Friday pm - Valentino Tells Nearly All - at a Distance

Valentino Rossi has re-instated his informal post-practice, post-race press conferences - but only in English, and now at a distance from reporters. At Estoril today Rossi sat at a table a metre away from the media, and responded to questions using a microphone.

Prior to the Brno round in August, the seven-times world champion world champion would bounce into the Fiat Yamaha hospitality unit and grab a chair - any old chair - amongst the media. First he would handle the Italian journalists, and then the English-speaking faction. It was like sharing a table with him in a bar in his home village of Tavullia. But that was stopped when his dispute with the Italian tax authorities erupted, and his home journalists insisted on firing questions about the affair.

The new arrangement seems curiously wooden, as Rossi has a very informal, chatty nature, and it just looks odd to see him chatting with only around 15 people via a mike. But his precise deconstruction of what he actually does on a 200mph MotoGP remains undimmed:

"The new tyre gave me enough grip to push from the first lap... I have more feeling and better entry speed with the front... But with the rhythm we have a little bit of a problem - there is some difficulty to do 28 laps at the maximum... Now we are only 4 to 5kph slower than the Ducati, which is not much at the end of such a long straight... There is also more acceleration at top rpm... the situation is positive and we are close..."

You get the feeling. I miss the old-style sessions, where you could find yourself elbow-to-elbow with the legend as he squeezed in beside you. On the other hand, how far can you expect to question racers at a race meeting about non-racing matters?

There's always been an unwritten rule about interviews with Rossi that you don't mention religion, politics or sex. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I think that's fair enough in the context of race meeting or the thing could spiral out of hand. Now we can add his tax affairs to the list.

One more thing. Everyone will be delighted to see the underdog combo of Casey Stoner and Ducati walk off with their first world title. But it would be equally good to see The Legend win one more championship before he finally quits MotoGP. His current contract with Yamaha expires at the end of 2008...


Friday pm - Dunlop Chase Honda MotoGP Teams

Dunlop are talking to satellite Honda-powered teams in order to maintain their presence in MotoGP, now that they are faced with the almost certain loss of the Yamaha Tech 3 squad, it emerged at Estoril today.

Lucio Cecchinello's LCR and Kenny Roberts' Team KR operations, and the Konica Minolta team, are the targets of Dunlop tyre chief Jeremy Ferguson as he fights to maintain a presence in the MotoGP paddock.