The Holy Pasty?

Yes, Valentino only required a third place or higher to clinch the MotoGP championship for this year, but he’s not one to settle. He drove a sensational race from the second row and even when he was second behind Casey Stoner it still didn’t look like he was going to have the pace to catch him and overtake. Casey’s bike was much stronger on the short straights, but Rossi was pulling it back under breaking and conering. Eventually Rossi passed Stoner and got up into first place, but bearing in mind the differences already mentioned could Rossi pull away to establish his lead? Yes!

He crossed the line to take the race victory and the world championship. Yamaha have also wrapped up the constructors and Fiat Yamaha have taken the team championship, overall a pretty good day for the Yamaha organisation. Valentino’s world championship is his sixth in the top class of MotoGP and he had wins in both the lower classes too, making a total of 8 world championships!

Will Yamaha’s title sponsor (Fiat) be celebrating later today when Felipe Massa lines up alongside Hamilton in the night race at Singapore? The track looks fantastic under the lights. I was critical of Valencia from a viewers point of view the circuit was dull with only the crash barriers to really look at, however Singapore with similar track edging is much more interesting, possibly because there are more points of note. 2 bridges, that three part chicane that really shows off the cars (and launched Fisichella in morning practice yesterday) and the Grandstand, where the track goes beneath the grandstand – all fantastic elements of the track. All of that in a super bright light. Let the second race of the day commence…oh just a minute it’s not on until 1pm!

Tags: Casey Stoner, Formula 1, Massa, MotoGP, Rossi, Valentino Rossi

Well surprise, surprise the FIA Court of Appeal threw out McLaren’s case on grounds that a drive through penalty cannot be appealed which saved them having to clarify anything and admit that there are grey areas in the rules! Even though there was a similar situation last year where a 25 second post-race penalty (which also should have been a drive through) was appealed.

So now we have the spectacle of Singapore, but will it be a spectacle, or will it be a boring parade as Valencia turned out to be? A number of people have come out and criticised the idea of Street Circuits recently including Fezza’s Luca DiMontezemalo and that shrinking violet Jackie Stewart. However I have high hopes for Singapore, as a night race it could mean that F1 fans in the UK never again have to get up at 2am to watch a race live!

While F1 has a nice tight race at the front for the Driver’s championship MotoGP has the exact opposite with Valentino Rossi 3 whole race wins ahead of the opposition in the championship. His nearest rival Casey Stoner hasn’t had a great time recently having come off the race track 3 times in 3 races! The last race at Indy really was a problem too as they ended up racing through the tail-end of hurricane Ike. However it will be an early start on Sunday morning for MotoGP fans as the race starts at 6am GMT. However if you are a fan you’re not going to miss the chance to watch Rossi win the championship (which is possible even with a finish on the podium) so it’s worth tuning in and particularly making the most of the excellent Eurosport coverage before the BBC take exclusive broadcast rights next year.

Tags: F1, Hamilton, MotoGP, Motorsport, Rossi