MotoGP : Rossi wins at home!

If I had realized beforehand that the San Marino Grand Prix was scheduled for Sunday, Sept 6th, I would have changed my flight arrangements. Do you know how long one has to wait for a rebroadcast of a MotoGp race? Too long. In this case, the race was shown for the second time on Speedtv, at 3am Wednesday, Sept 23. How many days after? Seventeen days!

So there I was stuck in the company of 105 restless, nervous, possibly scared homo sapiens, trapped on a winged, motorized beast, being ‘comforted’ by a mechanical voice, informing me that we were cruising at 36,000 ft. As if I cared, while some other fortunate bloke was relaxing in the confines of his comfortable abode, sipping his preferred beverage and watching the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. I think I will stick with the English language. Enough of my whining, at least I got to see it – even if I had to set the alarm clock to ring itself silly at 2:50 am.

Valentino Rossi

As I had indicated earlier in the build up to the race, Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi was dominant in all the sessions and it was no surprise that he snatched the pole and continued to shine on his home track. On race-day, it was difficult to tell which Italian team or rider was more popular. The stands were covered with Ducati red and Rossi yellow.

When the red lights went out, signaling the start of the race, Rossi did not get his expected dynamite start and the hungry sharks ripped him to shreds and roared to the first corner. Alex de Angelis allowed his sudden rush of adrenalin to cloud his judgement and he collected Monster Tech Yamaha rider Colin Edwards and Marlboro Ducati rider Nicky Hayden with his miscalculation. Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo was lucky to remain upright as his rear wheel was tagged in the melee as well.

Rossi’s poor start, saw Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) and Toni Elias (San Carlo Honda Gresini) getting a break and they pounced. By the first corner, Rossi was fourth, passed by Jorge Lorenzo as well and had to rethink his game plan. He quickly found his rhythm, however and when the tyres were up to temperature he started to push. On a track on which he was the defending race winner, Rossi started to ride a winner’s race and came to the front. Once he got to the front, Lorenzo’s game stepped up, but Rossi was in a different zone and it was clear. Rossi rode several blistering laps and successfully broke the field, which simply could not match his pace. Rossi was 2.5 seconds better than Lorenzo and in MotoGp that is a crushing time difference considering that they are on similar machines.

Convincing Win

Rossi fought Elias, Lorenzo and Pedrosa to take the lead and once he got there, his weekend dominance resumed. Rossi forgot all about his mishap at Indy, where he made an uncharacteristic mistake. He rode the wave his fans adorned in yellow and waving #46 provided and rewarded them with a convincing win.

Rossi is now relaxing on the break before the next round in Portugal, with a comfortable 30 points lead over his closest rival and teammate Jorge Lorenzo. The rivalry resumes October 4th. I will not be flying that day.

Cecil Munroe Gleaner On-line Writer