Misano is a remarkable circuit in many ways. Despite it being in Italy, it's the San Marino round. After years of running anti-clockwise, these days the circuit is ridden clockwise. It's got both the shortest straights and, probably, the fastest corners on the calendar. And Valentino Rossi has never won here. In fact he's never even finished a GP here, though in fairness there has only been one - last year - since 1993. Loris Capirossi, the only man on the grid to have ridden in more than one GP here, will go into the record books as having the highest ever number of GP starts, with a staggering two hundred and seventy seven. Assuming he makes it to the grid, that is. And Randy de Puniet has yet to complete a single competition lap here after crashing out on the first lap last year.

Well last year's inclement weather stayed away, which can be a mixed blessing. Misano is, or can be, extremely hot. It's also a very physical circuit with lots of bends and few straights on which to have a rest. So that makes it tough for riders who are less than totally fit, which at the start of the weekend included Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo, John Hopkins and Nicky Hayden. Hayden came, practiced and then wisely took medical advice that all we was doing was exacerbating the injury and retired to his wheelchair. During Friday practice Casey Stoner joined the wounded, the bars on his Ducati apparently kicking back so hard that he managed to refracture his scaphoid (that's the triangular bone at the middle of where your hand joins the wrist) which from personal experience I can assure you will not have made his weekend any easier.

Talking about practice, bust wrist or not it was Stoner who dominated the timesheets from local boy Rossi with veteran crowdpleaser Capirossi third. Colin Edwards made welcome foray towards the front, signalling that Tech-3's, and perhaps Michelin's woes may be behind them. Toseland, too, was going well as was Pedrosa who appeared to be making the most of his last race on Michelins before swapping to Bridgestone for the rest of the season. Yes, Repsol Honda have decided to split their efforts in the same way that Yamaha have. the difference, of course, is that with Nakano running the works spec bike on Bridgestones for a couple of races they've at least got some base data on which to work. So perhaps Pedrosa will be back on top in the next couple of races, who knows?

Anyway, a relatively uneventful practice showed that, for now at least, tyres are unlikely to be the definitive deciding factor in this round, with fairly even splits between the two rivals.

Qualifying simply turned out to be a continuation of practice in many ways, with Stoner, despite his injury, a full half a second quicker than Rossi. Jorge Lorenzo, almost fully recoveredfrom the battering he gave himself earlier in the season, took the last slot on the front row just a couple of hundredths behind Rossi. Just behind, Randy de Puniet headed the spectacularly on-form and suddenly consistent Toni Elias and Dani Pedrosa. Row three was headed by Chris Vermeulen from Shinya Nakano and James Toseland, at least gettinga better start, while Colin Edwards finished off the top ten.

Race day, and this may come as little surprise, dawned clear, blue, sunny and hot. Warmup had Stoner leading Vermeulen, whose performance all weekend has been very impressive and who is almost certainly staying with Suzuki next year. Rossi, by the way, has signed a further two year deal with Yamaha.

As the lights went out to start the race, Loris Capirossi took the first record of the afternoon with the most ever GP starts. But it was Stoner who took the holeshot followed by lightning starter Pedrosa. Chris Vermeulen, who alsomade a great start, highsided exiting turn two but managed somehow to land back on the bike and keep it upright, dropping back to thirteenth. Rossi slotted in behind Pedrosa, followed by Lorenzo. But by the end of the first lap Stoner had pulled out an astonishing one point seven second lead over Pedrosa with Rossi a further three tenths back. Rossi made a masterful move to barge past Pedrosa halfway around the second lap but it looked as though it might already be too late as the Ducati was passing the finishing line before Rossi had even turned onto the main straight. A lead of over three seconds after two laps surely was a sign that Stoner had laid to rest the ghosts of crashes past and was simply going to concentrate on not just winning but utterly crushing the opposition. And yet, somehow, little by little Rossi was able to claw it back. Just by a few tenths here and there, and sometimes Stoner would respond and open the gap up a little. But there was no doubt that Rossi was definitely closing the gap. At the end of lap six it was down to two point eight seconds. But then Stoner responded, and lap seven saw it back up to three. Then it was all over as Stoner appeared to crack under the immense pressure of trying to stay faster than someone as determined and skilled as Valentino Rossi. Peeling in to turn four the Ducati appeared to either run out of tyre or run out of ground clearance. Either way we were treated to the sight of Stoner sliding out in an apparently unforced error for the second time in as many races. This time the bike died on its side so there was no remounting for the unhurt but bitterly disappointed Australian.

