2/10ths more out of Stoner, and close the gap to 9/10ths of a second, almost within striking range. Stoner and Vermeulen were clearly the fastest men on the track, both riding lap after lap in the 1'34s, but something had to give. On lap 12

on lap 11, with a lap of 1'34.215. Another lap of 1'34.2 on lap 12 saw The Doctor's lead grow to over 2.6 seconds, and by now he was the fastest man on track by a considerable margin. If Casey Stoner or Dani Pedrosa wanted to stop Rossi from running away

GP last year, and it also gave us one of the best motorcycle races ever with last year's 250 race. That's not to mention the sight of the 125s going into the Turn 12-13-14 twiddles five abreast for lap after lap. If we do leave here, I for one will be very

a potential 3 points in the championship. But Rossi's day was about to get worse: having chosen a hard rain tire, gambling that the rain would be light, his lap times kept slipping, from 1'50s on laps 16, 17 and 18, down to 1'52 by lap 21, 1'55

, Jorge Lorenzo cruised home alone to a magnificent 2nd. Unable to match Mr Perfect's string of mid 1'55 laps to the end, Lorenzo's own pace was a paragon of consistency, running high 1'55s, then low 1'56s to the line. His dream of matching Max Biaggi

Pedrosa, Chris Vermeulen, following behind. On lap 3, Stoner hit cruising speed: Where his second lap had still been a 1'23, his third lap time was already into the 1'22s. On lap 2, Stoner had pulled away from Pedrosa by a tenth, on lap 3, the young

The 2007 MotoGP season has been a long time coming. It has been on the minds of fans and followers since before the 2006 season, for a lot of very good reasons. As an appetizer, there was the knowledge that the cream of the 2005 250 class would

of Nicky Hayden, The Doctor stayed left, and stuffed his Yamaha M1 back inside Hayden into the hairpin, to take back 2nd place.Activity behind Hayden and Rossi was equally frantic. James Toseland was off the line well, sneaking ahead of fellow Yamaha man