GP Motorcycle Racing

[Rasputin]

What a day for the Fiat Yamaha team and what a start to the season for all MotoGP fans. It looked like the Japanese GP would be another rain delayed event but the clouds parted seemingly just for today's race. Valentino Rossi started on pole with Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo, the order decided by Friday practice times after qualifying was cancelled due to the heavy rains. By the checkered flag it was Lorenzo that took the win, followed by teammate Rossi. Stoner was missing from the podium; the best he could earn was fourth.



Race winner Jorge Lorenzo, Fiat Yamaha Team celebrates. Photo by Yamaha Motor Racing.



The Fiat Yamaha team couldn't have asked for a better finish in their home country. For Lorenzo, this win is affirmation he is back in good health and ready to renew his title fight. At the start the Spaniard fell behind but was soon able to contend with Dani Pedrosa for second. Meanwhile Rossi was trying to pull a clean lead over their battle. However, the reigning champ wasn't able to escape his teammate's clutches once Lorenzo dispatched Pedrosa. The Yamaha riders had a good spar, with Lorenzo finally breaking free and leaving Rossi to defend for second. The Spaniard now leads the title fight, one point over Rossi and three over Stoner.

"First of all I just want to thank my team, my Mum, Dad and whole family, my friends and all the team workers," said the smiling Lorenzo. "Also Yamaha, as it is their home race, it was a difficult race because I didn't really get a very good start, I think I even finished the first lap in third or fourth. After that I began to catch up the pace. I passed Valentino and opened up a little gap, about a second and a half, and he was following me very hard. I had to ride the best I can to get the victory."

Rossi had the initial pace but as the laps wore on it was clear the Italian wasn't 100 percent happy with the bike. Once his teammate slipped past he had to fight hard to keep Pedrosa from following suit.

"It was a great race, long, very difficult and also physical," explained Rossi. "I got a really good start from the front row, but there was a part of the race that I wasn't quite able to ride like I wanted, there was some kind of problem and I wasn't fast enough to pull away.

"It's a good race, second place is not a victory but it's still twenty points for the championship. I think the championship will become very interesting now because we have four riders ready to battle for wins at the end," added the Italian.

Pedrosa made his Repsol Honda team proud today, as the Motegi Circuit is owned by Honda. While they couldn't beat the Yamaha riders they did at least podium on their own stomping grounds. The team is now second for the manufacturer's title. Both Pedrosa and teammate Andrea Dovizioso -- who finished fifth today -- are showing the new Honda package can take the fight to their rival teams.

"I'm very happy with this result," said Pedrosa. "I've had injury problems for a long time - since last October - and so to be on the podium in the second race of the season is fantastic for me, and really we didn't expect this so soon."

It's a rare occasion to see Stoner off the top three, especially when he started from the front row. Within the first lap it was clear the Australian was struggling, according to the team the streaming data showed a nasty vibration on his front end. Stoner fell to as low as sixth before methodically working his way to fourth. After dominating the Qatar GP the Ducati bike has shown a chink in its armor and allowed Lorenzo and Rossi to close into what will surely be a three-way battle for most of the season.

"We have had the same issues as everybody else," speculated Stoner, "in that we haven't had time to set the bike up but all in all I think we were capable of at least matching the lap times of the front guys -- we just lost too much time at the start. On the warm-up lap I felt I a lot of chatter from the front brakes, they weren't smooth and I wasn't confident over the first five or six laps. I really didn't know what to do, I wasn't able to brake where I wanted to and I wasn't confident. Maybe I could have gone faster but I don't know how safe that would have been. Anyway, I lost a lot of positions at the beginning of the race and I spent too much time battling to get past. When I got closer to the front it was a bit too late, unfortunately. I tried to stay as consistent as I could and when I got closer to Andrea I rode a bit harder because I saw it was possible to pass him. So the race was not completely lost, we didn't lose that many points and this is a much better start to the season than last year, so we can definitely feel positive going into the next one."

The next one is the Spanish GP in at the Circuito de Jerez next week. It will be a long fight back to Europe and the teams will be frontally working all week to get everything sorted for their European tour. Spanish riders seem to excel at their home tracks. Three races are scheduled in the sunny country this year, both Lorenzo and Pedrosa will be looking to win each one. The battle between the two today is an exciting foreshadow to what lies ahead. Throw Stoner and Rossi into the mix and each race will be up for grabs to anyone.

[Rasputin]

MotoGP championship leader Jorge Lorenzo had the best time in the first free practice Friday for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard had a fastest lap of 1 minute, 49.87 seconds to edge Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi by 0.195 seconds.

Ducati's Casey Stoner was third and Dani Pedrosa fourth, as the placings mirrored the top four of the world championship standings.

Rossi, the defending world champion, is seeking to win his eighth straight Italian GP, and a win on Sunday would put him ahead of Lorenzo in the overall standings.

Stoner, who is seeking his third podium finish of the season, finished 0.27 seconds behind Lorenzo.

Italian rider Nicole Canape had the day's only crash, but recovered to finish in 14th place.

There is another free practice on Saturday before afternoon qualifying for Sunday's race.

[Rasputin]

Italian Valentino Rossi won the Catalunya MotoGP here on Sunday, beating Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo after an audacious move on the final corner of a thrilling last lap.

In what must have been one of the most exciting finishes to a major Grand Prix race, the lead exchanged three times on the final lap as Lorenzo desperately tried to give the Spanish fans a home win.

However, Rossi displayed all the nervelessness and gifts that have brought him so much success over the years to get past him on the final corner to take the chequered flag for his 99th victory in a major race.

"It was a great race and so exciting," said Rossi. "It was so unbelievable and Jorge was so great."

Lorenzo, who has admitted that he is not the best of friends with Rossi off the track, added: "It was a memorable race. Valentino and me did our best to give a spectacle.

"We will see what happens in the next race," said the 22-year-old, who now shares the overall standings lead with Rossi and Australian Casey Stoner, the trio locked on 106 points after six races.

Stoner, the 2007 world champion and the series leader going into the race, was third, eight seconds adrift.

Lorenzo and Rossi swapped the lead over several laps, and the Italian bided his time before overtaking his Spanish rival with three laps remaining.

Lorenzo then edged ahead with two laps remaining but very briefly as Rossi got down the inside of the Spaniard with a daring move which saw the Italian have to bring his leg in so as not to touch Lorenzo.

With five laps to go Stoner was completely out of contention, trailing by over seven seconds, and had to settle for third and a share of the overall lead.

Earlier Spaniard Alvaro Bautista, riding an Aprilia, won the 250cc race.

Bautista, whose victory consolidated his position atop the riders' overall standings, finished more than seven seconds up on second-placed Hiroshi Aoyama of Japan.

Defending world champion and winner in Catalunya last year, Marco Simoncelli, fell during the third lap and although he tried to get back on his bike, was forced to pull out.

There was a more farcical end to the 125cc race.

Italian Andrea Iannone, riding an Aprilia, won but only after a terrible mistake by Spanish pole-sitter Julien Simon.

Iannone battled for top spot with Simon throughout the race but triumphed when the latter launched a premature celebration thinking he had won the race.

Simon crossed the line in first place with one lap to go of the 22-lap race, promptly slowed down and raced his fist in apparent triumph.

That allowed Iannone to fly past and take his third win of the year, following three difficult races for the Italian in recent weeks.

Nico Terol finished second, with Simon demoted to fourth on a photo finish with his Bancaja Aspar team-mate Sergio Gadea.