Normal service has been resumed, Valentino Rossi is back on top of the podium. Yamaha are back, Michelin are back and Honda are back. It was great to see all the main protagonists involved at Estoril after Ducati's utter dominance this season. That race was much, much more like what we expected at the start of the season with Rossi on top, Dani Pedrosa as his biggest challenger and Casey Stoner being the dark horse. It was proper racing with three different riders on three different bikes and on two different types of tyre fighting it out. Perhaps everyone's reactions to the poor recent races have been a little over the top. Perhaps we have just been unlucky with the way things have worked out. Everyone involved at Yamaha, Michelin and Rossi himself, have knuckled down and worked really hard to arrest the slide they had all been on and it paid dividends. I spoke to Yamaha's chief mechanic Jeremy Burgess before the race in Portugal and he said that they had wins left in them and he was right.
What we got was a vintage Rossi performance. The previously under-fire Italian did what he always used to do, hang around the front with about five laps to go rehearsing his overtaking before hitting the front with a big passing move. It is a shame Stoner was blighted with clutch problems as we could have seen a titanic battle between the three at the front. He is a smart kid and knows exactly what he is doing. He isn't going to throw it all away now by going for glory all the time. He's got no need to go for wins, if he did that he would just put himself under unnecessary pressure. As long as he keeps on finishing the title should be his and he just needs to be in front of Rossi this weekend in Japan.
Honda got themselves back in the mix in Estoril and Pedrosa and a rejuvenated Nicky Hayden will be the ones to watch at their teams' home track. Pedrosa hasn't lived up to the hype this year and it seems to me that he is lacking a bit of physical strength to cope with the likes of Rossi and Stoner. He is so small and slight that he seems to struggle a little. However, the track at Motegi might suit him as there are some hard accelerating areas that he will be able to get some serious speed from. The track is very hard on fuel consumption so teams will have to watch that carefully, but generally we get some very good racing at the circuit. British motorcycling gets a boost this weekend as Chaz Davis rides for the D'Antin Ducati team after they sacked Alex Hofmann. This is a real chance to find out how good he is and who knows, if he does well he could earn himself a full-time ride next season. Fingers crossed for him! 1. Stoner 2. Rossi 3. Pedrosa You can now watch MotoGP races live on this website (UK users only).
Source: BBC Sport
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