Haven’t bothered with a thread this year, because understandably there isn’t a huge amount of interest on these boards.
But, its been a cracking world championship and it moves to Phillip Island this week so a local flavour is in play.
Today’s Japanese Gp was fascinating. Valentino Rossi lead the title race by 14 points going in, having put together a year of racing smart rather than being the outright quickest. But Lorenzo - 2nd in the Championship - took pole position and in wet (but drying) conditions blasted to a four second lead half way through the race, looking unbeatable. However, in doing so his front tyre copped a fearful hammering as the drying track overheated the wets and started to break down the rubber.
Meanwhile, 8 seconds behind Lorenzo in third place, the Honda of Dani Pedrosa suddenly found the track temp to his tyres liking and started ripping out fastest laps. Rossi in second found his 4 second buffer shredded inside three laps and couldn’t prevent the Honda getting through. With 8 laps to go, the current positions had Rossi’s championship lead cut to just 5 points and he looked gone.
Pedrosa, however, was now flying and shortly afterwards had carved Lorenzo’s lead back to nothing. He got through with ease, and Rossi’s points buffer crept back out to 9.
Somehow, a final twist eventuated in the last 4 laps with Valentino able to up his pace again, despite slow-mo footage showing chunks of rubber being shed by both his, and Lorenzo’s, front ends. He closed onto Lorenzo’s rear wheel, and under pressure, or due to a front that refused to turn in (likely both) Jorge out broke himself and ran wide. He gifted Rossi a 2 second gap and with 3 laps to go it was a matter for both Yamaha riders to not bin the bike on dodgy fronts.
End result is that Rossi miraculously extended a Championship lead when 8 laps earlier it looked impossible for it not to be slashed to near zero.
So he hits Phillip Island with an 18 point advantage, 3 races left in the series. Lorenzo should be quickest at PI. Should. But there is an argument to be made that if he can win his 7th Motogp championship , at age 36, then this could well be Valentino’s finest of all. He has only won three races this season, but he has podiumed in every race bar one. Lorenzo and Marquez have won more often, but have also made some horrible errors.
Fingers crossed here that all contenders stay upright, and that The Doctor gets home for a final World Championship. And then I hope he retires, a perfect way for a deadset legend to bid farewell.