The Circuit de Catalunya in Spain played host to the sixth round of the 2009 MotoGP season. And, it was arguably the best race of the calendar so far, with the Fiat Yamaha pair of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo fighting it out amongst themselves right until the last corner of the last lap. They finished 1-2, with Rossi in front of his younger team-mate.  Rossi finally clinched the race by a whisker(0.095 sec) after a battle which lasted throughout the 25 lap race. Rossi, at the death, executed a perfect move on Lorenzo to clinch victory. Casey Stoner completed the rostrum. However, it is clear that Rossi has not just Stoner to worry about to in his defense of the World Championship. In fact, Lorenzo has been the best of all the team-mates which the ‘doctor’ has had over the years, as nobody else has managed to run him this close and, on occasions, to beat him as well.

The race saw two-way battles going on throughout the grid. Stoner crossed the line just 0.052s clear of Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso, and was exhausted after the race. This is Dovizioso’s third consecutive 4th place finish, and he was disappointed to miss out on the podium. Further down the order was the battle between Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and the brave Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), who drove at much below 100% fitness. Capirossi came on top here, at about 2 seconds in front. Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) won his battle with Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) to clinch 7th place.

The 125 cc race saw some drama, as Julián Simón missing-out on a possible victory by celebrating a lap too early, making way to the top step of the podium to Andrea Iannone. The two riders battled for victory and Simón celebrated victory prematurely which allowed Iannone to fly past. What was more heartbreaking for Simón was that he could only manage to finish 4th. The spoils were picked up by Nico Terol and his own team-mate Sergio Gadea. And the 250 cc winner was championship leader Álvaro Bautista, who extended his championship lead to 12 points with a clinical performance. What made the victory sweeter for him was that World Champion Marco Simoncelli retired with a mechanical problem. Barcelona resident Aoyama came home 2nd and pole sitter Héctor Barberá could only manage 3rd after he lost a place in the last lap.

In the MotoGP Driver’s Championship race, fittingly we see 3 riders tied on points. Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner all have 106 points. All three of them look deserving candidates for the title, and the racing will heat-up for sure. However, as MotoGP lovers, we can only hope the racing remains aggressive but fair, as so wonderfully demonstrated by Rossi and Lorenzo over this race weekend. The title race could well go down to the wire as well. The next race is at Assen, Netherlands on the 27th of June.

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