Valentino Rossi secured his position as 2009 MotoGP World Champion at a rain-soaked Sepang this weekend, bringing him to a total of nine championship titles – seven of which are in the premiere class.
The Doctor finished the race in third after running wide on the first turn and giving away eight places. A top four position would have secured him the title, even if team-mate Jorge Lorenzo had won the race at the Malaysian circuit.
“It’s a great achievement,” stated an ecstatic Rossi after the race “And for me it’s the ninth championship, the seventh in MotoGP. I have to thank all the guys from Yamaha, who are great, and all the Fiat Yamaha team, from Jeremy (Burgess, chief mechanic) and all the mechanics to all the guys that work for me, and all my friends. All the people that helped me with this great achievement.”
He also paid tribute to his Spanish team-mate for a competitive season. “I have had a very hard rival in my team-mate Jorge Lorenzo. He has pushed me to new levels and I think it's been a great duel to the end. There have been some bad moments, like Portugal when we weren't at 100%, but we have worked well. Lorenzo has done a great job to put this pressure on us so I have to say well done to him.”
The dream of a championship title evaporated quicker than the floodwaters on the track for Jorge Lorenzo after the Spanish rider experienced problems with his bike and failed to join the grid in time. The number 99 Yamaha M1 was forced to start from the back of the grid, instead of taking up second position. Lorenzo, however, proceeded to make up several places in amazing time and was quickly right on the back of the number 46 bike of Valentino Rossi, and finished the race in fourth.
The Spaniard did not let losing his championship hopes get the better of him, and congratulated his team-mate on the victory, later adding, “We tried to the end to beat him, but I think he was the number one this year because he’s been faster than us in almost every race. He was more consistent than us and he was more clever, so he is the winner.”
Casey Stoner continued his “almost perfect” run since his comeback in Portugal, winning the race by an incredible 15 seconds, ahead of Honda’s Dani Pedrosa. The Aussie, who appears to have matured since he returned to racing, then humbly commented, “The conditions were the same for everyone today and none of us had tested at this track in the wet for quite a long time.”
Andrea Dovizioso rode an excellent race this weekend, battling with Pedrosa for second place. Not a rider adverse to bad conditions, Dovizioso’s first race win came during a wet race at Donington Park earlier this year. Unfortunately for the Italian, his race ended when he crashed out with seven laps remaining, giving fourth place Rossi the podium he was hoping for. Good news, though, for Yamaha’s Colin Edwards who is currently battling Dovizioso for fifth in the championship.
Not such good news for his team-mate James Toseland, who ended the race in fifteenth, after the hapless Gabor Talmasci who is renowned for continuously struggling to perform in races.
The championship will be decided once and for all in two weeks time with the last race of the 2009 season kicking off in Valencia.
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