MotoGP Review: Uneven Playing Field

It's three hours after the race here in the Laguna Seca press office, and my chest still hurts from a quite incredible race. Just where in heaven's name did that come from?!

Ducati and Casey Stoner had the US GP won on Friday morning. End of story. Or so we thought. We had stupidly forgotten the genius that is Valentino Rossi and the brains of Yamaha's Jerry Burgess to outwit an Aussie on a faster bike.

I should have remembered the words of Joe Skidd, the Ohlins suspension technician for Rossi when he was at Aprilia 250 back in 1999: "Sometimes we'd sit down on Saturday night and really not have a clue where we were going to find the lap time for the race the next day. We'd sort of chuck a setting in and just know that Valentino would do the rest."

Last Sunday at Laguna was one of those days, and to a massive degree.

Stoner went into the race having been fastest in every session, under the pole record of last year by 10:30 on Friday morning. With six minutes remaining in that session, Rossi was 1.25 seconds behind the No.1 Ducati. It was set to be another very successful Monday for Ducati sales in California, with Yamaha again going home with a small trophy from Laguna Seca.

Rossi was struggling to get to know the track in four hours over Friday and Saturday with Bridgestones underneath him for the first time on American soil, but he kept cool enough to not get flustered by Stoner's sheer pace, but to sign a brand new contract with Yamaha for the next two years.

There must have been a lot going on in his head last Friday.

Saturday dawned cold but the sun burnt through the mist on the Monterey Peninsula for qualifying, with Stoner's blood red Ducati still years ahead of the rest. Rossi's blue Yamaha scrabbled to second position, 0.447 seconds behind the pole Aussie.

Rossi's edict to himself after Germany last weekend was to have a better qualifying so he could at least have a chance of battling with Stoner, who has not been beaten for nigh on a month. The Italian did just what he told himself he had to do, a clear view to turn one was a thought he could go to sleep with on Saturday night.

But there was a problem.

The 0.3 second per lap deficit was the problem, but the cure was to be found in the scant 20-minute session on Sunday morning. It turned out the warm-up was cold, even damp, as the finest of drizzle fell over the 2.24 miles of asphalt. Surely there was no good to be found during that.

Was Stoner worried in anyway for the race? "Nope." He quipped on Saturday night. It was as short as that.

No one knew what the No.46 garage had up their sleeve. Any other people might have burst, but they must have just grinned, nervously, but grinned nonetheless while on the grid with Tom Cruise mingling through the rows.

The race started and in half a lap Stoner's Ducati was flying with nearly ten bike lengths lead. It was just as I had banged on about in practice and qualifying on air, again, who was going to come second?

Jorge Lorenzo then became a NASA recruit as he high-sided through Turn Five, crashing hard on the ground and breaking three bones in his left foot. He must feel like the world is against him.

By the time the TV cut back to the leaders, they had gone up the short shoot to the left at the bottom of the hill, and then crested it at the top of the corkscrew. Rossi had somehow reeled in Stoner and was mid-pass on him.

We later discovered that Stoner had too much air in the rear tyre and was uneasy with the feeling of his bike. Rossi, with his 0.3 second advantage working well, was on a charge.

What happened over the next 24 laps was quite stunning. I have not been so excited and privileged to commentate on any motor sports race for a very long time.

Rossi had to lead from the top of the corkscrew to the line. That was Stoner's key to getting away due to the advantage that bike had there. Rossi had to disrupt his rhythm.

That he did.

It was an epic battle like we had at Welkom in 2004 when Rossi was on a Yamaha for the very first time, battling with arch rival Max Biaggi. To me, though, there was more inevitability in that race. You just knew that Biaggi was going to lose. This time, no idea who would win. Someone, somewhere at that kind of pace was going to make a mistake. It just couldn't go on.

Stoner left his braking an inch too late in the final turn of the 24th lap, running a matter of feet off the race track, over the dirt into deeper gravel that's to arrest bikes travelling at 100mph not 2mph. He fell off and the race was done. He only lost 13 seconds in the entire incident and such was their pace that they had 22 seconds over the rest. Would they have won it by more than 30 seconds if it had gone to the line?

The look of Rossi's face - if you could have seen it through his dark visor - when he passed the pits a lap later and read his board must have looked like the face on top of his helmet at Mugello. 'WHAT. Where is he?!'

Sure, we were robbed of the showdown of all showdowns to the line, but it was one hell of a race.

