Jerez Review: The Plot Thickens

There was a sweepstake in the Jerez press office on Saturday evening for the podium of the MotoGP race. 135 people entered but only three people got the podium right, which I suppose is about right considering the permutations. I was not one of them so I didn't win a pot of cash. I did get the right riders ... but in the wrong order.

I was convinced that Jorge Lorenzo was going to win, a thought process borne out of his string of 1m40s on race tyres before he bolted on his qualifiers on Saturday afternoon. When he did bolt on his Michelins, it was probably the best bit of qualifying I have ever seen. He was on another planet.

Jerez has a tendency to give us results that come out of the blue, but MotoGP itself may well be heading back that way after Dani Pedrosa's win last weekend at the Spanish track, especially as Ducati's reigning Champion, Casey Stoner, was stroppy and saggy-shouldered after dragging himself out of the gravel twice during the race.

Jorge Lorenzo celebrates in parc ferme © DPPI

For the Aussie it was actually a good result, as he tagged the back of Shinya Nakano's Honda before he went in the sandpit for the second time, so it could have been a non-score. Yet all of a sudden he looked like the Stoner we knew on the LCR Honda V5 in 2006 - something that we never, ever saw last year.

But Pedrosa doesn't care about Stoner nor Ducati; he is focused on getting his part of the job done. And goodness me, did he do it on Sunday. Even his mechanics were shaking their heads while reflecting upon the dominance of the little guy when they had a beer in their hands on Sunday night.

Dani's start was again, like Qatar, meteoric but then when he got into his rhythm the others had no chance. Not even the golden child Valentino Rossi could catch Pedrosa while he was setting a new lap record on lap three.

He did fourteen laps all within 0.8s while the tyres were at their best, by which time he had a 4.2s lead and backed off a bit after flicking the V4 to the next map. Then, and only then, did Rossi do a lap time faster than Pedrosa, and that was at the end of lap seventeen of twenty seven. The Repsol Honda cruised it from then on after the utterly explosive start to the race.

Which is more impressive - the fact that Pedrosa has still got a metal plate set into his right had after crashing in January, forcing him to be in a little pain and still in need of it to be dressed before each session?

Or that he is the smallest jockey you've ever seen on a MotoGP bike? He'd make Frankie Dettori look like Martin Johnson. Or, is it more impressive still that Pedrosa missed most of the pre-season testing because of that broken hand?

One thing that is on the horizon is a change in the whole 800cc order. Honda has been down and out for too long since Rossi left, winning just eight races since a lanky Italian and his Aussie mates thought they'd go to Yamaha for a laugh.

Honda has persevered with its direction and was really the strongest out there for the last four races of 2007, only netting one lone win with Pedrosa at Valencia. But that in itself is Pedrosa's Achilles heel in that he's not a Schwantz, Rossi or now a Toseland kind of racer. He likes to be in his own world at the racetrack (in more ways than one).

A team insider said last year, "That's what he is like. It's his way of doing it, but when he gets his race face on then it all goes to another level. Inside the garage it is his world. Nothing else matters."

Dani Pedrosa leads into the stadium section © DPPI

That illustrates why there is friction between Pedrosa and others around the paddock with his, 'I'm only here to race the bike and not be nice to people' attitude.

But as I'm someone with experience of motorsport, four laps on the back of Mamola's two-seater and a love of seeing a racer race above the upper level, it was worth his regular blank paddock po-face. Mighty does not get close.

Or was Rossi mighty? He was the one who rode the Yamaha on Bridgestones for just two days last November at Jerez, but it was cold and his hand was still not right after he whacked it in Valencia a month earlier.

He did just four tests before racing in Qatar and got onto the podium. In this day and age, with a data logger measuring everything on a MotoGP bike and requiring more and more parameters of set-up for the last 0.05s, he still makes the difference to get 20 points ahead of the rest.

It's no wonder the 46 lot were acting like they'd won the title, rather than having just scored second place. Maybe he had in his head what Mick Doohan used to say: 'Just let the Spaniards go. They only go quick in Spain.' Harsh, but sometimes true as they do find speed in Spain.

Lorenzo's pole position was the most incredible piece of qualifying I think I have ever seen. Seriously. He is another who blew us all out of the press office on Saturday, and another Spaniard who polarises opinion. He is not arrogant, but one hell of a confident guy. Look up confident in the dictionary.

However, just as confidence and speed were evident on the track during the weekend, Jerez also threw a curve ball at the strongest man on a motorcycle for the last 15 months.

Stoner was 11th in the race, and as one former champion said on Sunday, "It's on your bad days that you have to consolidate, bide your time and get the points. Other days you are going to win and that's fine, just as your opposition are on other days, but when you have a bad day you have to be as strong as you can and not lose it."

What must be more worrying is that the other three Ducatis were on the back row of the grid and Sylvain Guintoli crossed the line 19 seconds slower than he did last year on the troublesome Yamaha/Dunlop combination.

Casey Stoner runs off the road in Curva Dry Sack © DPPI

In his defence he has a wife at home on the brink of giving birth to their second child, just as Loris Capirossi was last here with his first. But even so, things did not look good.

So who is going to bounce back? Portugal has a straight to suit the Ducati but it isn't a Bridgestone favourite, while Tech 3 Yamahas of Edwards and Toseland will have 5mph more at Estoril with the same air valve engine that FIAT Yamaha have had.

China in month's time will give Honda a chance to hone its air valve engine and turn it into a rocket ship after its post-Portugal test, which in turn will put Nicky Hayden back in the front too. The scenario is deep!

The crystal ball that was rolled out at Jerez was enormous, but then again I should have listened to one of the paddock's wiser men. Iain McKay first worked in the paddock in 1963 for Jack Finlay. He was at Monza when the Hailwood six-cylinder Honda came out, and he's seen everything since. And he was one of the guys who went into the sweepstake on Saturday evening.

"I think I'd better put Nicky in third because I'm a Honda man," he said through the gravelly Scottish chords.

'Mac' stuck to what he thought and cooly picked up his cash on Sunday afternoon. He was one of the three in the press office who predicted Pedrosa from Rossi and Lorenzo, proving that 45 years of experience, and just a bit of luck, was what was needed to see that race result coming at Jerez.

It proves that this season is genuinely alive and not going to be a rout by Ducati. Or am I going to proven wrong, just as I was after writing that Honda needs to have a back-up plan if Pedrosa isn't fit enough for the season, and that it needs to get its air valve engine sorted otherwise it would get crushed ... Ha!

The atmosphere and plot surrounding the MotoGP championship after just two rounds makes Pulp Fiction look like a village play. Brilliant.