Contrasting fortunes in Australia for Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo mean the defending MotoGP World Champion is primed to take the 2009 title this weekend at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
Second place at Phillip Island for Rossi combined with Lorenzo’s crash at turn one on the first lap extended the former’s lead at the top of the standings to 38 points. That means a top-four finish at Sepang this weekend – regardless of where closest title rival Lorenzo places – will secure a seventh premier-class title for the 30 year-old.
“Phillip Island was like gold dust for us in terms of points and now we go to Malaysia, another of my favourite tracks, with our first ‘match point’,” said Rossi, who has five premier-class GP wins at the circuit, including last year. “Of course anything can happen but it’s a great track for me and generally the Yamaha works well there so we have a good chance.” MotoGP
Rossi is one of only four riders-Lorenzo, Stoner, and Dani Pedrosa are the others-with a realistic chance of winning Sunday’s race. Which means that if he finishes, the crown will certainly be his. And when he finishes at Sepang he finishes well. Rossi has five MotoGP wins, two on a Honda and three on a Yamaha, plus a pair of seconds.
“Yes, so important, because we have the first good match ball for the championship, because after the mistake of Jorge (Lorenzo) in Phillip Island we have a good advantage, but we have to for sure take like a normal race, especially from the practice, because I like a lot this track, great result, great races in the past,” Rossi said. “I’m happy, especially because we work well in Phillip Island for all the weekend and my bike for the race work well, so the main target is arrive on Sunday with a good setting. For sure we spend a lot of time during the winter in this track, so we have a lot of data. And we will see.
“Like I say, I like this track, but also Casey (Stoner) and Dani (Pedrosa) are very fast in Sepang and Jorge (Lorenzo) wants to make a good result for sure after a bad result in Phillip Island.” Stoner won here in 2007. Cycle News
Stoner was in fine form on his home track last time out, securing a race victory and wrestling third position in the championship standings from Dani Pedrosa. The Australian also came first on the Malaysian track in his title-winning year of 2007, and is feeling in fantastic shape ahead of this weekend’s race.
“The last two races were fantastic for us, it was the right way to come back,” said the 24 year-old. “In Portugal we had a great race and then at Phillip Island we topped it off. Things are so much better now; everything is working well, including my body, so we are really looking forward to this weekend now. It has been a long time since I looked forward to racing so much, because it was really hard when I wasn’t competitive before the break.”
Pedrosa has finished on the podium in the past three seasons at Sepang and has tasted victory in both of the smaller World Championship categories, but has never won in the premier class at the circuit. As the Repsol Honda rider attempts to regain third spot in the overall standings from Stoner, he is prepared for a testing encounter. MotoGP
Pos. Rider Team Points 1 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 270 2 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 232 3 Casey STONER Ducati Marlboro Team 195 4 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 189 5 Andrea DOVIZIOSORepsol Honda Team 152 6 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 145 7 Alex DE ANGELIS San Carlo Honda Gresini 101 8 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 101 9 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 101 10 Marco MELANDRI Hayate Racing Team 100 11 Toni ELIAS San Carlo Honda Gresini 96 12 Chris VERMEULEN Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 95 13 James TOSELAND Monster Yamaha Tech 3 87 14 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Marlboro Team 82 15 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing 58 16 Niccolo CANEPA Pramac Racing 38 17 Gabor TALMACSI Scot Racing Team MotoGP 17 18 Sete GIBERNAU Grupo Francisco Hernando 12 19 Yuki TAKAHASHI Scot Racing Team MotoGP 9 20 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing 8
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