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Last time out at Indianapolis, Rossi saw his 50 point championship lead axed in half courtesy of his turn 2 crash and Lorenzo's win. Rossi later stated that while he was sliding ass-over-tit across the the Indy tarmac, he managed to form a solitary thought..."I am a donkey".
Fast forward to Misano...Rossi's 'home' track. Rossi, in his usual "no shame in my game" style, was sporting the Shrek donkey on his helmet...excellent!. Rossi and his donkey were fastest in every session and took pole position followed by Pedrosa and Indy race winner Lorenzo. Along with Rossi, this was also the 'home' race for Ducati, as their workshop is just a hop, skip, and a jump (over a puddle of spilt olive oil) down the road. With Stoner still on 'hiatus', the Ducatisti (Ducati nerds who have, or wish they had, a 916 with zero miles parked in their living room as a conversation piece) put their hopes on Nicky Hayden and his 6th position on the grid.
Alrighty then...game on. Lights out, and Pedrosa immediately hits the front. Two corners later the basic technique of braking is all but forgotten by DeAngelis as he torpedoes Edwards, who in turn takes out Hayden. Even before the dust had settled, Hayden is on his feet and charging DeAngelis. I smell a hate crime coming on. I found a brilliant fan video of the whole incident on that one video site, but won't post it here...F-bombs galore!
Actual quotes from their post race interviews:
Hayden; "...out of the corner of my eye I seen DeAngelis...I seen this fruity...ya' know...that rainbow helmet and I knew that wasn't gonna work."
Edwards; "We're in Italy, so there's always gotta be some dumbass Italian being a hero."
Back to the action...Pedrosa continued on at the front followed closely by Contract Time. While this was going on, Lorenzo (who almost got taken out by DeAngelis' turn 2 bowling party) stuffed Rossi and took over 3rd. A few laps later, Rossi returned the favor on Lorenzo and took off for Contract Time and Pedro. Rossi and Lorenzo then tag-teamed Contract Time and shuffled his ass back to 4th and one step closer to collecting unemployment benefits. To be fair, I think Elias and his 'Planet of the Apes' riding style totally belong in MotoGP...one of my faves, for surely.
Meanwhile, back in the race...Pedrosa was still at the front, but that wouldn't last. 21 laps to go, and Pedrosa had a little whoopsie which allowed the Donkey through to hightail it on to his sixth win of the season. Point:Rossi. With Rossi gone in the distance, Lorenzo and Pedro had their own little scrap going for second. 15 to go, and little Pedro had another little whoopsie, which let his BFF Lorenzo through and up into 2nd. Lorenzo didn't take off right away. Instead, he hung around and toyed with Pedrosa for a bit before getting bored with that and taking off to do another epic celebration wheelie across the line for 2nd. Pedro pooped it home in a safe 3rd, followed by everyone else minus the Grupo de Gravel.
Race Result: 1)Rossi 2)Lorenzo 3)Pedrosa 4)Dovizioso 5)Capirossi 6)Elias 7)Kallio 8)Melandri 9)Vermeulen 10)Toseland 11)Espargaro 12)DePuniet
13)Canepa 14)Talmacsi
Grupo de Gravel: Hayden/Edwards/DeAngelis
With 4 races to go, Rossi now holds a not-so-safe 30 point lead over Lorenzo. Next stop is Portugal, where Stoner is rumored to be making his return. Will he actually show?
(Pictures courtesy of www.superbikeplanet.com and www.motogp.com)
Stateside again...this time at the overrated Indianapolis Motorspeedway...The Brickyard! Who's going to kiss the bricks this year? I've always wondered...when a rider crosses the 'yard of bricks', does it make a 'fart' sound similar to those rumble-bumps that lead up to stop signs on rural highways?. Grab yourself a porkchop on a stick and let's find out!
The organizers do an excellent job of organizing and promoting the race, but the track itself is a bit rinky dink...it is basically comprised of one part aircraft carrier and two parts parking lot cone zone...sprinkle in a variety of surfaces for good measure and even better crashes.
Last years' event played Tina to Hurricane Ike. Crap weather all weekend, spectators getting slapped (get it?) around by the wind, MotoGP race cut short, and the 250's were scrapped altogether...all while Yamaha's display tent made its way onto the back straight. Thrilling. This year looked to be more of the same...Friday's first practice went from wettish, to drying, to wet again, and finally, wetter. Pedrosa was fast all weekend and took pole...Lorenzo and Rossi filled out the first row of the grid. The great American hopes of Hayden and Edwards filled out the ass end of the second row. With Stoner still back in Australia battling the Kangaroo flu, or whatever, it looked like the race would be a 3-way fight amongst the front row dudes...or would it? Rossi came into this round 50 points ahead of Lorenzo in the championship. Lorenzo came into this round with a sweet Captain America replica helmet. Pedrosa came into this round on a tricycle.
Sunday came, and holy shit...it was sunny! Asparagus won the 125's, Simoncelli took the 250's, the MotoGP 'drivers' took their grid spots, our national anthem was poorly karaoke'd by Miss America, and boom goes the dynamite! As expected, lil' Dani took the lead as the field piled into turn 1 and by the time lap 1 was completed, he had gapped the field by a little over a second...followed by Rossi and Lorenzo.
Edwards was sitting back in 4th, but was being pushed from the rear by DeAngelis (#15) and his helmet. DeAngelis was really giving Edwards a hard time and went up the inside of him at turn 2, but Edwards returned the favor and retook his position. At this point, DeAngelis asserted his dominance and took the top position, between the two, for the final time. Nicky Hayden followed DeAngelis' example and also went up the inside of Edwards to take another position.
Meanwhile...things at the front remained the same until the end of the third lap, when Pedrosa lost the front of his Honda going into the tight final corner. To his credit (and the onlooker's amazement), Pedro managed to lift his bike up, remount (28 seconds behind the last place rider) and charge through to an eventual 10th place finish. Nice work, little dude.
And then there were two...with Pedro out, Lorenzo wasted no time in closing the gap on Rossi. A few laps later, Lorenzo took the lead from Rossi at the end of the aircraft carrier. Now that was Rossi sitting in 2nd, he did what he usually does and applied the pressure from behind. He followed Lorenzo around for a few laps and then REALLY applied the pressure...to the Indy tarmac with his helmet and leathers. That's right, Rossi crashed out. Bummer. He managed to get back on track, but retired a few laps later with a bent something-or-other.
With Rossi out (and his 50 championship lead about to be slashed in half), Lorenzo enjoyed roughly a 2 day lead over evryone else. What's a boy to do? Spend the last 2 laps of the race practicing his victory wheelie...which, in the end, was really fucking long. DeAngelis cruised to his first MotoGP podium in a safe 2nd place. In the closing laps, Hayden sat in third, but was under fire from Dovizioso. Spurred on by the fact that the sooner he finished the race, the sooner he could get out of his ridiculous KFC bucket-themed leathers. Hayden succeeded in holding off Dovi and took the final spot on the podium.
So, there you have it....Lorenzo is back in the title chase as the series heads to Rossi's home race at San Marino next weekend. Game on!
Race Result: 1)Lorenzo 2)DeAngelis 3)Hayden 4)Dovizioso 5)Edwards 6)Toseland 7)Capirossi 8)Kallio 9)Elias 10)Pedrosa 11)Vermeulen 12)DePuniet 13)Espargaro 15)Talmacsi
Gravelboat:Rossi/Melandri/Canepa
**Pics courtesy of superbikeplanet.com and motogp.com
T...out
