A1GP’s death throes continued with the cancellation of the next two rounds, China and Malaysia, after the opening round in Australia was cancelled last month.
The administrator appointed to run A1GP is seeking to sell all the chassis to anyone interested in continuing the series, while key series personnel have left the company and the A1GP’s equipment has been put into storage after the lease on its Silverstone hanger expired at the end of October.
The next scheduled race for A1GP would now be in South Africa on 28 February 2010, if it can be salvaged.
And so the Chase arrives at the unique challenge of Talladega – there’s no other circuit quite like this one, it’s the only restrictor plate race of the Chase, and it’s delivered some quite spectacular racing and accidents over the years. Would 2009 continue the run? Moreover, would polesitter Jimmie Johnson use it to extend his already formidable lead?
Unfortunately, it looked as though the entertainment of Talladega was sabotaged before it even started – by NASCAR itself. A new rule had been rushed in by NASCAR for Talladega forbidding cars from bump drafting in corners. “We want to see sunshine between the cars,” said NASCAR president Mike Helton, “All of the way through Turns 1 and 2, and all of the way through Turns 3 and 4, you will not be allowed to push someone, to bump-draft them or to shove them through the turns,” Helton said. “Remember the aggressive driving will still be watched very closely on the front stretches and through the tri-oval. But we have seen the progress, particularly at Talladega, of two cars hooking up and basically locked up all the way around for a lap. You will not be allowed to do that in the turns. That’s from the green flag all the way through to the checkered flag. So even on the last lap, coming through 3 and 4, you’re not going to be able to push a guy hooked up in a two-car tandem.”
With such a late change to common practice, the drivers were distinctly nervous as proceedings got underway and maintaining a clear distance in the opening laps – to the detriment of close racing. It almost looked like industrial action on the part of the drivers to protest NASCAR’s edict.
Mark Martin got a great start and beat Johnson to the first led lap of the day, but he and Johnson then both got bumped out of the running order and fell back to the middle of the pack leaving Kurt Busch in the lead ahead of Carl Edwards as the yellow flag came out on lap 5 when Paul Menard cut a tyre, turned into the wall and trapped Joe Nemechek against it as he did so, the two of them locked together, grinding along the wall for a quarter of a lap before finally coming to a halt.
Once the racing got underway again, the cars took up a nerve-racking three-wide formation and started putting the draft racing to full effect. David Reutimann took over the lead spot on lap 11, then challenged by Jeff Gordon before both of them were passed by new leader Casey Mears on lap 22 as the field finally stretched out into a single file. No one was pushing, and the effects of the “no draft bumping” decree were making themselves felt as everyone played safe, unwilling to be the guinea pig who got slapped down first.
With the race going caution-free for a lengthy period, the first full round of pit stops starting on lap 40 took place under green flag conditions. Clint Bowyer came in a little too hot and ran into the back of AJ Allmendinger as they slowed down for the pit lane speed limit, tipping the 44 into a spin, but it wasn’t until nearly all the pit stops were done that Kurt Busch went for a fast and wild spin through the infield grass after a tyre went down on him on lap 50 to bring out the second caution of the afternoon. The last remaining cars to pit now did so, and some that had already pitted came in for a quick fuel top-up; the worst hit were a small group of cars that were about to hit, and were too close to pit lane to pull out when the track went yellow and the pit lane closed. Among those caught out and put to the back of the lead lap were Casey Mears (who also got a pit lane speeding penalty) and a disgruntled Jimmie Johnson.
At the restart on lap 55, Elliott Sadler led Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, David Ragan and Greg Biffle; Kenseth briefly took the lead before a huge cheer went up on lap 60 as the 88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr sprang forward to lead a couple of laps, before Denny Hamlin then took up the lead spot for a lap and then Kevin Harvick popped up to take over. Bump drafting briefly picked up, before the drivers thought better of it and the field once again stretched out to a single file procession; boredom was setting in, with Harvick overheard asking for cruise control next time; his crew chief Gil Martin dryly responded with a promise of fitting an iPod into the drink holder instead.
As the race passed lap 90 of 188 it was time for some more green flag pit stops to begin, albeit rather strung out because of the different approaches to pitting under previous cautions – the majority of the leaders came in a gaggle on lap 98, Casey Mears and Jeff Gordon making contact at the pit entrance as they vied for their pit boxes.
A third caution came out on lap 105 for debris (a fender brace in turn 4 and a large piece of tear-off in turn 3.) Even though it has been just a few laps since their last stop, the leaders didn’t hesitate to come in again for a stop under caution. At the restart, it was Hamlin leading Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Robby Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The lead fluctuated as drivers caught the draft and were propelled to the front and then dropped back through the pack. Robby Gordon, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and David Stremme all took their turns at the front of the pack. Brad Keselowski had just taken up the lead on lap 136 making it 23 different leaders with 43 lead changes, when suddenly Hamlin pulled down below the double yellow line belching smoke from a terminally suicidal engine, bringing out the fourth yellow of the afternoon by leaving a streak of oil through turns 1 and 2.
With 50 laps to go we were still just outside the pit window to get all the way to the chequered – unless anyone could seriously stretch it, or there was a sudden abundance of yellows along the way. As the caution extended 6 laps, cars came in again for a quick top-up before the green on lap 144, when Keselowski led Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, Stremme and Martin Truex Jr. up to speed.
Jeff Gordon quickly took the lead back for himself, then Harvick, then Kasey Kahne, then Sadler, then Montoya, then Jeff Burton, then Jamie McMurray, then Burton again before Marcos Ambrose and then David Stremme took over – it was changing faster than a slot machine, a car leading one minute then plummeting to the back of the field next when they lost the draft. One notable absentee throughout all this was Jimmie Johnson, who was staying resolutely back in 33rd position – seemingly by choice, trying to stay out of trouble, but he was leaving that late surge very late indeed if it was to come.
The field once again stretched out to a single file line, allowing McMurray to claim the lead for a more settled period ahead of Kenseth, Montoya, Mears, Ambrose and Burton. Remarkably only two of the top ten were Chase contenders – Montoya, and Mark Martin in 10th place. Johnson continued to circulate back in 31st position showing little sign of life.
Then with 20 to go, the configuration changed and two- and three-wide racing was back as the drivers picked their dance partners for the final push. Earnhardt Jr briefly ousted McMurray as the leader, then Ragan did a brief turn in front, then Stremme – but it kept coming back to McMurray. Further back, Johnson was still having little joy making any progress, and Kurt Busch had to drop out with a tyre problem. But with five laps to go, it looked as though for once Talladega had been pretty much wreck free.
Ahhh. Not quite. It might not have been the “Big One” in terms of numbers, but what happened on lap 183 certainly ranked as “big” in the spectacular stakes. Marcos Ambrose bumped Ryan Newman, which caused team mates Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman to then collided with each other turning Stewart into the wall resulting in front end damage and possible problems with the brake lines, forcing him into the pits.
But for Newman it was a different matter. He was turned around one eighty degrees by the collisions, and once the car was facing the wrong way around the aerodynamics took over and lifted the back end of the car into the air, flipping it into a somersault that caused the back of the car to come crunching down onto the hood of Harvick’s car; Ambrose and Elliott Sadler also spun and made contact with the wall as they tried to avoid the wreck.
Newman’s wild ride wasn’t over. Now on its roof, it slid across the track to make contact with the outside wall, which caused it to bounce back spinning like a top toward the infield grass, where the front left quarter dug into the grass and flipped the car back into the air in a vicious little sting in the tail that ripped the rest of the car to pieces. Finally it came to a stop, still upside down, the roof collapsed in and fears that Ryan Newman would be trapped and injured inside; the recovery crew carefully righted the car and cut the roof off, allowing Newman to spring out seemingly unhurt but clearly furious, blaming NASCAR’s rules and restrictor plates for leading up to this incident.
While Newman was being extracted, the race went to a red flag before being readied for a green-white chequered finish. This played havoc with the field, however, who were at breaking point on fuel: some cars had to dive in for emergency splash-and-dash stops, while Jeff Gordon and Juan Montoya both ran out of gas and limped – or were pushed – back to the pits for agonisingly slow refuelling stops.
Finally the race got back to green, Jamie McMurray leading them away. But back in the midfield, the real Big One was underway as the 09 of Brad Keselowski tipped Kurt Busch into a spin that sent him skewing across the track. He impacted Mark Martin heavily, tipping the 5 car into a nasty but brief barrel-roll, and behind all this a dozen cars in total were caught up in the wreck to a greater or lesser degree. The race ended with the cars that were still running picking their way through the debris to take the yellow-and-chequered, with McMurray ecstatic at taking the win.
But the biggest winner? Jimmie Johnson had indeed managed to stay out of all the late race trouble by hanging towards the back, and emerged unscathed in the top ten. Best of all, with Martin wrecked, Stewart running several laps down because of the earlier collision with Newman, and Montoya and Gordon’s campaigns badly pit by running out of gas, it meant that all his chief rivals were absolutely no where. Johnson had turned around an afternoon that looked like damage limitation into an early Christmas present and a surely unassailable championship lead.
The Sprint Cup effectively ended here today at Talladega, folks. All hail the luckiest driver in NASCAR, Jimmie Johnson, the new champion. Of course, in motorsport you make your own luck – and the 48 team made it in spades just by striving to stay out of trouble, so brains as well as speed have delivered another trophy to the Johnson family.
