Last night I sat up and watched the Catalunya MotoGp race meeting, and I’m really glad I did. Lately I haven’t watched all the races as the times have been weird (middle of the night/early morning for the WSBK from South Africa, for example).
But the meeting from Spain last night was amazing. The 125cc race looked like a lay-down for Julian Simon only to have him celebrate his victory a lap early and drop to 6th place on the final lap once he realised the race was still going. He got mobile, clawed his way back up to 3rd on the line along with Sergio Gardea. Simon trundled into parc ferme no doubt still cursing about losing the unloseable race only to be shuffled out again when the video referee determined that Gardea had actually finished 3rd.
The 250cc race wasn’t really exciting once Marco Simoncelli crashed out, Bautista clearing out to an easy victory.
The MotoGp race will go down as one for the ages. Once Rossi and Lorenzo had gapped Stoner (who had woken up with an upset stomach on Sunday morning), it settled into a knock-down, drag-out brawl, with much, much more than just the race victory and the points at stake. Rossi let Lorenzo lead in the middle stages and Lorenzo repaid the favour with a handful of laps remaining, trying to break Rossi in the closing stages. Rossi, however, refused to lay down, passing Lorenzo around the OUTSIDE in T1 on shagged tyres at top speed. Unbelievable.
The last lap saw the lead change 3 times as first Lorenzo and then Rossi dived for gaps that simply weren’t there in a frantic attempt to leverage a final advantage. Then, on the final corner, where passing NEVER takes place, Rossi conjured up a gap and dived for it, clearing past Lornzo without touching him and crossing the line about 3 bike lengths in front. I think the official margin was 00.95 seconds or something stupid, but it really wasn’t about the maths, it was about the racing.
Does Rossi walk on water? Probably. Did he put Lorenzo back in his box? Oh, yeah. Is he the greatest of all time? Definitely.
Watch the last 2 laps and enjoy a moment of motorcycle racing history.