Well, Jerez wasn't the barnstormer that we thought it would be, but at Yamaha, things couldn't have been better with Valentino Rossi winning a vital race over a vital rival. Dani Pedrosa got points, but how he wished he could have won the biggest race of the year. Yamaha's Colin Edwards was there to back No. 46 up, taking points off everyone else other than Pedrosa.
I say it wasn't the stonking race that I thought it would be because after the closest ever top 10 in qualifying for a 500/MotoGP race, with just 0.325 seconds covering Pedrosa on pole to Kenny Roberts Jr in 10th, we all though it'd be great come Sunday. Ultimately the top three were the same on lap 1 as they were at the end of lap 27 and on the podium. Maybe a quirk of a little too much testing at the Andalusian track?
Riders just cannot make the thing go any quicker, so a natural pecking order will have been set out in the overlay of the grid positions and the race results. Something similar happened in Barcelona with the Formula One cars during their old qualifying hour, in that the grid would be lined up two-by-two with a team taking an entire row. The resulting pattern would indicate who had built the best car. Just a thought...
But others, such as my colleague Randy Mamola, say that it is because of the electronics that are making it easier to ride these bikes as well as less power, more grip and shorter braking distances. Kenny Roberts Sr has to have the credit on this one, though. "Ban electronics before they get a hold," he said in 2003.