Race result
FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS 1 22 26 Jamie McMurray Ford 195/10 191 2 11 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge 175/5 191 3 20 20 Joey Logano * Toyota 170/5 191 4 8 16 Greg Biffle Ford 160/0 191 5 18 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 160/5 191 6 1 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 150/0 191 7 33 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota 151/5 191 8 36 09 Brad Keselowski Chevrolet 147/5 191 9 26 19 Elliott Sadler Ford 143/5 191 10 37 171 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 134/0 191 11 24 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 135/5 191 12 15 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 127/0 191 13 12 83 Brian Vickers Toyota 129/5 191 14 10 99 Carl Edwards Ford 126/5 191 15 13 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 123/5 191 16 29 43 Reed Sorenson Dodge 115/0 191 17 28 6 David Ragan Ford 112/0 191 18 41 36 Robert Richardson Jr. Toyota 109/0 191 19 5 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 111/5 191 20 3 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 108/5 191 21 21 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 105/5 191 22 30 12 David Stremme Dodge 102/5 191 23 35 34 John Andretti Chevrolet 99/5 191 24 14 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 91/0 191 25 19 07 Casey Mears Chevrolet 93/5 191 26 16 00 David Reutimann Toyota 90/5 191 27 38 82 Scott Speed * Toyota 82/0 190 Accident 28 2 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet 84/5 190 Accident 29 42 113 Max Papis * Toyota 76/0 190 30 6 2 Kurt Busch Dodge 78/5 189 Accident 31 23 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet 75/5 189 Accident 32 34 7 Robby Gordon Toyota 72/5 189 Accident 33 25 44 A.J. Allmendinger Dodge 64/0 189 34 17 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota 66/5 188 35 4 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 63/5 183 Accident 36 7 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 60/5 183 Accident 37 31 96 Erik Darnell Ford 52/0 167 38 9 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 54/5 137 Engine 39 43 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet 46/0 99 Engine 40 27 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 43/0 44 Engine 41 40 66 Dave Blaney Toyota 40/0 12 Vibration 42 32 98 Paul Menard Ford 37/0 4 Accident 43 39 187 Joe Nemechek Toyota 34/0 4 Accident
(Final positions subject to review by NASCAR of the video tapes of the running order when the final yellow came out.)
Sprint Cup standings
+/- DRIVER PTS BEHIND ST P W T5 T10
1 -- Jimmie Johnson 6248 Leader 33 3 6 14 22
2 -- Mark Martin 6064 -184 33 7 5 12 19
3 -- Jeff Gordon 6056 -192 33 0 1 16 23
4 +1 Juan Montoya 6009 -239 33 2 0 7 17
5 -1 Tony Stewart 5969 -279 33 0 4 15 22
6 -- Kurt Busch 5936 -312 33 0 1 8 18
7 +1 Greg Biffle 5908 -340 33 0 0 10 15
8 -1 Ryan Newman 5846 -402 33 2 0 5 15
9 +2 Kasey Kahne 5834 -414 33 0 2 7 14
10 -- Carl Edwards 5811 -437 33 0 0 7 13
11 -2 Denny Hamlin 5800 -448 33 1 3 12 17
12 -- Brian Vickers 5697 -551 33 6 1 4 13
======= CHASE FOR THE Sprint CUP - CURRENT CONTENDERS ========
13 -- Kyle Busch 4043 -2205 33 1 4 9 12
14 -- Matt Kenseth 3986 -2262 33 1 2 6 11
15 -- Clint Bowyer 3932 -2316 33 0 0 4 14
16 -- David Reutimann 3854 -2394 33 2 1 5 9
17 +1 Jeff Burton 3539 -2709 33 0 0 3 7
18 -1 Marcos Ambrose 3519 -2729 33 0 0 4 7
19 +1 Joey Logano* 3494 -2754 33 0 1 3 7
20 -1 Casey Mears 3471 -2777 33 0 0 0 4
21 -- Kevin Harvick 3380 -2868 33 0 0 3 7
22 -- Jamie McMurray 3286 -2962 33 0 1 1 5
23 +1 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 3197 -3051 33 0 0 2 5
24 -1 Martin Truex Jr. 3139 -3109 33 2 0 0 4
25 +1 Elliott Sadler 3134 -3114 33 0 0 1 5
26 -1 A.J. Allmendinger 3084 -3164 33 0 0 1 4
27 +1 David Ragan 2985 -3263 33 0 0 0 2
28 +1 Reed Sorenson 2964 -3284 33 0 0 0 1
29 -2 Sam Hornish Jr. 2948 -3300 33 0 0 2 7
30 +1 Bobby Labonte 2942 -3306 33 0 0 1 2
31 -1 David Stremme 2919 -3329 33 0 0 0 0
32 -- Paul Menard 2742 -3506 33 0 0 0 0
33 -- Michael Waltrip 2612 -3636 31 0 0 0 2
34 -- Robby Gordon 2474 -3774 32 0 0 1 1
35 -- Scott Speed* 2435 -3813 32 0 0 1 1
36 -- John Andretti 2381 -3867 31 0 0 0 0
37 -- David Gilliland 1700 -4548 28 0 0 0 0
38 +2 Brad Keselowski 1330 -4918 12 0 1 1 4
39 -1 Regan Smith 1306 -4942 16 0 0 0 0
40 -1 Joe Nemechek 1262 -4986 28 0 0 0 0
And so we arrive at the end of the 2009 F1 season. The titles decided, all that remained was one exhibition race – at the visually astounding new Yas Marina circuit. But would the racing match the location? And how would the drivers and teams – Button and Brawn especially – fare now that the pressure of the championships was over?
After dominating practice and qualifying, all the money was on Lewis Hamilton to win. And even more than that, to disappear into the distance and never be seen again. Well, that dream was quickly dispelled, since Hamilton – despite getting a good start – quickly realised that he was unable to pull away from Sebastian Vettel in second despite his faster pace, KERS and lighter fuel load. If he couldn’t pull out a gap before his early pit stop then Vettel would jump him for the lead.
Hamilton put everything he could into the effort, dragging out the odd tenth here or there, but Vettel was making it hard work indeed. And then on lap 12 the McLaren locked up and ran wide at turn 17 losing the outgoing world champion some 0.8s and putting him right back in Vettel’s clutches. Sure enough, come the pit stops, Hamilton emerged from the unique pit tunnel exit to find himself demoted to second, but at least he’s done enough to hold off third placed Mark Webber.
But then a couple of laps after his pit stop, Hamilton received dread news from the team: they were picking up a right rear brake problem. It explained much about his performance thus far, but the news was even worse than that: with the diagnostics indicating imminent brake failure, the team could not risk the driver, car and bystanders with an uncontrolled 200mph failure and crash. They had no choice but to clear a spot in the garage and call Hamilton in to the pits to retire, which he did on lap 21.
With Hamilton out of the way there was no risk to Vettel in the lead, and Mark Webber looked secure in third place. Behind them were the two Brawns, going well enough but not startlingly and no apparent threat. Rubens Barrichello had started ahead of his team mate, but in the opening corner of the race he has been cut off by Mark Webber who clipped the edge of Barrichello’s wing. The end plates flew off – one of them landing on Button’s cockpit – and Barrichello’s pace seemed initially affected and it allowed Button to get past for position in the ensuing corners and pull away. But Barrichello was soon matching the race leaders for pace and starting to reduce the gap again, and when the pit stops came around there was no move to change the front wing on the Brawn GP, so all was well. Webber also was fearing some sort of damage or puncture, but here too all seemed okay.
Coming up to that first round of pit stops, Button was told to push or risk falling behind Kamui Kobayashi who was having a brilliant drive making the most of a one-stop strategy. Button did manage to emerge from the pit tunnel in front, but Kobayashi was in a lighter car on hot yres and he pressed Button for all he could, finally making Button run off line onto the dust and then outbrake himself into the chicane. Kobayashi needed no second chance, passed the Brawn and scampered off into the distance on his way to an eventual 6th place after his own pit stop, by far the best of the single stoppers in the afternoon despite labouring under heavy fuel tanks and half a race on the soft option tyres. Assuming Toyota do appear on the grid in 2010, it’s impossible not to believe that Kobayashi hasn’t secured his seat in one of the cars next season with this drive and the equally eye-catching one in Brazil.
Frankly, the race settled into a bit of a lull in the middle part of proceedings; as feared, the track was simply too scientific and clinical to match the exuberance of a circuit such as Interlagos, at least when the championships are not at stake, and things became rather processional.
However, excitement sparked back into the race in the closing dozen laps as it became clear that Button was scything through Webber’s huge lead at the rate of three-quarters of a second per lap. What had appeared a safe run to the podium now became a fraught all-out fight between the two, as Weber struggled on the softer tyres but Button’s smooth drving style suited them to a tee. Webber’s “body language” showed that he was clearly rattled, struggling to limit mistakes that presented Button with any opportunities, and it was nail biting stuff with Button coming within inches of pulling it off on the final lap. Ultimately however it was another demonstration of how it might be easy to catch someone, but another thing altogether to pass them – and Webber held on by the skin of his teeth to claim second and make it a Red Bull one-two. Webber and Button was talking excitedly all the way up to the podium about the battle, and it seemed like the best fun either of them had enjoyed all year.
Overtaking moves that we did see pulled off included Robert Kubica staging a key move on the heavier car of Jarno Trulli early on, but the Pole faded badly as the race wore, fighting with one-stopping Heikki Kovalainen after his own pit stop and then clashing with Sebastien Buemi which ended with contact sending him into a spin, dumping him out of the points in 10th place. Adrian Sutil proved intermittently pacey, including one great battle through the chicane with Romain Grosjean, but nonetheless finished a lap off the pace; and Giancarlo Fisichella made up lots of positions early in the race by opting to take the soft tyres at the start, but who struggled later in the race and found his race mortally wounded by a speeding drive-thru penalty after his first stop.
