MotoGP: 2009 Mugello Results

At the start of Sunday’s Mugello round of the MotoGP World Championship, it looked like a replay of the previous race at Le Mans – a wet track, flag-to-flag conditions, pandemonium in the pits, and some likely surprises headed for the podium.

By the end of the day, though, it was vintage MotoGP. Occupying the podium were the season’s three leaders heading into the weekend, with Australian Casey Stoner back atop the step and the championship standings as well.

Thus Valentino Rossi’s win streak in Italy ended at seven, and Jorge Lorenzo, whose day was almost over before it began, secured 20 championship points and maintained his slight lead over Rossi for the championship. But the day belonged to Stoner and Ducati, which earned its first ever MotoGP win on its home circuit.

As we saw at Le Mans, a little rainwater on these tracks produces some odd goings-on. On Sunday, Fiat Yamaha’s Lorenzo slid off the track on his sighting lap, reminiscent of Roberto Guerrero’s parade lap spin at Indianapolis in 1992. Jorge calmly rode into the pits, jumped on his number two bike, and took his position in the starting grid.

Once the race actually started, Lap 1 found him dawdling in 10th place, and ended with one Chris Vermeulen leading the field on his Rizla Suzuki. Andrea Dovizioso, on the Repsol Honda, led for seven laps after not having seen a podium since last season. And Marco Melandri, riding the Hayate Kawasaki held together with duct tape, was competitive early and even led at the end of Lap 10.

By Lap 12, however, the track was mostly dry, all of the riders had switched from wet tires to slicks, and the usual suspects took over, as the following splits illustrate:

I’ve included Laps 22 and 23 to illustrate two points. The first is that Andrea Dovizioso is today’s news, while Loris Capirossi is so yesterday. Unlike many other sports, in motorcycle racing young and daring beats old and crafty. Dovizioso’s seizure of fourth place from Capirossi on the last lap is not about a couple of extra championship points. It is a passing of the baton, and has more figurative significance than literal. Dovi is going to be a force on this tour, while Capirossi will soon be heading off into the sunset.

The second, and far more entertaining point, is how on any given weekend Colin Edwards would gladly sell his mother in order to beat teammate James Toseland. Toseland got off to a hideous start in this one, worse than most of his bad starts, and was running 16th and 17th from Laps 4 through 9. After his tire/bike change, he began a charge which took him as high as 6th, while teammate Edwards was busy falling back to 15th. Edwards began moving up in the standings on Lap 12, but was still two positions behind Toseland as late as Lap 21. Final result: Edwards passes Toseland again on the last lap of the race, finishing 6th to Toseland’s 7th. And although it was Toseland’s highest placement of the year, it must really grind him to get passed late again by his hated teammate. Hard cheese, James