MotoGP:Sepang (Part Three) - Dani vs. Marc War of Stars

Onto the final stretch then... and "Rider of the Day" of course, bro's...

Rossi had faded by this point and was left 2.5 seconds behind whilst Bautista and Cruchlow this time resumed their battling spirits. It was left for us to wonder what it would take for them to either get some distance between themselves and challenge for the podium. The pace of the main machines was such that they were leaving them behind again.

Yet why couldn't Rossi show the same kind of pace and form as Lorenzo was showing? Was this a mark of the way the seamless gearbox was working with his bike and not Rossi's? Did he even have the same machine as him?!

In the CRT championship, Espargaro was leading the way ahead of an impressive Yonny Hernandez, the Colombian looking impressive since his switch to the Paul Bird Motors team.

Next to retire was Lukáš Pešek, who was seeing pulling into the pits.

Cal was soon overtaken by Bautista and again it looked like he would lose out to the Go&Fun HOnda Gresini rider...

I do have to say that the man I've not mentioned at this point is the sublime pocket rocket, Dani Pedrosa.

Reason? He'd taken off like a shot and managed to keep his lead leaving it up to Marquez and Lorenzo to create their own mini fight now that it was just between the two of them for the title.

It is not an omission that I fail to bring Pedrosa into it at this point, it's just that he was running a race all of his own, stepping up when Marquez stepped up and backing off when he did also... he would go onto win it by almost three seconds!

Bradley Smith, meanwhile, was looking strong in 7th position as he sought to improve on his starting position, but was holding steady exactly where he started!

Bautista shortly after this lost out to Crutchlow proving that as much as he liked to gain the advantage over him, he also liked to lose it as well... on the final lap he'd get him back and that would be how it would finish, so all's well that ends well for Alvaro in the end, huh?!

Down came the chequered flag and Pedrosa took the plaudits whilst all eyes were looking on how it was supposed to end (but as you know by now, you can't always get what you want!); Lorenzo or Marquez winning in style!

RIDER OF THE DAY

This one's an easy one and I'm going for the guy that, despite not making much of an impression in this blog (on the basis of how many times his name was mentioned, of course!), he fully deserves the title: -

Dani Pedrosa

The man was faultless in his riding and managed to pull away in such style that he led the race and left it up to the two Spaniards to squabble over who wanted the title most.

How close must he come, the oh-so-nearly brother, before he finally gets his title?

Marc's as good as got this one in the bag in my opinion, despite me tipping Lorenzo to win it this year, so it's got to be up to 2014 for it to happen.

I just hope I don't have to lose out on these race blogs because of BBC losing out to BT Sport in covering MotoGP from next year, as I've become so accustomed to writing them and I hope you've all enjoyed reading them.

Until next time...

Peace out!


The Lanky Penguin