Other than Hamilton, the only retiree of the evening was Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari. Suffering from a gearbox problem, Alguersuari came into the pits before the crew was out to receive him on lap 18; however, the Red Bull crew were all deployed for the race leader Vettel. Making the same mistake that commentators and spectators had been making all season long, Alguersuari confused the Red Bull livery with the Toro Rosso one and pulled in to Vettel’s box, only to find himself quickly ejected and thrown back out by the gesticulating crew. By the time he was back on track and worked out what had happened, the car was in its death throes and he came to a halt out on track.
In the end it was a curiously uneven race: thrilling in parts, dull in others, visually stunning but somehow missing something underneath, and yet managing to provide at the very end an amazing flourish and celebration of wheel-to-wheel, edge-of-the-seat racing together with an excellent win for Sebastian Vettel who was flawless today, surely a world champion in waiting.
There are far worse ways to see out the end of the season and send us into winter hibernation, and for a début/inaugural outing, Abu Dhabi overall delivered the goods.
And now all eyes turn to Bahrain in 133 days or 19 weeks. What will happen in 2010? Will Red Bull carry on the momentum they enjoyed at the end of 2009 where they chalked up a hat-trick of consecutive wins? Will Brawn successfully defend their world titles? Will McLaren and Ferrari be resurgent? Will there be another astonishing upset with a no-hope team suddenly smashing all expectations?
At this point we don’t even know all of the teams that will line up on that starting grid, and as for the driver line-up – amazingly, only six seats have been confirmed. Even Jenson Button is still a free agent. That’s likely to change pretty quickly in the next few days and weeks but it’s surely surprising that so much is still up in the air this late in the year. Although Abu Dhabi is the last on-track action of the year, it feels very much as though we’re still in the middle of the story and that the fade-out on the weekend’s coverage should end with a “To Be Continued” caption.
Watch this space!
Race results
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h34:03.314 2. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 17.857 3. Button Brawn-Mercedes + 18.467 4. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes + 22.735 5. Heidfeld BMW Sauber + 26.253 6. Kobayashi Toyota + 28.343 7. Trulli Toyota + 34.366 8. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 41.294 9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota + 45.941 10. Kubica BMW Sauber + 48.180 11. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes + 52.798 12. Raikkonen Ferrari + 54.317 13. Nakajima Williams-Toyota + 59.839 14. Alonso Renault + 1:09.687 15. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 1:34.450 16. Grosjean Renault + 1 lap 17. Fisichella Ferrari + 1 lap 18. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:40.279 Not classified/retirements: Driver Team On lap Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 21 Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 19
World Championship standings after round 17
Button’s strong third place emphasised the amount he finally won the 2009 world title by, while a deflated Rubens Barrichello was usurped for the runners-up slot by Sebastian Vettel – not that the number two position meant all that much to either driver, and Vettel will be far happier with the GP win than the academic matter of world championship standings.
Given that the constructors’ championship decides pit lane positions, car numbers and most of all money, there was far more riding on this side of things than on the drivers. Brawn and Red Bull were safe in first and second before Abu Dhabi, of course, but the race result meant that McLaren held off Ferrari by a single point for third place “best of the rest” standing. BMW were able to finish in 6th in their final F1 appearance, just holding off Williams.
Drivers: Constructors: 1. Button 95 1. Brawn-Mercedes 172 2. Vettel 84 2. Red Bull-Renault 153.5 3. Barrichello 77 3. McLaren-Mercedes 71 4. Webber 69.5 4. Ferrari 70 5. Hamilton 49 5. Toyota 59.5 6. Raikkonen 48 6. BMW Sauber 36 7. Rosberg 34.5 7. Williams-Toyota 34.5 8. Trulli 32.5 8. Renault 26 9. Alonso 26 9. Force India-Mercedes 13 10. Glock 24 10. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 8 11. Kovalainen 22 12. Massa 22 13. Heidfeld 19 14. Kubica 17 15. Fisichella 8 16. Buemi 6 17. Sutil 5 18. Kobayashi 3 19. Bourdais 2
Feature race
Davide Valsecchi opened the GP2 Asia season with a hard-earned victory over fellow GP2 veteran Luca Filippi at the feature race in Abu Dhabi.
Valsecchi recovered from a sluggish start to retake the lead from ART’s impressive rookie Sam Bird down the incredibly long backstraight on lap 1, but Filippi was able to take the lead by running longer before his mandatory pit stop.
Racing was interrupted shortly afterward when Luiz Razia lost his front wing in a collision with Christian Vietoris which left debris on the track. Valsecchi then had to put Filippi under pressure from the restart, finally taking the lead again in the closing stages after a very close side by side dice through the Turn 11, 12, 13 and 14 complex. Valsecchi retained the lead even after a second safety car period prompted by a spin by Trident’s Plamen Kralev.
Sam Bird had been on course for an impressive 4th place when he suffered brake problems, took to an escape road at the chicane, and then retired a few corners later on the penultimate lap as the problem proved insurmountable. That put his British compatriot Oliver Turvey into 8th place and hence into pole position for the sprint race tomorrow under reverse grid rules.
Result
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Davide Valsecchi iSport 1h07m49.810s
2. Luca Filippi Meritus + 4.881s
3. James Jakes Super Nova + 6.174s
4. Alexander Rossi Ocean + 7.182s
5. Josef Kral Super Nova + 8.220s
6. Christian Vietoris DAMS + 13.300s
7. Johnny Cecotto Trident + 15.460s
8. Oliver Turvey iSport + 16.223s
9. Edoardo Piscopo DAMS + 16.715s
10. Roldan Rodriguez Coloni + 16.879s
11. Marcus Ericsson ART + 21.686s
12. Will Bratt Coloni + 22.539s
13. Michael Herck DPR + 22.881s
14. Rodolfo Gonzalez Arden + 23.403s
15. Daniel Zampieri Piquet + 23.786s
16. Max Chilton Addax + 25.131s
17. Fabio Leimer Ocean + 30.019s
18. Sam Bird ART + 2 laps
Retirements:
Charles Pic Arden 28 laps
Vlado Arabadjiev Piquet 25 laps
Plamen Kralev Trident 24 laps
Luiz Razia Addax 12 laps
Giacomo Ricci DPR 8 laps
Diego Nunes Meritus 0 laps
Sprint race
Christian Vietoris won the spring race, but it was once again Davide Valsecchi who caught the eye and impressed the most as he battled his way impressively up the order from eighth on the grid to take second and complete a very satisfactory open weekend in GP2 Asia.
Polesitter Oliver Turvey had a mediocre start but crucially failed to defend his line going into the first turn, allowing first Vietoris and then Josef Kral and Alexander Rossi to stream past him on the inside line. Turvey would also get taken with similar ease by Valsecchi with 8 laps remaining, but at least he did better than his fellow front row driver Johnny Cecotto who got a miserable start and was then squeezed back to 8th behind Luca Fillipi and Valsecchi.
Valsecchi took a fair while to come to life, but as the race reached is concluding third he suddenly sprang to life, elbowed Filippi aside and then passed Turvey – again, the Brit made it far too easy for him and failed to defend against his iSport team mate, unlike Rossi who blocked Valsecchi to within an inch of the rules before finally being forced to concede as Valsecchi took the third place. With one lap remaining, Valsecchi then hunted down Kral for the second place spot and managed a great move down the inside into a chicane that left Kral no option but to let him past for the runner-up position.
Behind them, Turvey finally managed to get on competitive form with a nice move on Rossi to take fourth. Filippi, meanwhile, having lost the shoot-out with Valsecchi then managed to spin while side-by-side defending his position from Cecotto. He recovered but was out of the points in eighth.
Valsecchi had been helped by a safety car on lap 14 caused by Fabio Leimer’s ca failing to brake going into a sharp left hander, sending him skidding off into the new safer barriers introduced to F1 here at Abu Dhabi, collecting Will Bratt along the way. That closed up the field and had left Valsecchi right on the back of Rossi at the critical moment with enough laps left to take advantage of the situation.
Even so, it was somewhat startling to see Valsecchi in such top form. He’s been something of a GP2 journeyman till now, having been on the series since its inception without ever really catching the eye or having much success. But the excellent results here in what it only a four-weekend series sets him up nicely for walking away with the off-season title.
Another driver showing signs of top form was ART’s Sam Bird, but for all his strong showing he walks away with zero points from this weekend. Starting from 18th after his brake failure in the feature race, he was spun by light contact in the first lap and then worked his way up through the order with moves including a side-by-side battle with Rodolfo Gonzalez that saw them both bounce over and through a chicane. But Bird then spun later in the race and got dumped down to the back of the running order once again, all that hard work for nought.
