Lorenzo crashes out… as Stoner cleans up

“Well, at least I managed to get one of my predictions right! If you read this column regularly, you’ll know that my crystal ball has been getting things wrong all season, but I did say during July that Ducati’s Casey Stoner would return from his illness-enforced mid-season break stronger than ever…and win his home Australian Grand Prix!

The Moto GP series was really missing something without that red, Italian bike at the front of the pack…and Casey must already be among the favourites for the 2010 World Championship after Sunday’s ride; in a race which he really dominated from start to finish. Even Valentino Rossi couldn’t keep up with him!

The other big story of the weekend was the fact that Jorge Lorenzo effectively knocked himself out of this year’s rider’s world title chase after crashing at the first corner. Just a few weeks ago, the momentum appeared to be with him as he hauled back Valentino Rossi’s points lead. After Sunday’s race in Australia, the little Italian genius is going to have to do something fairly silly to lose the crown from here. But I was less surprised than many to see Lorenzo hit the dirt, because he’d been off his game all weekend…

Almost as soon as he arrived in Australia, I heard he’d eaten something which had disagreed with him, and given him really bad food poisoning. If you look at Jorge in the paddock, his ‘body language’ is very connected to his prime physical conditioning; he usually looks in the shape of his life. But the fact that he obviously felt physically ‘down’ translated directly to his performance on the bike; he just wasn’t in the same league as Rossi and Stoner, all weekend.

It’s a fact, though, that those kind of first-corner accidents are more often seen in car-racing rather than in Moto GPs, and I think there’s a very good reason for that…most riders have fallen off at high speed before, and know how much it hurts! Add that to the fact that falling over on the race-track at a start can then see you run over by the rest of the field…and also that, unlike in car races, results are rarely settled at the first corner, and I think that you can understand why it’s a much less regular occurrence than in F1.

Even after hitting the back of Nicky Hayden’s wheel, though, on the run down to the first turn, I still think that there was a chance of Lorenzo staying on board his bike. If he’d had opted – as the Ducati rider did – to run through the gravel-bed and return to the track the long way, I think that he could have made it. As it was, Jorge was going far too fast – under far too little control! – to ever make it around that first corner.

From the neutral’s perspective, that was a real shame, because it robbed the Grand Prix of any real interest in a battle between the two rider’s title contenders. So it was a good job that Casey Stoner put on a real show in the final few laps, drifting and sliding his Ducati around Phillip Island’s fastest corners; and providing some unforgettable television images.

I thought those pictures sent home a real message, too – even if Casey didn’t do so absolutely deliberately. They indicated to me a man really enjoying his work; and whose return to the Moto GP series was a matter of personal pleasure rather than duty. Those high-speed drifts on the races final few laps were almost unbelievable; the Australian circuit’s turn 4, for instance – where he was really turning it on – is one of the fastest and most difficult on the whole year’s calendar…

I think that Stoner has returned with absolutely the right attitude, too. Right from when he first returned to Moto GP at Portugal, a few weeks ago, he’s been saying “2009 is over for me; I’m in training for 2010, here.” And he was fast there, too, even though it’s a completely different type of circuit to Phillip Island, which he knows much better. Casey and Ducati are going to take a lot of stopping next year…

And, unless anything crazy happens, it will be Valentino Rossi who will be the World Champion that he’ll have to beat. ‘The Doctor’ now has a thirty-eight point lead over the rest, as we head into Malaysia, which is one of his favourite circuits. But, as I know well from painful prior experience, it usually rains hard over there, at least once a day. And if it rains hard – or, even more interestingly, rains during the race – then maybe anything could happen.