So while Rossi made hay in the San Marino sunshine, behind several titanic battles were shaping up. In the firstfollowing group it was a Spanish championship fight. Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Toni Elias had bunched together and were fighting like cats and dogs for that final podium slot. It seemed that Elias had the power, Lorenzo had the cojones and Pedrosa, sadly, had the injuries. Because the way it panned out was that Lorenzo and Elias were able to get past the visibly flagging Pedrosa and take the fight forward. Well, actually they were able to get past Pedrosa and set off to try and close the vast gap to the leader while not really racing each other. By lap ten they were a second and a half apart and two and a half seconds down on Rossi. A close race it was not shaping up to be. At least not at the front. The next group, again a few seconds back, was really tight and had been from the off. Shinya Nakano, Andrea Dovizioso and James Toseland were at it hammer and tongs,swapping places, paint and probably abuse as they went. Before long they were joined by the Suzuki pair of Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen, carving his way back up from the back in fine style.This fight would continue virtually unabated until the chequered flag. Vermeulen, though, managed to get past all of them through a combination of extremely good riding, an excellent chassis setup and factory power to elevate himself to fifth place. Toseland had headed the group for some time after some firm but fair overtakes and looked as though he would get his best finish of the season until being demoted with just six laps to go. Capirossi took longer to get past the two Hondas but finally settled on Toseland's tail and harried him until making a successful pass on the penultimate lap. The Brit pushed hard though and got the place back just a couple of corners later with another firm but clean pass, making the Yamaha extremely wide for the last lap and taking the flag just ahead of Capirossi.

Marco Melandri ended up at the back of the field after having to take avoiding action as he approached Vermeulen's turn two excitement, while Colin Edwards had a torrid start as well, ending the first lap just ahead of the Ducati. Both got into their rhythm after a couple of laps, though, and started putting in times similar to the front runners. As a result they too managed to carve their way through the field as well as having their own personal fight, and finished ninth and tenth respectively, results which belie just how hard and fast they were riding.

Up at the front, though, it was Valentino Rossi who broke his duck at Misano, at the same time equalling the all time record for GP wins held by Giacomo Agostini. Jorge Lorenzo stepped onto the podium - this time without the use of crutches - for the first time since Le Mans while Toni Elias took third for the second race on the trot. Dani Pedrosa's fourth place took him within just two points of Stoner in the title race. Randy de Puniet has still to complete a competition lap at Misano, having crashed out on the last corner of lap one, while Alex de Angelis also ran wide and crashed early on. James Toseland's efforts see him back in the top ten and with just four points separating Nakano in eighth from hayden in eleventh there's certainly nothing set in stone at that end of the table.

Two weeks before the next round in Indianapolis. A completely new circuit on the calendar and now the only one on the MotoGP fixture list at which Valentino Rossi hasn't won. Rossi goes there a full seventy five points ahead with just five races to go. He can afford not to finish three rounds and still be in with a shot at the title, having won six out of thirteen races so far this season...

See you there.

SB

Misano MotoGP Results

1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
3. Toni Elias (Ducati)
4. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
5. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki)
6. James Toseland (Yamaha)
7. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)
8. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)
9. Marco Melandri (Ducati)
10. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)

MotoGP standings (after thirteen rounds)

1. Valentino Rossi 262
2. Casey Stoner 187
3. Dani Pedrosa 185
4. Jorge Lorenzo 140
5. Andrea Dovizioso 118
6. Chris Vermeulen 110
7. Colin Edwards 108
8. Shinya Nakano 87
9. Loris Capirossi 86
10. James Toseland 85