Result
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Christian Vietoris DAMS 43m18.814s
2. Davide Valsecchi iSport + 2.447s
3. Josef Kral Super Nova + 3.195s
4. Oliver Turvey iSport + 6.616s
5. Alexander Rossi Ocean + 7.420s
6. Johnny Cecotto Trident + 7.711s
7. Edoardo Piscopo DAMS + 8.237s
8. Luca Filippi Meritus + 10.136s
9. Michael Herck DPR + 10.730s
10. James Jakes Super Nova + 11.643s
11. Luiz Razia Addax + 11.881s
12. Marcus Ericsson ART + 12.315s
13. Diego Nunes Meritus + 12.893s
14. Roldan Rodriguez Coloni + 13.303s
15. Charles Pic Arden + 13.777s
16. Rodolfo Gonzalez Arden + 14.431s
17. Max Chilton Addax + 19.485s
18. Sam Bird ART + 21.421s
Retirements:
Vlado Arabadjiev Piquet 17 laps
Fabio Leimer Ocean 14 laps
Will Bratt Coloni 14 laps
Daniel Zampieri Piquet 5 laps
Giacomo Ricci DPR 1 lap
Plamen Kralev Trident 0 laps
GP2 Asia championship after round 2
Drivers championship:
Pos Driver Pts 1 Davide Valsecchi 19 2 Christian Vietoris 9 3 Luca Filippi 8 4 Josef Kral 8 5 Alexander Rossi 7 6 James Jakes 6 7 Oliver Turvey 4 8 Johnny Cecotto Jr. 3
Teams championship:
Pos Team Pts 1 iSport International 23 2 Super Nova Racing 14 3 DAMS 9 4 Malaysia Qi-Meritus.Com 8 5 Ocean Racing Technology 7 6 Trident Racing 3
Lewis Hamilton was in peerless form and dominated the first-ever qualification session in Abu Dhabi to take pole position, while the fortunes of his rivals ebbed and flowed as the sun set on the virgin circuit.
In Q1, it was Jenson Button who skipped up to join Hamilton on the front row of the grid proving that the new world champion’s form was much improved now he had secured the title. But while his team mate topped the timesheets, Heikki Kovalainen struggled to get the second McLaren into the next stage, a late running finally boosting him to safety.
It was Force India and Renault who had the worst Q1, the teams losing both cars in the first round of qualifying – the most shocking being Fernando Alonso who missed out on Q2 by one spot, blaming a total lack of grip and professing himself unsurprised not to get through.
Giancarlo Fisichella will also not have been surprised to be eliminated, although starting the race dead last can’t be anything other than an embarrassing disappointment. And to make matters worse for Ferrari (Luca di Montezemolo , Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa were all watching on with pained expressions on the pit wall) Kimi Raikkonen was among the fallers in the second round of qualifying.
Kovalainen was also eliminated in Q2, but this time it was transmission failure that did for his hopes of progressing – he stopped out on track during the session. Meanwhile Lewis was on top of the timesheets again – and once more was the only driver to break the 100s lap time. But in Q2 it was the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber who were suddenly in form, shooting up to 2nd and fourth sandwiching a still-strong Button in 3rd.
With fuel loaded on and the skies now completely dark, Q3 seemed to cause some variation in form, with Jenson Button in particular falling back and reporting a nasty vibration on the steering wheel under braking which meant that he never competed for the front row and was probably lucky to secure 5th on the grid.
The Red Bulls both seemed to be coming to their peak and threatened a lock out of the front row over the two Brawns on the second, as Lewis Hamilton faltered – making a mistake on his first flying lap and running wide, and then struggling to find the same sort of pace he’d enjoyed for the entire day up till then. But then a final flying lap shattered the times of his rivals and put him on pole by an astonishing 0.7s, suggesting that he might be running very light: but if he can use pole position, KERS and his inherent pace to good effect in the early laps then he’ll have a country mile in which to get in and pit early in the race and still come up in the lead.
In fact the worrying prospect we’re left with it: will Lewis Hamilton disappear into the literal sunset tomorrow and never be seen again?
Qualification times
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:39.873 1:39.695 1:40.948 2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:40.666 1:39.984 1:41.615 3. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:40.667 1:40.272 1:41.726 4. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 1:40.574 1:40.421 1:41.786 5. Button Brawn-Mercedes 1:40.378 1:40.148 1:41.892 6. Trulli Toyota 1:40.517 1:40.373 1:41.897 7. Kubica BMW-Sauber 1:40.520 1:40.545 1:41.992 8. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 1:40.558 1:40.635 1:42.343 9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:40.842 1:40.661 1:42.583 10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:40.908 1:40.430 1:42.713 11. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:41.100 1:40.726 12. Kobayashi Toyota 1:41.035 1:40.777 13. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:40.808 1:40.983 14. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:41.096 1:41.148 15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:41.503 1:41.689 16. Alonso Renault 1:41.667 17. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:41.701 18. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:41.863 19. Grosjean Renault 1:41.950 20. Fisichella Ferrari 1:42.184
After a rain-beset build-up, the drivers came to the tight half mile oval at Martinsville with a degree of trepidation: on such a tight, claustrophobic circuit anything can happen – Martinsville is the shortest circuit on the Sprint Cup calendar. Small mistakes can become big ones, and Chase hopes can turn to ashes, so for Jimmie Johnson the aim was to finish and maintain momentum, not necessarily to win.
Since all the rain had washed the circuit on Saturday, a competition caution had been arranged for lap 50, but the race didn’t make anything like that distance before the first real caution came out on lap 7 when Matt Kenseth got loose in turn 4 and moved up into Marcos Ambrose, spinning the 47 into a collision with his own car and the two of them collecting Robby Gordon in the process.
Ryan Newman led from pole for the first 22 laps before getting usurped by seven-time winner Jeff Gordon, and Newman then started to get shuffled back through the order. On the way up and recovering from poor qualifying positions were Jimmie Johnson and Juan Montoya, but it was less cheerful news for Chase contenders Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne who were still stuck around 30th position in heavy traffic and showing little sign of life.
The race was still six laps shy of the official competition caution when Michael Waltrip spun with a flat left rear tyre to bring out the second caution of the day. NASCAR decided it was close enough the declared it the competition yellow after all, meaning that for the first time the cars could come in for proper fuel and tyre stops. With almost everyone still on the lead lap, it was very tight in the crowded pit lane, with Jeff Gordon notably almost exiting right into the path of Bobby Labonte. Fortunately no harm was done and Gordon resumed in the lead after taking only two tyres – unusually for the leaders who mainly went for four. The big gainer was Jamie McMurray, up 11 spots into 4th on a two-tyre stop.
But two tyres was quickly exposed as a mistake; McMurray started to fall back almost at once, and shortly afterwards Gordon started to lose positions too, ceding the lead to Jimmie Johnson on lap 59. Gordon seemed unable to keep the car down low on the track and was repeatedly beaten by cars diving down the inside line. Montoya was once again a man in a hurry and when it was his turn to pass he was impatient, catching Gordon on the left rear and nearly tipping the 24 into a spin before Gordon caught it.
Gordon was relieved when a blown tyre on the 88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr gave him and the other leaders a chance to pit once again on lap 89. At the restart, Johnson led Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Juan Montoya and Jeff Gordon to the green; at the other end, Kasey Kahne’s day went from bad to worse with a pit lane speeding penalty.
Montoya and Gordon were once again side-by-side vying for track position, and once again Montoya got physical in doing it – Gordon was not amused to be pushed out of the way a second time in one afternoon by the 42.
This green flag went untroubled for some time, a yellow only coming out again on lap 128 – once again for Earnhardt, who got into the wall on lap 128. It was good timing for everyone and the pit lane was once again frenetically busy, Johnson returning back out in the lead with Montoya, Newman, Gordon and Martin making up the rest of the top five. Montoya was quick to challenge for the lead, and on lap 141 he recorded his first lap in front as he put Johnson back into second place.
Debris on the start/finish straight brought out the fifth caution on lap 157 but the leaders mainly stayed out, Denny Hamlin the highest car to pit from sixth place; the next caution wa lap 176 after David Stremme and Sam Hornish Jr tangled.
This time around the pit stops showed diverging strategy, and the top five at the restart were Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Kyle and Kurt Busch, and Bobby Labonte in fifth. Hamlin was quick to take the lead away from Burton after he restart on lap 182, while further back Johnson was shown in 14th, Montoya 17 and Gordon all the way back in 25th.
Sam Hornish Jr was the cause for the seventh caution of the afternoon when he spun on th front stretch and backed into a crunching impact against the wall; he crawled back to the garage area streaming smoke from the damaged bodywork as he went, looking very much out of the running for the rest of the afternoon. Burton and Kurt Busch were among those to pit, and now the restart had Hamlin leading Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Labonte and Carl Edwards.
Kasey Kahne’s miserable day now saw his left front tyre blow on lap 210, spinning him around so that the back of the 9 car thudded into the wall bringing out the eighth caution of the afternoon. Hamlin still held the lead after Kyle Busch had briefly got his nose in front to get points for leading a lap, and the two of them were now ahead of Johnson and Harvick, with Montoya creeping up to sixth behind Labonte.
As the race hit the halfway point, a series of collisions between AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano inevitably resulted in Logano hitting the rear of the 44 hard enough to send it into a spin and a heavy contact with the wall: Allmendinger’s car was extensively beaten up and was the first car not able to limp back to the pits afterwards, and was collected by the tow-truck instead as the remainder of the field came in for their long-awaited pit stops.
Showing some canny knowledge of where the pit lane speed check equipment was deployed and where it was safe to gas it up just a little bit more, Johnson beat Denny Hamlin, Mark Marin, Juan Montoya, Ryan Newman and Kyle Busch out of pit lane – Hamlin and Busch now back on the same strategy having consolidated their position gain. But Greg Biffle was alone in staying out, and took up the lead for the restart; but the advantage of fresh rubber and a better car saw Johnson fly past for the lead within half a lap, and five laps later he was out of the top five altogether.
A clash with Kasey Kahne left John Andretti spun across the path of Sterling Marlin on lap 275 bringing out the tenth caution of the day, and at the restart battle was joined between Johnson and Montoya for the lead. Johnson kept the top spot, but Montoya was not shy in giving the back of the 48 more than a few not-so-gentle taps to try and press his claim.
