Moto GP Donington Park

You don't turd on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don't mess around with thinking there will be a completely dry motorcycle race at Donington Park...ever.

This is the last time a MotoGP race will be held at Donington. Starting next year, the British round of MotoGP will be held at Silverstone, leaving Donington to host Formula 1 and several different 'Monsters of Rock' festivals. Rad.

Rossi started from pole and want to sign off with a win at the final Donington race because 'This track 'av many many goodah memories anda I make many the great battle in this track, for sure.' Pedrosa and Georgey Lorenzo rounded out the front row of the grid. On the star-spangled tip; Edwards started from 6th and Haystack down in 15th.

At the start of the race, the track was mostly dry, with little bits of rain here and there. Everyone (except Hayden and Stoner...more on that later.) started on slick tires. If the conditions go to shit, they can always come in and switch to a 'wet' bike, right? Right.

Game on...Rossi gets the holeshot, but Lorenzo and Elias get around him in the second corner to take the top two spots. Elias around Rossi and up to 2nd? Must be contract time. The very next corner, Elias pushes the issue and goes straight past Lorenzo to take the lead. Sign here, Mr. Elias. 28 laps to go and Repsol new boy Dovizioso hits the front while his teammate, Pedrosa, was also making steady progress...backwards. Two laps later, Lorenzo takes Dovi at the end of the front straight for the lead. Where's Rossi? Back in 4th. A few laps and passes later, we have Lorenzo up front (by quite a bit), followed by Rossi, Dovi, and Pedro. The two factory Ducatis of Hayden and Stoner were still farting around at the back of the pack on their wet tires.

23 to go, and Elias had just gotten past Pedro when he highsided his Honda and set sail on the failboat. Toot toot. meanwhile, Rossi and Dovi were closing up on Lorenzo. Could Georgey stand the pressure? Nope...he touched the paint with his front tire and had a little tipover going into the final corner corner. It looked fairly harmless, but enough sponsors' stickers were scraped from the body work of his Yamaha that he was not allowed to rejoin the race.

So now we have Rossi up front, followed closely by Dovi. I'm not sure what's going behind them, because they won't show it. Cut to an onboard shot of Rossi's rear tire...it looks like it has Leprosy. Not that big of a deal (spoiler alert!) since he won't be in the race much longer. While that's going on (or off), DePuniet comes from nowhere to take his boobie-sponsored Honda past Pedro into 3rd. Tits-ahoy!

17 to go...former MotoGP world champions KC Stoner and Nicky Hayden are being lapped by the leaders. Apparently their wet tire gamble didn't pay off. Look soon for an ad at www.craigslist.it for a new Ducati weather technician.

Rossi is still up front, but is looking a little ragged. Dovi is looking smooth in second. Everyone else is miles behind...for now.

11 to go...I had nodded off when all of a sudden 'ROSSI'S DOWN!! GOOD GOLLY ROSSI'S DOWN!! THE CHAMPIONSHIP HAS BEEN BLOWN WIDE OPEN!!' My MotoGP announcer alarm clock never fails. That's right...Wonderboy went down in the Fogarty Esses. He managed to get on track and finish 5th. Somehow, he crashed, but still managed to increase his lead in the championship standings. Imagine that.

With Rossi out, Dovi was 10 seconds in front and looking to pop his MotoGP victory cherry. What about the rest? Edwards made his way up to 3rd and was closing on De Puniet, who was also closing on Dovi. Would the Bunny bike take the win? Would Edwards finally, after 3493 tries, win a MotoGP race? Nope and nope. Dovi held on for his maiden win with Edwards and De Puniet in tow. Nice work, kid.

Even with his crash, Rossi extended his lead at the top to 181 points, followed by Lorenzo with 162, and Stoner with 149. Still very close with 7 races to go.

Result:
1) Dovizioso
2) Edwards
3) De Puniet
4) De Angelis
5) Rossi
6) Toseland
7) Melandri
8) Canepa
9) Ponderosa
10) Kallio
11) Capirossi
12) Talmacsi
13) Vermeulen
14) Stoner
15) Hayden

Failboat; Elias and Lorenzo...slim crowd considering the conditions.

Next stop...Brno in the Czech Republic.

One bottle of vodka was harmed in the makming (see)of this post.

T...out.