MotoGP Misano - When Donkeys Fly

Last time out at Indianapolis, Rossi saw his 50 point championship lead axed in half courtesy of his turn 2 crash and Lorenzo's win. Rossi later stated that while he was sliding ass-over-tit across the the Indy tarmac, he managed to form a solitary thought..."I am a donkey".

Fast forward to Misano...Rossi's 'home' track. Rossi, in his usual "no shame in my game" style, was sporting the Shrek donkey on his helmet...excellent!. Rossi and his donkey were fastest in every session and took pole position followed by Pedrosa and Indy race winner Lorenzo. Along with Rossi, this was also the 'home' race for Ducati, as their workshop is just a hop, skip, and a jump (over a puddle of spilt olive oil) down the road. With Stoner still on 'hiatus', the Ducatisti (Ducati nerds who have, or wish they had, a 916 with zero miles parked in their living room as a conversation piece) put their hopes on Nicky Hayden and his 6th position on the grid.

Alrighty then...game on. Lights out, and Pedrosa immediately hits the front. Two corners later the basic technique of braking is all but forgotten by DeAngelis as he torpedoes Edwards, who in turn takes out Hayden. Even before the dust had settled, Hayden is on his feet and charging DeAngelis. I smell a hate crime coming on. I found a brilliant fan video of the whole incident on that one video site, but won't post it here...F-bombs galore!

Actual quotes from their post race interviews:

Hayden; "...out of the corner of my eye I seen DeAngelis...I seen this fruity...ya' know...that rainbow helmet and I knew that wasn't gonna work."

Edwards; "We're in Italy, so there's always gotta be some dumbass Italian being a hero."

Back to the action...Pedrosa continued on at the front followed closely by Contract Time. While this was going on, Lorenzo (who almost got taken out by DeAngelis' turn 2 bowling party) stuffed Rossi and took over 3rd. A few laps later, Rossi returned the favor on Lorenzo and took off for Contract Time and Pedro. Rossi and Lorenzo then tag-teamed Contract Time and shuffled his ass back to 4th and one step closer to collecting unemployment benefits. To be fair, I think Elias and his 'Planet of the Apes' riding style totally belong in MotoGP...one of my faves, for surely.

Meanwhile, back in the race...Pedrosa was still at the front, but that wouldn't last. 21 laps to go, and Pedrosa had a little whoopsie which allowed the Donkey through to hightail it on to his sixth win of the season. Point:Rossi. With Rossi gone in the distance, Lorenzo and Pedro had their own little scrap going for second. 15 to go, and little Pedro had another little whoopsie, which let his BFF Lorenzo through and up into 2nd. Lorenzo didn't take off right away. Instead, he hung around and toyed with Pedrosa for a bit before getting bored with that and taking off to do another epic celebration wheelie across the line for 2nd. Pedro pooped it home in a safe 3rd, followed by everyone else minus the Grupo de Gravel.

Race Result: 1)Rossi 2)Lorenzo 3)Pedrosa 4)Dovizioso 5)Capirossi 6)Elias 7)Kallio 8)Melandri 9)Vermeulen 10)Toseland 11)Espargaro 12)DePuniet
13)Canepa 14)Talmacsi

Grupo de Gravel: Hayden/Edwards/DeAngelis

With 4 races to go, Rossi now holds a not-so-safe 30 point lead over Lorenzo. Next stop is Portugal, where Stoner is rumored to be making his return. Will he actually show?

(Pictures courtesy of www.superbikeplanet.com and www.motogp.com)