The battle between the two was still going on when the race hit the 300 lap mark and the 11th caution came out for Kasey Kahne, whose right front tyre let go sending the already-battered 9 car straight into the wall. Montoya had a sluggish stop and lost position on Johnson during the ensuing pit stops, but in any case the top five now consisted of cars that hadn’t come in at all – David Reutimann, Tony Stewart, Elliot Sadler, Matt Kenseth and John Andretti. Stewart had a poor restart and was soon caught and past by Johnson, but Reutimann wasn’t passed for the lead until 15 laps later on lap 321.
Further back down the field, Martin Truex Jr and David Stremme were having a spat which ended inevitably with Stremme thumping Truex into a smoky spin, but Truex was able to gather it up without hitting anything and get the car going in the right direction again before NASCAR threw a caution.
But Johnson was back in the lead: no matter the type of track or where he qualifies, it seems that Johnson can simply work his way to the front everytime – and win. The only car that had looked a real threat during this race had been Montoya, but his aggressive style and heavy-on-the-brakes driving suggested the car wouldn’t last in one piece or at least at this level of performance to the end. So it was a relief to see a new threat to a Johnson win emerge in the shape of Denny Hamlin, who seemed to grow stronger and faster as the green flag stint wore on to that by lap 363 the 11 and the 48 were side-by-side, trading the lead until finally Hamlin broke through and claimed the outright lead.
The green flag stint had survived Sterling Marlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr both losing tyres but not bring out a caution, even when Earnhardt slid the 88 into a long scrape against the wall. It meant that the green lasted remarkably well over a hundred laps, and soon the cars were forced into pitting under green for their final stop for fuel, starting from around lap 420: Montoya was in on lap 433, Johnson one lap later (with a bad delay on the right rear tyre) and Hamlin in from the lead a lap longer still.
Ironically, once the stops had cycled through the 12th caution of the afternoon was quick to follow after Elliott Sadler gave John Andretti a tap on the rear and sent the 34 into a spin. At the restart, Hamlin, Johnson and Montoya headed the field with Brian Vickers 4th, Jeff Gordon 5th and Mark Martin ever-present near in the lead in 6th.
As the race drew to its climax, the car got up close and personal, jostling each other up and down the running order. At the front, Jimmie Johnson made his intention to bump Denny Hamlin very clear, while further back Mark Martin was tapped by Carl Edwards which cost him position. At least Jeff Gordon – now back near the front after divergent pit stop strategies had seen him back in the midfield for much of the afternoon – passed Juan Montoya cleanly for third place.
A 13th caution for debris allowed Mark Martin, Brian Vickers, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton and Jamie McMurray to roll the dice on pitting for fresh rubber, and the race went green again on lap 488 with twelve to go. Once again Hamlin got a great start and pulled away from the danger of Jimmie Johnson, and once again his hopes of a clear run to the chequered were dashed when the 14th caution came out on lap 14: Scott Speed went into turn 1 far too fast, lost the back end and wrecked it against the wall, scattering debris over the track and making a yellow unavoidable.
That left a two lap sprint to the finish, and once again Hamlin excelled at the restart: this time, it seemed, Jimmie Johnson had met his match and wouldn’t be able to take the victory. Not that it would do his Sprint Cup campaign any harm, as all the main rivals were safely behind him and this result would only extend his considerable lead still further.
The race finished under green – somewhat incredibly, as John Andretti had spun at the end of the penultimate lap and then stalled the car perpendicular on the start-finish line. Despite this huge hazard, NASCAR failed to throw the yellow in order to allow the race to finish, but more than a few cars on the inside line were startled to find a stationary car in the middle of the track ahead of them and no warning yellows in sight. Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus looked astonished at NASCAR’s call, which appeared incredibly dangerous and only luck and skilful reactions avoided a disastrous end to proceedings.
But as controversial as that incident might prove to be, there was no question as to the winner – a great run by Hamlin to lead the final 139 laps and hold off Johnson, and Montoya did indeed make it to the end of the race in one piece in an impressive 3rd. Arguably the best run of the day, however, belonged to Kyle Busch who finished 4th after starting 41st on the grid, ahead of Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray.
Race result
FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE PTS/BNS LAPS 1 17 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 195/10 501 2 15 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 175/5 501 3 21 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 170/5 501 4 41 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 165/5 501 5 2 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 160/5 501 6 23 26 Jamie McMurray Ford 150/0 501 7 1 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 151/5 501 8 4 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet 147/5 501 9 10 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 138/0 501 10 13 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 134/0 501 11 24 83 Brian Vickers Toyota 130/0 501 12 7 20 Joey Logano * Toyota 127/0 501 13 8 96 Bobby Labonte Ford 124/0 501 14 32 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 121/0 501 15 22 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 123/5 501 16 37 2 Kurt Busch Dodge 115/0 501 17 5 00 David Reutimann Toyota 117/5 501 18 6 07 Casey Mears Chevrolet 109/0 501 19 19 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 106/0 501 20 29 99 Carl Edwards Ford 103/0 501 21 40 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge 100/0 501 22 14 6 David Ragan Ford 97/0 501 23 30 98 Paul Menard Ford 94/0 501 24 9 43 Reed Sorenson Dodge 91/0 501 25 20 16 Greg Biffle Ford 93/5 501 26 27 34 John Andretti Chevrolet 90/5 499 27 34 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota 82/0 499 28 3 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet 79/0 499 29 12 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 76/0 499 30 36 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota 73/0 497 31 18 82 Scott Speed * Toyota 70/0 495 32 26 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge 67/0 494 33 11 12 David Stremme Dodge 64/0 439 34 16 44 A.J. Allmendinger Dodge 61/0 414 35 38 09 Sterling Marlin Dodge 58/0 355 36 31 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 55/0 248 37 33 7 Robby Gordon Toyota 52/0 130 38 28 187 Joe Nemechek Toyota 49/0 52 39 35 171 David Gilliland Chevrolet 51/5 48 40 39 66 Dave Blaney Toyota 43/0 38 41 42 36 Michael McDowell Toyota 40/0 36 42 43 64 Derrike Cope Toyota 37/0 31 43 25 37 Travis Kvapil Dodge 34/0 30
Sprint Cup standings
Johnson’s lead is extended by 28pts and the top four are unchanged, but Montoya’s aggressive drive to third place gives him a boost after last week’s disappointment.
Kyle Busch’s fourth place finish puts him back into “best of the rest” position in 13th.
+/- DRIVER PTS BEHIND ST P W T5 T10
1 -- Jimmie Johnson 6098 Leader 32 3 6 14 21
2 -- Mark Martin 5980 -118 32 7 5 12 19
3 -- Jeff Gordon 5948 -150 32 0 1 16 23
4 -- Tony Stewart 5902 -196 32 0 4 15 22
5 +1 Juan Montoya 5898 -200 32 2 0 7 17
6 -1 Kurt Busch 5861 -237 32 0 1 8 18
7 +1 Ryan Newman 5786 -312 32 2 0 5 15
8 -1 Greg Biffle 5748 -350 32 0 0 9 14
9 +2 Denny Hamlin 5746 -352 32 1 3 12 17
10 -- Carl Edwards 5685 -413 32 0 0 7 13
11 -2 Kasey Kahne 5659 -439 32 0 2 6 13
12 -- Brian Vickers 5568 -530 32 6 1 4 13
======= CHASE FOR THE Sprint CUP - CURRENT CONTENDERS ========
13 +1 Kyle Busch 3920 -2178 32 1 4 9 12
14 -1 Matt Kenseth 3895 -2203 32 1 2 6 11
15 -- Clint Bowyer 3805 -2293 32 0 0 4 14
16 -- David Reutimann 3761 -2337 32 2 1 5 9
17 -- Marcos Ambrose 3453 -2645 32 0 0 4 7
18 +1 Jeff Burton 3379 -2719 32 0 0 2 6
19 -1 Casey Mears 3378 -2720 32 0 0 0 4
20 -- Joey Logano* 3324 -2774 32 0 1 2 6
21 -- Kevin Harvick 3279 -2819 32 0 0 3 7
22 +3 Jamie McMurray 3091 -3007 32 0 0 0 4
23 -- Martin Truex Jr. 3064 -3034 32 2 0 0 4
24 -2 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 3062 -3036 32 0 0 2 5
25 -1 A.J. Allmendinger 3020 -3078 32 0 0 1 4
26 -- Elliott Sadler 2991 -3107 32 0 0 1 4
27 -- Sam Hornish Jr. 2905 -3193 32 0 0 2 7
28 -- David Ragan 2873 -3225 32 0 0 0 2
29 -- Reed Sorenson 2849 -3249 32 0 0 0 1
30 -- David Stremme 2817 -3281 32 0 0 0 0
31 -- Bobby Labonte 2808 -3290 32 0 0 1 1
32 -- Paul Menard 2705 -3393 32 0 0 0 0
33 -- Michael Waltrip 2461 -3637 30 0 0 0 1
34 -- Robby Gordon 2402 -3696 31 0 0 1 1
35 -- Scott Speed* 2353 -3745 31 0 0 1 1
36 -- John Andretti 2282 -3816 30 0 0 0 0
37 -- David Gilliland 1700 -4398 28 0 0 0 0
38 -- Regan Smith 1260 -4838 15 0 0 0 0
39 +1 Joe Nemechek 1228 -4870 27 0 0 0 0
40 -1 Brad Keselowski 1183 -4915 11 0 1 1 3
Valentino Rossi wrapped up the 2009 MotoGP world championship – his seventh MotoGP and ninth world title – on schedule at Sepang, but it was about the only thing that did go to plan on Sunday afternoon.
