can all go for it wth complete adandon. Is Rossi going to carve his way from 10th to win..? If anyone can do it, he can, and has done before. Can't wait to find out..!

Here's the line up:

Valencia MotoGP qualifying:

1 Casey Stoner (Aus) Ducati 1:31.502

2 Dani Pedrosa (Spn) Honda 1:31.555

3 Nicky Hayden (US) Honda 1:31.703

4 Colin Edwards (US) Yamaha 1:32.212

5 James Toseland (GB) Yamaha 1:32.518

6 Randy de Puniet (Fr) Honda 1:32.572

7 Jorge Lorenzo (Spn) Yamaha 1:32.594

8 Loris Capirossi (Ita) Suzuki 1:32.614

9 Andrea Dovizioso (Ita) Honda 1:32.734

10 Valentino Rossi (Ita) Yamaha 1:32.962

Who won then?

Well it wasn't a brilliant race today. That's a few this season in amongst the rest of the 18. Rossi played his part as usual, to make the race as good as possible, starting way down the grid in 10th, but coming through the field to 3rd. In fact, he did his passing in very few laps, and only settled for 3rd when his pace against Pedrosa was too slow for even him to maintain the momentum. Out in front, Stoner did as I predicted he might, and buggered off in style, wringing every last drop of performance out of the wriggling, twisting Ducati. For the purist, it was good to watch, in the absence of real cut and thrust racing. Pedrosa smoothly kept up his pace in 2nd, but Stoner kept responding. Nicky Hayden promised a great performance, but he suddenly lost loads of grip, and kept going wide through the corners. This sometimes happens, and it may have been that his tyres had started to shred, or that he just had too much heat in them. He recovered his composure, but never threatened again. His apparent nemesis, that is Dovizioso, caught him and eventually passed him to finish 4th. James Toseland's race was a huge disappointment. Starting on the 2nd row in 5th, he baulked his getaway, and got swallowed up, ending up in 12th position at the end of the 1st lap. He finished 11th, after some dicing with Dovizioso, Lorenzo, Hopkins, etc.. and even Melandri on the other factory Ducati. In fact, Melandri turned out to be a bit of a surprise, as all season his head has been elsewhere, as he has been unable to get the speed into the same Ducati that Stoner wrings the neck off practically every race. But in Valencia, although he qualified last, at half distance, he suddenly found the way to ride the bike, and started passing people left, right and centre. It was quite fun to see his return to form, although he still finished outside the top 10. Here's hoping he can do something for his new team, Kawasaki, next season. Frankly, I doubt it. They are actually slower this season than last, and they were slow then, so they've very much gone backward. Their engine is slow and underpowered, the bike has no grip, and they look foolish as satellite teams from other manufacturers blast past them. I think it says enough that there are no Kawasaki satellite teams..! Melandri is a 5-time MotoGP race winning rider, and was short odds to be a future World Champion only a season ago, and so IMO it's completely the wrong move for him to go to Kwacker. But then again, it's still probably better for him than staying at Ducati. How things can change in so short a time.

But there was no change of circumstances for Valentino. It was a day for records, and most of them were captured by Rossi. He scored the most points anyone has in one season; something he'd previously shared with Stoner, and he also scored the most podiums anyone has had during a season. No doubt, next season he'll resume improving his number of wins record in the Premier Class as, according to his interview with Suzi on TV, he still has the same hunger as he had when he first started. Which kind of bodes ill for his competitors, but improves things enormously for us spectators. The sport will be immensely the poorer when he eventually retires.

Valencia MotoGP result:

1. Casey Stoner (Australia) Ducati 46 mins 46.114 secs

2. Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda 46:49.504

3. Valentino Rossi (Italy) Yamaha 46:58.308

4. Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Honda 47:10.273

5. Nicky Hayden (U.S.) Honda 47:12.346

6. Colin Edwards (U.S.) Yamaha 47:18.323

7. Shinya Nakano (Japan) Honda 47:20.685

8. Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha 47:21.775

9. Loris Capirossi (Italy) Suzuki 47:24.342

10. Alex de Angelis (San Marino) Honda 47:33.697

World Championship standings:

1 V Rossi (Ita) Yamaha 373 points - world champion

2 C Stoner (Aus) Ducati 280

3 D Pedrosa (Spn) Honda 249

4 J Lorenzo (Spn) Yamaha 190

5 A Dovizioso (Ita) Honda 175

6 N Hayden (US) Honda 155

7 C Edwards (US) Yamaha 144

8 C Vermeulen (Aus) Suzuki 128

9 S Nakano (Jpn) Honda 126

10 L Capirossi (Ita) Suzuki 118

Thank you Beeb.

Who won then?

Go watch the race on iPlayer.

Go watch the race on iPlayer.

Not now I've read the result

Not now I've read the result

Nice to know I have a readership..!