At the end of the day, Rossi won it and Stoner was actually a bit lucky that he could get back on and still finish second. In any other race he may well have crossed the line fifth or worse.

Something had to break between them. It was inevitable. They were doing flat out hooligan laps, every lap, and in the end someone had to break. It is just not possible for two guys to do 64 laps between them maintaining that kind of pace. Not even the best riders in the world.

Once Rossi had won the race, he knew that this was the start of round three of the mind games. First was Max Biaggi, second was Sete Gibernau, and now this is a real war with Stoner. Unfortunately, as far as Stoner is concerned, Rossi has a 100 per cent winning record on that front and anyone taking him on may do so with caution. He is like a hedgehog in a balloon factory.

And so to parc ferme and the incident when Stoner refused to shake Rossi's hand:

Rossi: "Great race."

Stoner: "No, you can't race this way."

Rossi: "That's racing, Casey."

Stoner: "That's racing? Ok, we'll see."

I'll put money on Rossi waiting until he saw that Stoner was about to start his BBC interview before offering his hand and his comments. He knew he had a worldwide live TV audience, rather than a few security guards at Catalunya in 2001 when he and Max Biaggi threw fists at each other en route to the podium.

Stoner was not happy: "I've been riding for a lot of years and, even though I'm only 22, I've now been racing for 18 years. I've had a lot of overtaking manoeuvres, I've done a lot of overtaking manoeuvres. It was just some of the most aggressive I've had in a long, long time."

In Italian, Rossi later said that he'd been racing since before Casey was born.

Another point scored.

Technically, Rossi confirmed what we knew about the Yamaha at Laguna, reminding me of the kind of bike he had underneath him at Welkom in 2004.

"We are very fast, but maybe we are not the faster (fastest) on the track. We gain a bit more grip on the rear and we gained the last two tenths that permit me to fight with him to go in 21.9, 21.8 21.7. Yesterday I did not have this pace.

"I'm very sad that he's angry, but after a race like this it is normal when you arrive behind."

But, this is going to be a steep hill for Rossi to climb as Stoner still has a bike advantage at the remaining tracks where there is a big straight.

I understand there may well be some engine tweaks for the Yamaha at Brno. More speed?

Brno's got the best dyno known to man with that massive drag back up the hill from the far hairpin.

But what of the other remaining six tracks, Yamaha vs Ducati?

Misano is a twiddly track but one where Rossi has unfinished business after the new pneumatic-valve Yamaha engine puked last year. The fan club were not out in force there as they knew the chance had gone anyway for the title, but this year the place may well come alive. For Ducati, they have strong and solid data and it's in their back yard.

Indianapolis has a big, long straight but a load of slippery tarmac that Nobuatsu Aoki (Suzuki test rider) says sees you slipping and sliding both wheels through the new section.

Motegi is a home track for Bridgestone so they are equals; unlike last year. The Ducati has been dominant there in recent years, but so was Honda's Pedrosa until he stayed out a lap too long last year and ended up in the hedge. Should be Ducati's as it is a power circuit from those slow hairpins.

Phillip Island is sure to be a show worthy of a Don King promotion. Home town hero Aussie looking to uphold the support of the fans and the bold, proud sporting history of the Australian nation, versus the one guy who has made the circuit his own.

Rossi has made Phillip Island his own; he doesn't bother to go testing there during the winter while the rest pound around in hot, sweaty, fly-ridden knoll, opting to sit in an Italian nightclub with his mates during late January. All other things being equal on the same tyres, which they weren't last year, it should be an interesting one.

Sepang looks to be anyone's, but the straights there are long and very Ducati friendly.

And then we go to Valencia that in recent years has not been Rossi friendly, but has been Pedrosa friendly last year and Ducati friendly in 2006 with Bayliss. Medium-long straight but lots of wiggles. Very Yamaha.

This playing field is not level, as Rossi has a 25-point advantage over Stoner. One clear race worth of points. Not enough yet, but bloody handy as he goes into the summer break with his mates on a yacht in Ibiza, while Stoner goes off hunting somewhere.

It's been an incredible season with the swingometer going to Stoner at the start, a cool win in Qatar. Then Lorenzo after his Estoril win, before Rossi won three in a row, then Stoner got his hat-trick, and now Rossi's Laguna win.

What have Ducati got in return? It is going to be as surprising as last Sunday.

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- The Autosport.com Team

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