MotoGP Britain: Victory of the Unsung

The post-race conference after the race was strangely refreshing. Winner Andrea Dovizioso admitted that riding by himself at the front was much more difficult than chasing Rossi, without the assistance of the master's lines. Colin 'Texan Tornado' Edwards was candid about admitting how everyone else left in a hurry at the start of the race when he did not have the pace. Third place Randy de Puniet even made use of unconventional vocabulary before international audience, in his everyday manner of speaking. There were no polished, practiced statements. That's because all three participants of the press con were people who had seen the podium sparingly. The conditions had already taken out the top guys. This was a day of difficult racing in which the underdogs came out on top.

On the grid

The start had the usual suspects lined up on the front rows of the grid. Reigning champ and current championship leader Valentino Rossi set the fastest time on Saturday, followed by a resurgent Dani Pedrosa, a feisty Jorge Lorenzo and a cautious Casey Stoner. The circumspect conditions at the start of the race made the Ducati duo of Stoner and Nicky Hayden gamble with starting the race on wet tyres - a move that would seal their fates for the race even before it started.

Rossi got off to a flier as the lights went green, but surprise leader at the end of the first lap was Honda Gresini rider Toni Elias. While the other riders tip-toed around the track to get a feel for condition, the tiny Spaniard sped away only to be reeled in by the top guys. Elias would retire later after a nasty white-strip induced highside on Lap 7.

The short-lived Yamaha battle

By the time Elias retired, Jorge Lorenzo had found his pace and passed the Honda. The last few races had seen the inter-Yamaha rivalry between Rossi and Lorenzo flourish, and obviously the Doctor did not want Lorenzo to get away. He passed the two Repsol Hondas of Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Divizioso within the length of a lap. Just as Yamaha fans began warming up for a new battle between the two, Lorenzo braked on the wet white line at the side of the track and lost his front, unable to recover his form or the bike, retiring from the race. After Stoner's tyre-gamble-gone-wrong, Lorenzo's crash added the second name to the contendor dropout list.

Dovizioso was preparing to have a great seat to watch another Rossi-Lorenzo battle, but the Spaniard's untimely retirement meant Rossi and Dovi were now battling it out for the lead. Three seconds behind however, there was a great battle brewing between Dani Pedrosa and Playboy LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet. The difference between the bikes was quite large, but de Puniet was obviously the man with more guts gathered over the years from many infamous crashes. While Pedrosa opened up margins on the straights and the fast sections owing to the horsepower advantage, de Puniet would just reel him in the technical sections and pass him with utmost ease. The battle ended with the Frenchman on top, and Repsol's factory might rubbed down. Pedrosa's cautious approach in the conditions made sure he finished in an unglamourous ninth position.

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Meanwhile at the head of the field, Rossi and Divizioso had settled into a fine rhythm. The Doctor was almost cruising - with great lap times and complete composure. Dovizioso wasn't exactly trying hard to keep up, but he was obviously being assisted by Rossi's lines in the tricky conditions. The Italian champion's rhythm was broken unexpectedly at the technical entry to the Fogarty esses, where he had a tumble that let Dovi through. Rossi rejoined the race in 11th place, from where he'd fight back to finish a commendable fifth.

Tracking Tornado

Colin Edwards had been all over the field with inconsistent lap times. A last-minute and untested front tyre change had him hunt for feel in the initial part of the race, especially on the tricky half-wet Donington surface. While front runners did not care to come in to pits and change bikes after the rain began to come down harder, Edwards did, and to good effect. He spent a few laps getting heat into the tires, but once in his groove he raced through the field to start challenging for the podium with 6 laps to go. Sure enough, at the final corner, he passed Randy de Puniet to claim second place. The Frenchman did not seem to mind at all - he popped a big wheelie to celebrate his third place anyway.

After Lorenzo's crash and Stoner's one-lap-down result, Rossi's fifth place improves his position in the standings. Pedrosa seems to have the overall pace but has not shown yet that he can sustain racing pressure for multiple laps. Unless the young pretenders bring something out from their yet shallow bags of experience, the season now past its half-way mark looks heavily poised in Rossi's favour. The next Grand Prix is at the legendary Czech circuit of Brno in three-weeks time. Here's hoping the conditions will be better, and the racing hot. Stay logged in to ZigWheels.com for the whole story!