Alice TT Assen
At the Cathedral of Motorsport, it was the ‘Valentino Rossi Show’ all the way. After a weekend totally dominated by the Italian, his fans were treated to his 100th Grand Prix victory as well. He becomes only the second rider to achieve the feat, after Giacomo Agostini who has 122 wins. The statistics re-assert the fact that he is one of the greatest riders to have graced the sport. On Saturday, Rossi won his first ‘real’ pole of the season, as his earlier pole position at Japan was gifted to him after the qualifying session got washed-out and he got the pole on the basis of his fastest practice time. And, he didn’t have to look back from that point on, as he came home a good 5 seconds clear of his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.
Lorenzo was able to maintain his qualifying record clean, as he won another
front-row start, this time from 3rd place. Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, who was less than a tenth of a second slower than Rossi, was between the two Yamahas on the grid. However, Pedrossa’s race was over very early as he lowsided his RC212V in corner one, just after passing arch rival Jorge Lorenzo. Lorenzo got off to a poor start and, though he got back to the 2nd place, couldn’t challenge Rossi the same way he did a few weeks back in Spain. Thus, this made the job very easy for ‘Dutch Master’ Valentino Rossi. Casey Stoner rode a lonely race to 3rd, and looked very disappointed with his race. This result breaks the tie that was existing in the Driver’s Championship. Rossi has 131 points, Lorenzo 126 and Stoner 122.
The 125cc event was a thriller, with the winner decided on the very last lap, after a three-way battle for victory. It was the Bancaja Aspar rider Sergio Gadea who came out on top. Nico Terol and Julián Simón ran him close to finish 2nd and 3rd. However Terol was later, penalised twenty seconds and thus, moved down to 5th. The penalty was due to a last lap incident where Terol made a move that did not pay off and he ran along the asphalt run-off strip. Thus Bradley Smith, who had finished 4th, inherited the final podium position and the Aspar team completed a clean sweep of the podium.
Hiroshi Aoyama won the 250cc race. There was drama as his immediate rival Álvaro Bautista looked set to push him to the chequered flag. However, Bautista smashed into the back of Aoyama’s Honda on a fast chicane, ending the Spaniard’s race and leaving the race winner lucky to stay upright. Poleman Héctor Barberá and reigning World Champion Marco Simoncelli fought for the 2nd place, in which Barberá eventually came out on top.
Thus, Valentino Rossi has made a loud and clear announcement that he is not
ready to give up the Driver’s Title he is defending all that easy. The next round is the Red Bull US Grand Prix at Leguna Seca, scheduled for the 5th of July. This was the venue for the epic battle between Rossi and Stoner last year, which has gone down into the MotoGP history. If Stoner has to put up a similar performance this time round, he’ll have to step-up significantly compared to this weekend’s performance. The Yamaha pair seemed too far in front of him. Let’s hope the Ducati rider can do that and treat us to a similar race this year as well.
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