“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” Shakespeare wrote that. And he knew a thing or two when he wasn’t waffling on.
Rossi knows it too. But five races into the 2009 season, it’s not his head that’s worrying him most. It’s the other end that keeps getting kicked. By his own team-mate.
He’s been beaten by Stoner before, and beaten him back. But getting beaten by Lorenzo is a different twist. Your team-mate has the same kit as you, same tyres too these days. If he finishes in front, there’s really no excuse.
Rossi beat Lorenzo to second at Qatar, but got beaten properly in Japan, Lorenzo’s first win. At Jerez Rossi was divine; Jorge fell off trying too hard to improve on fifth. But two weeks later Lorenzo won again at Le Mans; Rossi already beaten when he crashed and dropped to last, a GP first for the Italian. And then at Mugello, Valentino’s stomping ground, Lorenzo beat him again.
The riding is one aspect. The courteous conquistador is a killer. But Rossi’s pretty handy at the controls, so there must be other reasons.
They lurk in the pit. There’s a wall down the middle of the Fiat garage, but a free exchange of technical information. So, just as the rider is without excuses, so too are the race engineers.
In Rossi’s corner, the redoubtable Jerry Burgess, who spannered for serial winner Doohan before hooking up with Valentino. He and his mainly Aussie sidekicks have crewed the flagship for as long as they can remember.
Lorenzo’s partnership with Ramon Forcada is only in its second year but, aside from them both being Spanish, they clearly also speak the same technical language. At the two races Lorenzo won, Rossi was foiled by setting problems. And when Valentino was beaten in Italy for the first time in seven years, it was because the team picked the wrong tyre for the second part of the race.
Burgess and Rossi will fight back, but the power at Yamaha hangs in the balance.
Team-mates, eh! Often a thorny relationship. So here’s an update on how warring pit-fellows James Toseland and Colin Edwards are getting on.
They started out at loggerheads after JT snicked away the talkative Texan’s crew chief. Next thing Colin insisted on his own wall down the middle of the pit.
So how has the season been going? Badly for Britain’s bright hope. The double Superbike champ’s new crew just hasn’t done the business: JT’s second-year results are worst than his first, while Colin started slowly before charging ahead. At the last two races he had the huge pleasure of blasting past JT.
You can be sure he gave him plenty of room. At least the thickness of a Rizla paper, anyway.
Moto2 has made a brilliant start – at least on paper. There have been a zillion entries for just 34 slots for the 250-class replacement, with all the big private MotoGP teams plus Team Roberts, among them.
It remains to be seen how many are serious. It also remains to be seen also just how cheap the new class will be. More certain is some epic close racing.
Which is why everyone is so baffled by Dorna chief Carmelo Ezpeleta’s new decree. After fighting tooth and nail to get a single tyre rule in the premier MotoGP class, opposed by almost everyone, Ezpeleta is now insisting that the level-playing-field, one-size-fits-all Moto2 should be open to all tyre suppliers.
Doesn’t make sense. Unless Ezpeleta is trying to restore status as a so-called World Championship. Many old-timers believe that with one-make rules it should be no more than an International Cup.
But that undermines his own plans – to cut away at the importance of the traditional support classes in order to elevate MotoGP to a more exclusive plane.
Perhaps “plans” is inadequate to describe the whirl of panic decisions and contradictory reasoning currently running the show.
How you, Haojue? The new British-run Chinese-backed 125 team has fallen over, tripped by engine supplier Jan Witteveen. For whatever reason, the former Aprilia design guru’s upside-down two-stroke has been an absolute non-starter. Literally so, for the riders. They seldom qualify, and more usually get flicked down the road by another engine seize.
The team withdrew after four utterly fruitless rounds for riders Mikki Ranseder and rookie Matt Hoyle. With negligible improvement to the engine over the first half of the year, they feared further efforts would only increase the danger to the riders. Days later, they sacked Witteveen. And doubtless dumped his engines into the nearest duck pond.
The Sino-British partnership looks doomed but hope springs eternal for project leader Garry Taylor, who believes he can find another engine supplier before too much longer.
Credit crunch? Team Suzuki chief Paul Denning found a novel way to save money. Instead of flying to Paris and driving to the French GP, or just driving, he flew direct from Bournemouth by helicopter. “Saved a couple of hotel nights either end,” he quipped.