After hot, humid but dry conditions up to race day, a sudden tropical downpour 20 minutes before the planned start of the race, just after the 125cc and 250cc support races had concluded, completely flooded the circuit and forced a forty minute delay to proceedings as everyone took shelter. The race would be a very wet one, but at least the torrential downpours had stopped by the time the riders had to make it out of their pit stalls.
Then, as the drivers emerged on the formation lap to take up their grid positions, there was more drama – Jorge Lorenzo was having some sort of technical problem that had the mechanics feaverishly working on the machine. But they failed to get the situation resolved before the pit lane was closed, and he had to switch to the back-up bike: Lorenzo had lost his opportunity to take up his second place slot. He would have to start from the pit lane, and surely that was the end of his title bid for the year.
All Rossi had to do was not make any mistakes, and he leapt away at the start of the race leaving the rest of the field dead, save for Loris Capirossi. Loris was starting from the second row of the grid but benefitted from the empty grid spot in front of him where Lorenzo should have been, although that advantage was quickly played out and he soon started falling back through the running order as the race wore on.
But being first into the first corner of the first run in wet conditions has its disadvantages, as Rossi found out: the traction he’d anticipated simply wasn’t there and he was forced to tiptoe through a very wide line to make it round, and while he did that the rest of the field were streaming past on the inside. He emerged from turn 2 in eighth place; and to his shock, Jorge Lorenzo was right behind him despite starting from the pit lane in last place.
The pressure was still on Lorenzo, of course, who had to go all-out for the win while Rossi had a comfortable margin and didn’t need to gamble. So when Lorenzo passed him, Rossi didn’t put up much of a fight, but instead opted to slot in behind him and shadow him for much of the race: simply finishing right behind Lorenzo would give him the points advantage needed to wrap up the title here rather than at Valencia in a fortnight. So when Lorenzo eventually overtook Marco Melandri for 7th after several attempts, Rossi followed him through a few corners later. Again when the Yamaha duo saw off Loris Capirossi, Nicky Hayden (a particularly hard target) and Tony Elias: Rossi was right behind him, just sitting back and watching. And waiting.
FInally, the racing computer that is Rossi’s brain had absorbed all the data on the race conditions, processed, analysed and programmed them into memory, and suddenly Rossi switched levels and sailed past Lorenzo for 4th place on lap 8, although he had a scary bobble a few corners later than must have had his heart in his mouth and Lorenzo momentarily believing that perhaps not all was lost after all. But Rossi controlled the bike and eventually he dropped Lorenzo completely as he set about hunting down the leaders. Lorenzo appeared spent, the tyres maybe cooked by all the work he’d asked of them in the opening laps, and he had nothing left. Through the clear visor, the TV cameras picked up a disappointed but resigned face.
Up front, Casey Stoner had once again been absolutely peerless and in a different world for much of the race, the wet conditions not so much affecting him as energising him to new heights. He was between one and two seconds a lap faster than second-placed Dani Pedrosa, who never likes the rain all that much and who was 17s behind Stoner at one point in the race – an astonishing and almost unprecedented lead in MotoGP.
Dani’s discomfort was underlined by his Honda team mate Andrea Dovizioso who was cutting the distance between 2nd and 3rd place runners with every lap – until lap 14, when suddenly Dovizioso’s bike simply folded under him into turn 5 leaving both man and machine to slide into the grass. The only other retiree of the day had been Randy de Puniet on the second lap, the LCR Honda snapping into a vicious high side that launched de Puniet into the air and returning him to earth with crunching force that fortunately left no lasting injuries.
The Tech 3 Yamahas were struggling here – something clearly wrong with James Toseland’s machine to put him 5s a lap off the lead pace for much of the race, but his team mate Colin Edwards faring little better to struggle to finish ahead of Gabor Talmacsi in 13th. But it was a good day for Chris Vermeulen, who hates being called a “rainmeister” but who nonetheless seems to shine everytime the rain comes down and who finished in a strong 6th place.
Dovizioso’s crash meant that Rossi finished in third place and was able to celebrate his title from the podium after all. Before that, he savoured the moment by stopping out on the track to celebrate with fans, don a “Rossi world champion” T-shirt – and, bizarrely, pose with a chicken that has been wrapped up in a similar T-shirt. The fun and spontaneity of the FOM premier title contrasts with the poe-faced solemnity of the FIA F1 series where any expression of joy (such as, God forbid, donuts) is frowned upon and subject to harsh penalty.
Lorenzo was among the first to congratulate Rossi on the warm-down lap, and a helmet means you can hide the gritted teeth and forced smile rather better. There’s no doubt that Rossi deserved the title this year – he was more consistent, less accident prone, and more able to keep his head and calculate the right strategy where Lorenzo would simply charge in and take the consequences. But Lorenzo has made a quantum leap in 2009 compared with the very scrappy 2008, and certainly shows the skill and speed to win races and MotoGP titles. So at the back of Rossi’s mind must be the thought: if Lorenzo makes similar strides between this season and next, and Casey Stoner is now over his mystery illness once and for all, will this seventh title be the last that Rossi will be able to claim? Is the torch about to be handed to a new era and generation of riders? Are these victory celebrations also a requiem for the passing of the hugely successful era of the beloved “Greatest Of All Time”?
These thoughts are for another day. Today there are the celebrations and the moment of triumph. 2010 is months away – even if the build-up and planning starts tomorrow.
Race result
Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1. Casey Stoner Ducati 47m24.834s
2. Dani Pedrosa Honda + 14.666s
3. Valentino Rossi Yamaha + 19.385s
4. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha + 25.850s
5. Nicky Hayden Ducati + 38.705s
6. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki + 41.061s
7. Toni Elias Gresini Honda + 48.555s
8. Marco Melandri Hayate Kawasaki + 55.557s
9. Loris Capirossi Suzuki + 1m00.303s
10. Mika Kallio Pramac Ducati + 1m00.440s
11. Aleix Espargaro Pramac Ducati + 1m01.655s
12. Alex de Angelis Gresini Honda + 1m01.847s
13. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha + 1m10.778s
14. Gabor Talmacsi Scot Honda + 1m15.851s
15. James Toseland Tech 3 Yamaha + 1m50.672s
Retirements:
Andrea Dovizioso Honda 14 laps
Randy de Puniet LCR Honda 1 lap
MotoGP world championship standings after round 16
While Rossi scored only 3pts more than Lorenzo this weekend, that puts him 41pts ahead in the championship with only a maximum of 25pts left at the final remaining race at Valencia. The title is therefore decided.
Lorenzo should be safe as the runner-up from Casey Stoner, who seems to have a pretty safe lock on 3rd place from Dani Pedrosa, accicents notwithstanding. It’s sobering to see Stoner’s points tally considering this was done in three races less than anyone else; if he’d ridden in those three races and achieved nothing more than an average of third place then he would be easily ahead of Lorenzo and the championship would be coming down to the wire at Valencia instead.
Roll on the 2010 season and a three-way battle for the championship. Maybe even four-way if Dabi Pedrosa can just find someway to make that last breakthrough on pace and get himself out of the “best of the rest” leagues.
Pos Driver Points 1 Valentino Rossi 286 2 Jorge Lorenzo 245 3 Casey Stoner 220 4 Daniel Pedrosa 209 5 Andrea Dovizioso 152 6 Colin Edwards 148 7 Marco Melandri 108 8 Loris Capirossi 108 9 Alex de Angelis 105 10 Toni Elias 105 11 Chris Vermeulen 105 12 Randy de Puniet 101 13 Nicky Hayden 93 14 James Toseland 88 15 Mika Kallio 64 16 Niccolo Canepa 38 17 Gabor Talmacsi 19 18 Aleix Espargaro 13 19 Sete Gibernau 12 20 Yuki Takahashi 9 Pos Constructor Points 1 Yamaha 366 2 Honda 272 3 Ducati 261 4 Suzuki 131 5 Kawasaki 108
Going into Lowe’s for this week’s race, the question on everyone’s lips had to be: “Could anyone stop the Jimmie Johnson steamroller?” He had dominated qualifying and practice, and the only solace his rivals had was the historical stat that the polesitter had not won here in 27 years. Surely Johnson couldn’t beat the tide of history as well as the rest of the field?
Johnson has a slight stutter at the start of the race when he lost the initiative to his team mate Mark Martin, who got the better run around the outside and led the first lap. A quick yellow for a wild spin by Sam Hornish Jr coming off turn 2 on lap 3 gave Johnson a second chance at Martin and he seized it, racing away with the lead while Martin found himself wheel-to-wheel with Kasey Kahne.
Hornish was also the cause of the second caution on lap 9 when he spun again, this time coming out of lap 4. Clearly there was something horribly wrong with the 77, not helped by the hard hit his right rear had taken in his first spin of the day.
After the Hornish cautions there was a decent stint of some 20 laps of green flag running. Kyle Busch – returning after illness last week – was looking very fast and quickly took up the third spot behind Johnson and Martin as the three of them eased away from the rest of the field. When the caution came out again, on lap 34, it was for weather – sprinkles of rain had hit one end of the track, and NASCAR quite rightly took a safety-first approach.
It was early for pit stops (50-60 lap stints had been anticipated) but no one was passing up the opportunity to come in for a stop under yellow and have some fine tuning on their handling. Matt Kenseth went for a two-tyre gambit and moved up seven positions into the lead as a result; while Joey Logano – who had been working his way up nicely into the top five – overshot his pit box and had to back up, losing him a huge number of positions and dumping him back to 38th. But at least Logano’s race pace was still quick, and he was able to start working his way up through the field again. Having a far less fun time were Tony Stewart (who was dropping back lap after lap), Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr., both of whom were having handling problems that had left them way off the pace and right at the back of the running order.
