Sunday pm - Rossi Seeks that ‘Last Little Secret’
Now the championship chase may be down to just two: a straight fight between
Casey Stoner and
Valentino Rossi for the 2008 title.
Crashes have already ruled out
Jorge Lorenzo, who flared briefly to the top of the points table in his early-season explosion into
MotoGP, and now Dani Pedrosa’s painful smash from his Repsol Honda at the Sachsenring today may have blocked his title ambitions.
It may be another 24 hours before we know whether Pedrosa will be ready to practice for the US Grand Prix just five days from now, but even if he does ride with his finger and ankle injuries, he may not be podium-fit.
So Valentino, the greatest strategist of them all, leads the struggle again, by four points from Pedrosa and 20 points from the on-fire Stoner.
If the Australian can keep chipping away like this - a win to Rossi’s second place - he would be level on points by the end of the Indianapolis Grand Prix in September, with four more rounds to go in a straight shoot-out to the finish.
But racing is never that simple. Rossi believes that he can unlock more potential from his still-new
Bridgestone marriage.
"When we changed the tyres we had to start from zero," he said in the post-race conference. "At this type of track where we didn’t test in the winter it’s very difficult for us to test the setting, and sometimes we struggle too much.
"So we have to understand some last little secret of the M1 Yamaha with these Bridgestone tyres. But if we want to fight with Casey we have to start from the front row."
Sunday pm - Heroism in the Wet, But They’re Still Saying that Melandri Will Walk
It may have been a dumb question at the worst possible moment, but I had to ask it.
Marco Melandri was sitting in front of me in the Marlboro Ducati pitbox, his leathers tattered and muddied after his tenth-lap crash from a fighting seventh position in the German Grand Prix.
It was a time to be delicate with a rider’s sensibilities, but I said:
"Will you finish the year with Ducati, or will you stop after Laguna Seca?"
"Of course I hope to continue for the rest of the season!" he replied. "I felt really confident today."
