Back at the beginning of May at a pre-race press conference for the Jerez grand prix Valentino Rossi was asked if he were to be placed in a situation where on the final corner of the final lap he was headed by his team mate with the opportunity to overtake would he take it?
After a little bit of laughter and an attempt to explain his point of view of the incident from 2005 with Sete Gibernau, Rossi looked deadpan into the camera and uttered the word…. “Yes.”
On Sunday we were treated to quite possibly the dawn of a new era in the MotoGP paddock, when team mates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo slugged it out over the course of the 25 lap race with no rider really able to gain the upper hand. The race was a masterpiece of clinical, precision riding as both riders pushed the limits of their bikes to the edge. Squirming in the braking zones, power sliding around turn three and slipstreaming each other down the long Catalan straight. It left fans breathless and finally provided them with a last lap battle that they have been craving since the Catalan GP in 2007 which saw Stoner, Rossi and Pedrosa battle it out for the podium placing.
It is certainly not the first time that Rossi and Lorenzo have crossed swords in the premier class of motorcycle racing, but it was certainly their most Spectacular battle to date, until Sunday we had been treated to very few embattlements between the two team mates. At Estoril in 2008 the battle was short lived as Lorenzo powered away on his Michelin tyres while Rossi was helpless to mount a counter attack, while at Motegi, Valentino suffered his first defeat at the hands of Lorenzo on similar spec machinery and tyres and you could tell that it didn’t sit all that well with the doctor.
Lorenzo is without doubt the most competitive and awkward team mate that Valentino has had to deal with in his career and maybe worryingly for Rossi is the fact that the competition between the two of them has only just begun.
Rossi has dismissed other rivals in the premier class and crushed their spirits with Biaggi, Gibernau and to some extent Dani Pedrosa all crumbling to the pressure of the mercurial master of motorcycle racing. In 2006 when he entered the MotoGP class Pedrosa was billed as the rider who would be likely to take the fight to the doctor, but at present in every on track battle between the two, Pedrosa has come out second best to the doctor and now it appears as though Dani’s psyche when fighting for position with Rossi is broken. The only rider who has been able to take it to Valentino on a consistent basis over the last two seasons is Casey Stoner, but Jorge has maybe emerged as Rossi’s biggest threat.
Jorge will be a tougher nut for Valentino to crack and there is one simple reason for this. Jorge is Valentino. The post race celebrations, the personality in front of the camera, the confidence in their own ability, the aggressiveness in their riding style, the list could go on with Jorge mimicking Rossi throughout the 2009 season with his own energy drink sponsorship deal and he also adorned his own posse in his pit box in Spain.
They say that copying someone’s traits should be taken as a compliment, but is Lorenzo using another one of Valentino’s greatest traits to get under the skin of his Italian team mate? Is Lorenzo using all this to play mind games with the doctor in an attempt to put him off his game?
One thing for sure was the fact that there were no games being played out on track on Sunday. Both combatants were on it until the very last corner, the pace may have picked up slightly at the end, but it was a full out battle hammer and tongs from the start line to the finish. Rossi was clearly delighted to have scored his 99th victory and level the score between himself, Stoner and Lorenzo at two wins a piece and the reaction of his pit crew suggests with what high regard they see Lorenzo’s potential threat to the greatest rider of all time. Not for a long time have we seen the jubilant screaming and fist punching that was displayed after the conclusion.
Having been beaten to a victory in his home race on the last corner and with Rossi’s pit crew yelling in delight, you could have excused Lorenzo for being a bit dejected, but instead he was calm and restrained in parc ferme and when interviewed about the move he merely said “we will see in the next race.”
Yamaha are always quick to reassure both riders of their importance to the factory claiming they have the best riders for the present and future of the sport. However, it appears Lorenzo isn’t too keen to wait for Rossi to abdicate from his thrown at the top. If we were living in medieval times Lorenzo would be the young pretender plotting to kill the king and assume control. The problem Lorenzo has is the fact that Rossi is far from a spent force and Jorge needs to make sure he is not added to the long line of riders that the mighty king has slain.
One thing is for sure, at Catalunya the fans were treated to a battle they had been waiting to see for some time and it didn’t fail to disappoint and what is maybe more exciting for the fans is like the carpenters song it appears “we’ve only just begun.”
» Read MotoGP News
