MotoGP Valencia Review: Spanish Fly

I have a saying about championship tables. It doesn't matter in which way you add up the points from each race, they still come to the same total. It's the truth table.

Dani Pedrosa scored more points in the truth table than Valentino Rossi over the 2007 season, meaning that for the first time since 1996 - count those years; 11 seasons, folks - Rossi has been demoted to lower than third in the world title.

It's all a bit of a shock as the mask of the ever-smiling, seemingly immortal, fun-loving hero that is Valentino Rossi slips just a little.

The rider of the number 26 Repsol Honda, Pedrosa, is not everyone's favourite subject to interview, but he has recently started to come out of his shell whenever you catch him on his own.

Dani Pedrosa © DPPI

But that matters little when it comes down to riding a bike. He is focused on riding in a manner that makes Mick Doohan look like he was out for a Sunday afternoon ride to the coast.

That is how Pedrosa works. It's not the attitude of swanning round the place with his head up his backside thinking he is holier than thou. No. He is just in a trance, from when he arrives at the track to returning home on Monday afternoon. Bike. Tyres. Race.

It is a stunning way of going racing and it works for him all day, every day. Three world titles says as much.

For Pedrosa to win at the weekend in Valencia was a stunning illustration of his anger at what a weird season he has had throughout 2007 on the all-new Honda RC 212V.

The disasters started early, with the bike hardly rattling the top speed sheets, and then he was knocked off on the first lap in Istanbul. He wouldn't have won that race, but he would have been further up than most people had thought.

It rained in Le Mans, although he proved he could ride in the rain at last, despite having the softest wet Michelin out there.

It rained again at Donington, leaving him a bit unlucky at having more than one wet race in a year, although with 18 races now rather than the 14 of only a decade ago, the chances do grow...

It then became apparent that overheating was a fundamental problem for the Honda, leaving it strangled if he got in traffic or when the sun really got hot.

But he managed to keep out of people's tracks when needed. Look at Germany - the hottest race of the year, and he won it by a whole sector on the race track. It was a demonstration that the engineers reveled in, while Pedrosa probably thought he should have got 30 points, not just 25...

Portugal was a massive loss for him, and you could see in his eyes that he was getting annoyed with the lack of pace from the Michelins underneath his bike while Rossi ran away with the win.

Motegi was his. It was going to be easy. But then it rained again. He stayed out on tyres that were shot, and he stayed out too long. Over he went, straight out the front door. He couldn't walk properly for a week.

Dani Pedrosa en route to pole position in Motegi © DPPI

If only there were ship-to-shore radios allowed, but that option was drummed out of the rule book years ago, to the delight of some riders. After Motegi, many silently wished they hadn't voted for it, but I won't get on that hobby horse.

Pole for the last four races proved that the Michelins had taken a turn for the better after Misano, and that they were on the pace in qualifying, at least. With the difficulty of overtaking at some tracks this year, starting at the sharp end was Clermont Ferrand's way of at least helping out a bit.

Sunday at Valencia was another Sachsenring-like demonstration. And Stoner had a go too; he didn't just roll over because the championship was his. Oh no. Little 52kg Dani chucked that 230bhp Honda around like it was a Supermotard.

There was anger being vented at the weekend, plus the 'Spanish effect' of it being a home race. Doohan always said that the locals go well is Spain, it was just the other countries where the setting was returned to normal.

One could say, though, that going into the winter, Honda should be a great deal happier than two months ago. They have a rider who has stopped whining about wanting Bridgestones, he's won a race by belting the others into next week, and Michelin have forgiven Pedrosa for wanting to go Japanese with the tyres.

And that's before we remember that before Hayden blew up in Australia, he was closing on eventual winner Casey Stoner. Double-edged take on that scenario, but you know what I mean.

In the meantime, Yamaha turned up with a pneumatic valve engine that blew up in Misano and Valencia, although they must have turned it up to 11 with Rossi starting second-last on the grid after lobbing it in qualifying.

Ironically, the rain in Japan was a disaster for Rossi, who did not even do one lap slicks before coming in, so convinced was he that there was a brake problem. It was actually the Michelins taking three laps to warm up...

All of this helped Pedrosa to keep his head down and fight through to that second in the world championship. Pedrosa and Hayden tested the 2008 Honda on Tuesday at Valencia, and you have to believe that the pneumatic valve-topped heads will turn things around. Well, they have to, don't they?

Valentino Rossi leads Dani Pedrosa at Estoril © DPPI

The Spanish newspaper that I saw on Monday hailed him as the 'vice champion' - a hateful expression - but it meant that he was only beaten by one other person, rather than the two that Rossi was. It meant more to the headline writer that he was the championship runner-up, rather than winning the race in Valencia.

Could Pedrosa have been higher up the truth table come the end of the year? Yes.

Could Rossi have been higher up the truth table come the end of the year? Yes.

However, they didn't, as Stoner got more. The thing is though, Pedrosa beat Rossi and didn't complain about it en route.

This time next year it will be very interesting to see whether it was the Yamaha or the Bridgestones that made Valentino Rossi's season. Rossi is on the back foot, waiting to get permission to ride them while his hand gets better over the next three weeks.

Pedrosa, meanwhile, has already started 2008 with the new Honda last Tuesday.

One-nil to Pedrosa...