The rain cleared quickly and the track went green again on lap 42 ahead of Johnson, Martin, Busch and Denny Hamlin. Johnson quickly went side-by-side with Hamlin, but it was hard work: Johnson started to get loose, fell back again into the clutches of Martin, and it was not until lap 52 that Johnson was finally able to reclaim the lead. But now Hamlin was coming on strong and charging for the lead, and by lap 71 he was past Johnson, Kenseth and Busch to surge past Johnson for the top spot. With Juan Montoya now consistently the fastest man on track, the 42 also broke through into the top five, ejecting Martin and leaving Hamlin ahead of Kenseth, Montoya, Johnson and Busch as green flag pit stops commenced on lap 89.
Despite still being in the top five, Johnson seemed out of sorts, angry and frustrated, snapping at his pit chief Chad Knaus even before another sluggish pit stop with problems on the left rear tyre enabled Casey Mears to edge him out of the pit lane for position – temporarily. Johnson seemed to like the changes the team made during the stop, though, describing the car as “edgy” and adding “I like it” – clearly the handling was coming back to him. And at least his sluggish pit stop had been better than Ryan Newman’s, which dragged on an agonising 21s and haemorrhaged positions all the while.
The race continued green through to lap 119, and it was Kyle Busch who brought out the caution when the 18 simply snapped sideways out of turn 4 for no discernible reason, leaving Kyle driving at right angles down the straight-away and narrowly avoiding hitting Scott Speed on the inside line as he brought the car back under control. The field duly used the opportunity for some pit stops and much needed adjustments – Montoya in particular was complaining that the 42 was as loose as he would ever want to have to drive it. A few drivers opted for a two tyre strategy, which meant that Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle and Ryan Newman gained around a dozen spots to leap into the top three positions in front of Hamlin and Kenseth, with Tony Stewart up to 6th ahead of Johnson and Jeff Burton, who was also up twelve spots on tyre strategy.
It was a very different field, then, that came to the green flag, and it was a rough restart for several drivers. Dale Earnhardt Jr was extremely slow and had to pit with transmission issues and unable to stay in fourth gear, finally being redirected into the garage area for lengthy diagnosis and repairs that put him some 29 laps down. Further forward, the field seemed to bunch up and jostle with lots of minor impacts: Vickers ended up with bodywork damage that rubbed his front right tear, forcing him into the pits for some field repairs; and Montoya went into the back of Clint Bowyer without too much harm done, but Mark Martin gave Montoya a more emphatic kick up the backside that damaged the 42’s rear fender and seriously affected Montoya’s handling. After losing a bunch of positions, the handling degenerated to the point where Montoya was drifting alarmingly on almost every corner and he finally lost the car altogether exiting turn 4 on lap 163, putting him two laps down to the leaders after such a promising, strong start and serious affecting his Chase campaign. The crew managed to find a replacement quarter panel, albeit coloured the 42’s usual red instead of this week’s blue livery which made for a rather striking junkyard patchwork effect. Martin also suffered: although his handling wasn’t too bad, the subsequent repairs to his hole in the nose of his race car would put him down to 24th position.
Montoya’s woes at least allowed the rest of the field the relative luxury of a round of pit stops under caution. Hamlin was able to take the lead after the pit stops but Gordon quickly passed him at the restart, with Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle continuing to fill out the rest of the top five as the race passed half distance. Montoya was also the cause of the sixth caution of the day – this time by virtue of his depositing a large, clearly recognisable piece of red metalwork on the track with a conspicuous Target logo on it.
This was on lap 188, and with only 20 laps or so having been run since the last round of pit stops almost everyone opted for the two tyre strategy this time – with Kasey Kahne going even further and opting for fuel only which put him up into 5th spot behind Kenseth, Johnson, Kurt Busch and Gordon at the restart. Unfortunately for Denny Hamlin, who had been strong all evening, his car had developed engine problems: it was audibly misfiring and seemed to have lost a valve, putting him into the garage, his race wrecked. With his second consecutive DNF (after his error last week while among the leaders at Fontana), his Chase campaign has been badly derailed.
It was Kasey Kahne who was flying in the next stint, surging past the top four (including Johnson, who was distracted trying to get some debris off his front grill before it caused his engine to overheat) to take the lead from Kenseth on lap 223. He held on to the lead through to the green flag pit stops that commenced around lap 242, despite a heart-stopping moment for him when his ignition failed as he tried to get back up to speed out of the pit lane and he had to quickly switch to a backup system. Once the stops cycled through, Kahne was nonetheless still back in charge ahead of Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon; Kahne’s lead over Johnson was up to 6.5s and on lap 288 he lapped Mark Martin who had struggled his way back to 18th position after the 5’s earlier handling problems from bodywork damage.
The seventh caution was for the death of Max Papis’ engine on lap 290, and Johnson beat Kahne out of the pits by the narrowest possible margin to assume the lead with Gordon 3rd, Kenseth 4th and Bowyer 5th. The green flag didn’t last long before David Gilliland got loose and hit the wall hard on lap 299, which at least allowed Mark Martin to get the free pass and get back on the lead lap once more.
Once established, the stop-start staccato rhythm became frustratingly embedded in proceedings: the next restart on lap 303 came to a swift yellow when Carl Edwards blew up and left a trail of fluid behind him; the next restart on lap 307 fared little better, coming to the tenth yellow of the afternoon on lap 312 when David Stremme hit the wall, bounced into slight contact with Greg Biffle which in turn caused Biffle to make further light contact with Ryan Newman who was running on the inside which was the last straw, tipping Biffle into a wild spin across the track and the grassy infield, narrowly avoiding collecting Mike Bliss along the way.
But once the race restarted on lap 317, it ran the remaining 17 laps to the end without further interruptions. Johnson led Gordon, Kahne, Kenseth and Mears to the green, and Johnson had a battle royal with his Hendrick Motorsports team mate Jeff Gordon to keep the top spot, but once Johnson got a good run on the low-side to edge Gordon on lap 321, Gordon dropped back to fourth and the 48 was able to build an unassailable lead.
Sure enough, Johnson took the chequered flag. So much for the stats: if anyone can overturn a 27-year precedent then it’s Jimmie Johnson. And with Mark Martin and Juan Montoya having poor weeks, his lead in the Sprint Cup standings was starting to look very, very healthy indeed.
Race result
Pos Driver Car Laps 1. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 334 2. Matt Kenseth Ford 334 3. Kasey Kahne Dodge 334 4. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 334 5. Joey Logano Toyota 334 6. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 334 7. Casey Mears Chevrolet 334 8. Kyle Busch Toyota 334 9. Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 334 10. Kurt Busch Dodge 334 11. Ryan Newman Chevrolet 334 12. Brad Keselowski Chevrolet 334 13. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 334 14. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 334 15. David Reutimann Toyota 334 16. Greg Biffle Ford 334 17. Mark Martin Chevrolet 334 18. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 334 19. David Stremme Dodge 334 20. David Ragan Ford 334 21. Reed Sorenson Dodge 334 22. Marcos Ambrose Toyota 333 23. AJ Allmendinger Dodge 333 24. Mike Bliss Chevrolet 333 25. David Gilliland Toyota 333 26. Elliott Sadler Dodge 332 27. Paul Menard Ford 332 28. Scott Speed Toyota 332 29. Bill Elliott Ford 332 30. Robby Gordon Toyota 332 31. Bobby Labonte Ford 331 32. Michael Waltrip Toyota 331 33. Jamie McMurray Ford 331 34. Brian Vickers Toyota 330 35. Juan Montoya Chevrolet 330 36. John Andretti Chevrolet 330 37. Terry Labonte Toyota 329 38. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 304 39. Carl Edwards Ford 299 40. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 298 41. Max Papis Toyota 286 42. Denny Hamlin Toyota 192 43. Joe Nemechek Toyota 26
Sprint Cup standings
+/- DRIVER PTS BEHIND ST P W T5 T10
1 -- Jimmie Johnson 5923 Leader 31 3 6 13 20
2 -- Mark Martin 5833 -90 31 7 5 12 18
3 +2 Jeff Gordon 5788 -135 31 0 1 15 22
4 -- Tony Stewart 5768 -155 31 0 4 15 21
5 +1 Kurt Busch 5746 -177 31 0 1 8 18
6 -3 Juan Montoya 5728 -195 31 2 0 6 16
7 -- Greg Biffle 5655 -268 31 0 0 9 14
8 +2 Ryan Newman 5635 -288 31 1 0 5 14
9 +2 Kasey Kahne 5592 -331 31 0 2 6 13
10 -2 Carl Edwards 5582 -341 31 0 0 7 13
11 -2 Denny Hamlin 5551 -372 31 1 2 11 16
12 -- Brian Vickers 5438 -485 31 6 1 4 13
======= CHASE FOR THE Sprint CUP - CURRENT CONTENDERS ========
13 +1 Matt Kenseth 3774 -2149 31 1 2 6 11
14 -1 Kyle Busch 3755 -2168 31 1 4 8 11
15 -- Clint Bowyer 3699 -2224 31 0 0 4 14
16 -- David Reutimann 3644 -2279 31 2 1 5 9
17 -- Marcos Ambrose 3371 -2552 31 0 0 4 7
18 +1 Casey Mears 3269 -2654 31 0 0 0 4
19 -1 Jeff Burton 3256 -2667 31 0 0 2 6
20 -- Joey Logano* 3197 -2726 31 0 1 2 6
21 -- Kevin Harvick 3141 -2782 31 0 0 3 6
22 -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2986 -2937 31 0 0 2 5
23 +2 Martin Truex Jr. 2985 -2938 31 2 0 0 4
24 -- A.J. Allmendinger 2959 -2964 31 0 0 1 4
25 -2 Jamie McMurray 2941 -2982 31 0 0 0 3
26 +1 Elliott Sadler 2891 -3032 31 0 0 1 4
27 -1 Sam Hornish Jr. 2850 -3073 31 0 0 2 7
28 -- David Ragan 2776 -3147 31 0 0 0 2
29 -- Reed Sorenson 2758 -3165 31 0 0 0 1
30 -- David Stremme 2753 -3170 31 0 0 0 0
31 -- Bobby Labonte 2684 -3239 31 0 0 1 1
32 -- Paul Menard 2611 -3312 31 0 0 0 0
33 -- Michael Waltrip 2388 -3535 29 0 0 0 1
34 -- Robby Gordon 2350 -3573 30 0 0 1 1
35 -- Scott Speed* 2283 -3640 30 0 0 1 1
36 -- John Andretti 2192 -3731 29 0 0 0 0
37 -- David Gilliland 1649 -4274 27 0 0 0 0
38 -- Regan Smith 1260 -4663 15 0 0 0 0
39 +2 Brad Keselowski 1183 -4740 11 0 1 1 3
40 -1 Joe Nemechek 1179 -4744 26 0 0 0 0
Anyone hoping for a thrilling end to the year’s MotoGP championship and a fight to the finish between Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo will have been dismayed by the start of the Australian MotoGP, where a collision between a Yamaha and a Ducati effectively sealed the 2009 title two races before the end of the season.
