Jorge Lorenzo rode a brilliant race on Sunday in front of an 110,000 crowd leading the race from pole and till the end. But it was not him who was under focus. His Yamaha team mate Valentino Rossi started the race from the last position due to a penalty he received at Sepang with his small hanky-panky with Marquez and the decision was also not stayed upon by the court of arbitration for sports. Rossi kept on passing riders one after the other until he reached 4th position where he was completely outmatched by both the Hondas of Marquez and Pedrosa and the leading Lorenzo.
There was a total of 10 seconds gap between him and Pedrosa in 3rd position which Rossi was never able to catch up on and it kept on increasing with every lap and suddenly there was nothing Rossi was able to do for the championship. It was all down to the Hondas. If they both took Lorenzo down to third, the championship was Rossi’s and that would have had happened as well had Marquez not ruined it all.
With 5 laps to go Pedrosa was picking up the pace and he was on the verge to take down both Marquez and Lorenzo. But when he took Marquez, he fought back strongly and the dogfight between them allowed Jorge to increase the gap by quite a lot, enough for him to steer clear of both the Hondas and take the win with quite some ease. Interestingly Marquez had come up to 0.007 seconds of Lorenzo and yet did not pass him. It was the first time maybe in MotoGP when one was able to see a rider brake right behind another and did not overtake him.
This sparked quite the controversy off the track of Marquez helping Lorenzo win the race and the championship while only Pedrosa was the one who was racing just because he loved to and genuinely wanted to win the race and not be involved in any of the off track rivalries. We respect that in him a lot.
Coming to the Rossi incident, at the end of the race when the riders entered the pit lane, not many were present to greet Lorenzo, but Rossi’s pit lane was surrounded by a huge furor of journalists and photographers and fans congratulating him on the race of his life. Not many have been able to start from the back of the pack and make their way up to almost a podium finish.
Rossi may not have won the race or the championship, finishing second, but he surely has won many hearts. People are not celebrating Lorenzo winning the championship so much than cheering and celebrating Rossi’s 4th position. This shows his true character as a racer and him being the master on two wheels.
rounak