MotoGP Rocked by Rossi Crocked Shock

Valentino Rossi was practicing for his 231st straight Grand Prix motorcycle race when his luck finally ran out. "The Doctor" will be under the care of real doctors for some time while he recovers from serious injury.

The 9 time world champion was taking part in a practice session for Sunday's MotoGP race at Mugello when he suffered one of the worst crashes we've seen this year. The FIAT Yamaha M1 brutally highsided the Italian, flinging him high into the air at 120mph before he slammed into the tarmac and tumbled violently through a gravel trap.

When he came to rest, Rossi was lying in agony, clutching his badly broken lower leg. Some of the thousands of yellow-clad Valentino Rossi fans were in tears of shock as they watched their hero writhe in pain. Valentino did manage a wave to the crowd as he was loaded into the medevac helicopter, presumably after a decent dose of strong painkillers.

Surgeons have now operated to bolt Rossi's leg back together and stitch the wound shut. Even in the deranged world of motorcycle racing medicine, this is a serious injury, and it will be at least 6 to 8 weeks before the champ can race again. This would mean missing at least 4 races, so his title ambitions are in tatters.

As Rossi has never missed a GP race before, it is impossible to tell how eager he will be to return. Will he come back too early, as most racers try to do? Or will he take it easy and try to heal fully, as cheating F1 champ Michael Schumacher did when he broke his lower leg. (Legend has it that Schumacher was in no hurry to race with no championship chances, and was finally ordered back into the car when the boss of Ferrari called and his kid answered the phone, saying "Daddy's just getting his football boots.")

It'll be very strange watching MotoGP, knowing that the Greatest Of All Time is sitting at home watching the race on telly with Uccio and a couple of chilled bottles of Nastro Azzurro.

Jorge Lorenzo looks like a major favourite for this year's MotoGP title (he was already kicking Rossi's ass before the injury.) Dani Pedrosa is still struggling to tame the Repsol Honda, and Casey Stoner is still flinging the Ducati at every gravel trap in sight.

It'll be hard for Rossi to watch, especially if his team-mate snatches the title.

Get well soon, Valentino.

MotoGP: Lucky Seven for The Doctor

Last year Valentino Rossi was miserable. Exposed as a tax cheat (or hero standing up to his thieving government), his tyres were black hoops of rubbery cack, vital bits of his engine were falling apart, he wasn't winning races and he was watching Casey Stoner romp off with win after win. This year, the real Valentino Rossi has re-appeared, and he took his 3rd win on the trot at Mugello for a total of 7 top class GP wins at the Italian circuit.

Rossi and his engineer Jeremy Burgess, probably the most devastating rider-engineer duo to ever grace the sport, now have a total command of Bridgestone tyres. Valentino insisted on a switch to the Japanese rubber this year because he reckoned that as long as he beat Stoner, he would probably win the title. Well, at Mugello he beat Stoner into 2nd place and now leads the championship chase by 12 points.

People have been claiming that Stoner and Ducati have lost their sparkle, and admittedly their lap times aren't quite matching last year's, but the real story is that everybody else has got a whole lot faster, particularly Yamaha and Michelin. The Ducati is no longer massively quicker than the other bikes, just a bit quicker. Stoner is still the best Ducati rider by miles. Where are the other Dukes? In the gravel trap, mostly. Bridgestone tyres no longer have the massively boring advantage they had last year, which makes Rossi's winning streak all the more impressive.

At Mugello, Yamaha proved that they have made the best all-round motorcycle this year. Not quite the quickest down the straights, but not that far off. Hella quick round corners. Jorge Lorenzo had a dozy weekend, slow in practise, fast enough in qualifying and falling off in the race after pushing a teeny bit too hard. The other Yamahas fared better. Apart from Rossi's dominant victory, Toseland had a great race to 6th including a few great overtakes without leaving yellow and blue paint on his opponents' machines. Edwards managed to better Toseland by one place as the race went on and tyres started to wear.

Honda had their development rider Tady Okada trundling round on the new air-valve bike. Although he's a million years old, has barely raced this century and was on an experimental machine, he still beat Ant West, who would do well to get fired and go to Superbike ASAP. The Honda's pneumatically-boinging valves didn't trash themselves, and there were a few extra miles per hour, so the engine will probably be tried out by one or both of the factory riders in a race soon. Dani Pedrosa took the spring-valve Honda to 3rd place, showing that there's not a great deal wrong with it. That's the trouble, there's no point replacing steel springs with compressed air just for the hell of it, there has to be an improvement, and if you're finishing on the podium already you have a lot to lose. We've been watching this space for months now and we'll be watching for at least a couple more weeks yet.