Lorenzo had been off-colour and off the pace (by his standards) for much of the weekend and was on the second row of the grid for the first time in his MotoGP career. He is also not the best of starters, and found himself swamped off the line by Nicky Hayden (from 7th) on the outside and Mika Kallio (from 9th) on the inside. But as they headed into the first turn, Lorenzo’s late braking caused him to run up unexpectedly fast into the back of the unusually cautious Nicky Hayden and the two collided.
Lorenzo struggled to keep the Yamaha upright, and appeared to have managed to do so before the bike then gave one last judder and threw itself to the ground. Lorenzo was left skidding after the bike into the gravel track, and as the dust settled he lay motionless for a few seconds – more from shock and the emotional realisation that the championship was now gone for another year, than for any physical damage – he sustained only minor grazes to his right hand and to his face from a helmet full of gravel.
Up front, Dani Pedrosa had got off to a more subdued start than usual but enough to take second from Rossi before the first turn, and then a couple of corners later he was past Stoner as well. But it was quickly clear that Pedrosa didn’t have the pace to stay ahead let alone pull away, and next time around Stoner took advantage of a shaky moment for Dani to retake the lead; Rossi swiftly cut his way past the Honda a few corners later, and the two soon pulled away to leave Dani in a very lonely but completely safe third place for the rest of the afternoon.
With Lorenzo gone, Stoner and Rossi were in a league of their own. Rossi was able to match Stoner every lap and stayed close: the Ducati had the raw pace and pulled away down the start/finish straight, but the Yamaha was more agile and closed up under braking, a familiar story from years past. But now Lorenzo was out, Rossi had no need to risk anything to take the race victory and so he was happy to hang back, put the pressure on Stoner in the vague hope of pressuring the Aussie into a mistake, but otherwise settle for second – which is exactly how it played out.
Back through the field, the riders were unusually stretched out with most of them running isolated by the end of the race. The best battle was an early seven-bike battle for 5th which involved Kallio, Colin Edwards, Andrea Dovizioso, Marco Melandri, Randy de Puniet, Toni Elias and James Toseland, but this was eventually decisively won by Edwards by the midpoint of the race and then even this group was stretched out, with only de Puniet and Melandri left in a fierce and entertaining battle for what ended up being 7th place in the latter stages of the race, from which Marco emerged victorious.
Toseland was eliminated from the fight by a drive-thru penalty for a jump start (after coming perilously close to missing the pit board notice and incurring another black flag as happened in July at Laguna Seca). That put him right at the back of the race, save for Nicky Hayden who had managed to rejoin after his first corner collision with Lorenzo that had seem him ride all the way through and around the gravel trap, and then have to nurse damage to the Ducati that had put him well off the pace for the rest of the afternoon.
As the crowds flooded onto the track to celebrate their local hero’s victory, Casey Stoner bounced up to the top step of the podium looking completely fresh and fit, not a hint of the mystery fatigue-inducing illness that has seen him practically carried off the bike at previous races before this three-race sabbatical. It was good to see him back, and to see him locked in battle with Rossi once more, and it bodes well for a titanic three-way title battle in 2010 – or even four-way if Honda can pull something out of the bag for Dani Pedrosa and give him that last extra bit of speed he needs to be a genuine contender himself.
But as for 2009 – Lorenzo’s altercation into the first turn leaves Rossi a convincing 38pts ahead with only two races (and 50pts) still on offer. Rossi’s made errors this year – throwing away the win at Laguna Seca being the most shocking – but it’s hard to see him failing to decisively win the championship from here. The season is, effectively, done – and indeed should be wrapped up, signed and sealed at next week’s race at the F1 circuit of Sepang in Malaysia.
Race result
Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1. Casey Stoner Ducati 40m56.651s
2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha + 1.935s
3. Dani Pedrosa Honda + 22.618s
4. Alex de Angelis Gresini Honda + 32.702s
5. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha + 35.885s
6. Andrea Dovizioso Honda + 38.482s
7. Marco Melandri Hayate Kawasaki + 44.451s
8. Randy de Puniet LCR Honda + 44.941s
9. Mika Kallio Pramac Ducati + 54.345s
10. Toni Elias Gresini Honda + 1m01.205s
11. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki + 1m05.417s
12. Loris Capirossi Suzuki + 1m05.950s
13. Gabor Talmacsi Scot Honda + 1m17.951s
14. James Toseland Tech 3 Yamaha + 1m17.985s
15. Nicky Hayden Ducati + 1 lap
Retirements:
Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 0 laps
MotoGP championship standings
Pos Driver Points 1 Valentino Rossi 270 2 Jorge Lorenzo 232 3 Casey Stoner 195 4 Daniel Pedrosa 189 5 Andrea Dovizioso 152 6 Colin Edwards 145 7 Alex de Angelis 101 8 Randy de Puniet 101 9 Loris Capirossi 101 10 Marco Melandri 100 11 Toni Elias 96 12 Chris Vermeulen 95 13 James Toseland 87 14 Nicky Hayden 82 15 Mika Kallio 58 16 Niccolo Canepa 38 17 Gabor Talmacsi 17 18 Sete Gibernau 12 19 Yuki Takahashi 9 20 Aleix Espargaro 8 Pos Constructor Points 1 Yamaha 350 2 Honda 252 3 Ducati 236 4 Suzuki 121 5 Kawasaki 100
Formula 1- Hamilton more motivated than ever
- Q and A with Lewis Hamilton
- Alonso makes first visit to Ferrari factory
- Q and A with Sam Michael
- Williams optimistic over Cosworth
- Aerolab rubbishes data-passing reports
- Renault delays decision on F1 future
- Lotus design under scrutiny
- Q and A with Mike Gascoyne
- Lotus wants experienced drivers
- NASCAR
- Busch and Keselowski end crash row
- Gordon on Texas Cup pole
- Martin not sad over blown title run
- Johnson to keep offensive approach
- Montoya: Johnson has title in the bag
- Allmendinger to finish 2009 in Fords
- McMurray hopeful of 2010 Cup drive
- Keselowski to finish 2009 with Penske
- McMurray wins in wild Talladega finish
- Rain gives Johnson Talladega pole
- Indy Racing League
- Analysis: Izod deal boosts IndyCar
- Izod becomes IndyCar title sponsor
- Wheldon to stay at Panther for 2010
- Franchitti surprised to win 2009 title
- Ganassi lauds 'mature' Franchitti
- Franchitti clinches IndyCar title
- Heatwave hampers IndyCar title fight
- Franchitti beats Dixon to Miami pole
- Howard to return with Fisher's team
- Dixon stays on top in practice two
- MotoGP
- Rossi not optimistic for the race
- Troubled Suzuki glad season is ending
- Struggling Dovizioso pins hopes on start
- Debon takes final 250cc pole
- Spies satisfied with top ten start
- Lorenzo prioritising second in standings
- Pedrosa: Honda needs more pace
- Stoner hopes results silence critics
- Stoner takes pole at Valencia
- Simon secures Valencia pole
- GP2
- Vietoris takes maiden GP2 victory
- Valsecchi wins GP2 Asia opener
- Valsecchi thrilled with maiden pole
- Valsecchi on pole in Abu Dhabi
- Valsecchi leads Abu Dhabi practice
- Arden signs duo for Abu Dhabi
- Filippi fastest again at Yas Marina
- Filippi tops first Abu Dhabi test
- DAMS announces Asia line-up
- Ocean announces Asia line-up
- A1GP
- A1GP cancels China and Malaysia
- A1GP cancels Surfers opener
- A1GP expects 19 cars for Surfers
- A1GP completes crucial funding deal
- A1GP confident over season five
- Doubts cast over A1GP future
- Jani injured in mountain bike accident
- A1GP season to open at Surfers
- A1GP swaps Zandvoort for Assen
- Jani gallant after losing A1GP title