At the end of the race, the Italian crowd idiotically invaded the track, nearly getting themselves and the riders killed. Natural exuberance is fine, in fact it's brilliant, but that kind of stupidity can't carry on. Rossi actually had to ride off onto the grass on his cool-down lap as there were hundreds of fans on the tarmac.

So, The Doctor proves once again that he still has it. Not just the ability to crush the opposition, but to make us all split our sides laughing. The picture on the top of his crash hat, a photo-realistic image of Rossi's face, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, reminiscent of the tattoo that Steve-O from Jackass has of himself on his back, was priceless. Seeing the picture of Rossi looking terrified behind the screen bubble as he hurtled along the straights at 200mph was well worth a chuckle. He's pulling out a lead at the front of the championship. He's on a fantastic bike with tyres as good as anybody's. Rossi for the title?

MotoGP Mugello Masterclass

Lately it has been easy to forget that Valentino Rossi is peerless in the modern era, his real peers being the likes of Agostini and Hailwood.
At Mugello, he gave us all a good slap to wake us up.
The Yamaha wasn't the quickest bike in a straight line, although it is now on a level with the Honda and Suzuki. In the morning warm-up, Rossi had been dicing with Stoner and Barros, the Ducatis easily overtaking the Yamaha before the start line. That seemed to be it, Stoner would win, Barros would have a good race and Rossi would be lucky to get a podium.
What we hadn't banked on was the Yamaha's ability to scream around the corners and hurl itself down the straights. The Yamaha in Rossi's hands, anyway. Edwards would trundle round on an identical bike to finish 12th, just 2 places in front of Guintolli's Dunlop Yamaha.
The Doctor got off to a mediocre start, and was swamped down to 8th place. Stoner and Capirossi were off into the lead. There we go, Ducati winning at Mugello, but which one? Little Capirex took the lead from his young whippersnapper team-mate and off they went. But they were not pulling away from the pack. Capirossi was passed by Stoner, and a few more people followed to put the little Italian back about 4 places in 2 corners.
Dani Pedrosa managed to sneak past Stoner for the lead. Having finally conquered John Hopkins after a titanic struggle, Rossi was charging through the field and was soon right behind the miniature Spaniard. Everybody else was gradually losing touch.
Unsurprisingly, Dani's Honda was very quick in a straight line, but Rossi is amazing on the brakes and Dani isn't. (Just ask Nicky Hayden...)
Rossi took the lead, and although Dani could get alongside on the main straight, he couldn't outbrake the Italian.
Behind them, two Ducatis were doing battle. 90 year old Alex Barros and 12 year old Casey Stoner were fighting for the final podium spot. It seemed for a while that the Brazilian would stay behind the factory Ducati on his d'Antin satellite bike, but Barros finally made his move and overtook Stoner for 3rd. There was nothing much the little Australian could do about it. Let's not forget that Barros is seriously quick around Mugello, being the last person to win it before Rossi decided to dominate every single year.
Up front, it was a repeat of Jerez, with Rossi eking out a tenth here and there while Dani slowly slipped back. Rossi was victorious, while Dani was very impressive but still doesn't have the beating of The Doctor.
Rossi and Pedrosa were the only two Michelin runners at the front, with Bridgestones from 3rd to 9th place. The French tyre manufacturer must still be reeling from their Le Mans GP defeat, and they seem to have produced something special for the two top Michelin runners. Although it has been claimed by some that the Mugello result shows the Ducati doesn't go round corners after all, Stoner did take pole position in the wet. I believe that Michelin should take some of the credit for beating Ducati.
Even so, it's a quick track and the Yamaha shouldn't have won. It wouldn't have with anybody else on board, but The Doctor makes the difference.
There was fun in the British Eurosport TV commentary box, when commentator and respected MotoGP writer Julian Ryder rubbed his F1-loving colleague Toby Moody's nose in it by pointing out that in Boremula One, a satellite team would never be allowed to overtake their factory team, and a top driver can never make up for a mediocre car. With d'Antin on the podium and Rossi winning, MotoGP showed that it is still the pinnacle of motorsport.
Rossi is now just 9 points behind Stoner in the championship, and his fading title challenge has been given a fresh coat of luminous yellow paint. Next up is Barcelona, which is a quick track but has been given a new, slightly silly slow section for safety. (Heh heh.) This might just give Rossi enough of a chance to outbrake people and lead over the line, but the awesome straight-line speed of the Ducatis will still play into Casey Stoner's hands. We will find out next week.