The Valencia circuit is quite a twisty one, with lots of left-handers and only one lengthy straight. One interested spectator was Spanish former Grand Prix racer Sete Gibernau, recently announced as a future GP racer too. Sete will compete with a new satellite Ducati team in 2009, which will have factory support. He will be looking for the form that earned him 24 podium results for Honda in the 2003-05 seasons. Related news was that Alice Ducati would also have factory support and new riders - former Superstock racer Niccolò Canepa, and 250cc man Mika Kallio. However, the ‘Aspar’ Kawasaki deal has fallen through, as the Spanish sponsors wanted a Spanish rider whilst the manufacturer wanted former factory rider Shin’ya Nakano.

Rain over the first two days meant that qualifying took place on a drying track, with front runners such as Valentino Rossi losing out as a result. Marlboro Ducati rider Casey Stoner made it nine pole positions for the season, all from the last twelve events. His outgoing team-mate, Marco Melandri, was at the other end again in 18th and last position. Honda’s works riders joined Stoner at the front, with Pedrosa second and then Nicky Hayden. The Repsol-sponsored pair had a different livery this time out, going back to an earlier mostly white Repsol scheme, to celebrate forty years of involvement in GPs. The modern union with HRC goes back to 1995, and has seen 83 top class GP wins.

Hayden has worn the Repsol colours for all six of his Grand Prix seasons, and at this race he was saying farewell to Honda after nine years as a factory rider, including three years of AMA competition. He was the first man on Michelin tyres today, but his Sunday morning included a crash at turn ten. His compatriot Colin Edwards led row two of the grid, with Tech 3 Yamaha team-mate James Toseland next to him in fifth. Another Honda was sixth, the LCR bike of Randy de Puniet.

The first works Yamaha was in P7, and this was in a predominantly white colour scheme for Jorge Lorenzo, for a personal celebration of racing at home. On the same row was the first Rizla Suzuki, piloted by Loris Capirossi, and the JiR Scot Honda of Andrea Dovizioso. Rossi was tenth with the Yamaha in the usual Fiat colours. Toní Elías followed for Alice, then Chris Vermeulen for Rizla.

Alice Ducati rider Sylvain Guintoli was in P13, but had hurt himself in a practice incident. Kawasaki team leader John Hopkins was next, then the San Carlo Gresini Hondas of Nakano and Alex de Angelis. Kawasaki man Anthony West slotted in ahead of Melandri, who will replace him. Some of these men near the back had not secured racing rides for 2009.

The race went ahead in dry and bright weather, although bike settings would be something of a gamble for many riders given the different conditions during practice. Pedrosa had the best start to take the lead, closely pursued by Stoner. The first left-hander at Valencia precedes a short straight, then a hairpin left and a fast kink left. The tight turn two saw Stoner already overtaking Pedrosa to lead, with Edwards, Hayden, Dovizioso and Capirossi following. Rossi quickly moved past Hopkins for seventh, with Lorenzo ninth. There was a lap one slip road excursion for de Puniet, apparently because of a tangle with Toseland.

Stoner and Pedrosa began to pull away a little as the next group battled for positions. Hayden got the better of Dovizioso, who challenged for fourth behind Edwards, and soon Nicky went past Colin. Meanwhile Rossi was on the move, diving inside Capirossi to make him his next victim at right-handed turn four. And Valentino provided a characteristic sight when he took his left foot off in braking to pass Dovizioso on the inside at turn one.

Stoner was setting new lap records as he and Pedrosa left Hayden behind, with the Australian also starting to ease away from the man in second. Nicky had Edwards, Rossi, Dovizioso and Capirossi all close behind, although Colin was about to get into trouble. Rossi used the slipstream to help him past Edwards on the inside at turn one, with Dovizioso getting by the Texan immediately at turn two. Valentino was quick to also overtake Hayden, who then had to deal with the man on the customer Honda.

Stoner began to create a more and more comfortable margin over Pedrosa, and now third man Rossi chased away from the pack he’d just moved through. But he wasn’t getting closer to the men ahead. Dovizioso got inside Hayden at the final acute left turn fourteen, for the main straight, but the positions were reversed again at turn one; and straight away Andrea got past again at turn two. Then he began to move clear of the man whose ride he takes over next season.

The front runners were getting spaced out, and the gaps in the next group also started to widen. Nakano had got past Lorenzo and Hopkins, and now caught up to seventh man Capirossi, who’d begun to lose touch with Edwards. Shin’ya would get past the Suzuki man, and meanwhile there was a close group for ninth involving de Angelis, Hopkins, Lorenzo and Toseland. Melandri was closing in on them, having made a late switch to his second bike before the race started.

Half-distance saw Stoner’s lead at around three seconds, with a bigger gap from Pedrosa back to Rossi, and similar or more sizeable intervals to Dovizioso, Hayden and Edwards. The later stages saw all these gaps growing, and there was no chance of a position change without a mistake or some problem arising. Nothing of the kind materialised, so Stoner duly recorded his sixth victory of the season, convincingly, with the next five reaching the line in unchanged order.

Nakano had got clear of Capirossi to take seventh, leaving the Italian to worry about those behind. Lorenzo had passed Hopkins to run tenth behind de Angelis, and then he got by the Honda rider at turn one, as Toseland followed suit to get eleventh from Hopkins just behind. Melandri also passed the man in green at turn three, which is where he would soon get past Toseland before chasing down de Angelis. Lorenzo, de Angelis and Melandri then moved clear of Toseland and Hopkins, who had Guintoli closing in.

Melandri powered past de Angelis for tenth on the main straight, as ninth man Lorenzo was catching Capirossi. He had got there with three laps to go, getting ahead with the aid of a slipstream that set him up to pass on the inside at turn one. Behind Nakano therefore came Lorenzo and Capirossi at the finish. But something went wrong for Melandri. From tenth after a useful ride from the back of the grid, the Italian crossed the line in P16, having given up places to de Angelis, Toseland, Guintoli, Vermeulen, Hopkins (who had also dropped a couple) and de Puniet. West and Elías were also outside the points.

The year ended as it had started, with a resounding win for Casey Stoner on the Ducati. But the Australian rider had struggled at times, whilst Valentino Rossi had come on strong with his Yamaha. The Italian was ‘only’ third this time, but had been fourteen times first or second. Dani Pedrosa was between them for Honda on the day, but had hit a troublesome period mid-season to end up third overall. Andrea Dovizioso was fourth at Valencia, ahead of Nicky Hayden. This seemed only fitting for the customer Honda rider who had been ahead of the works man for the balance of the season - and beaten to the ‘rookie of the year’ crown only by Jorge Lorenzo, on the same works Yamaha that had won the title.

Rossi ended the year with sixteen podium results, again equalling the record he had set in 2003 and equalled in 2005. He had scored 373 points, beating his record of 367 from 2005, which Stoner had equalled last year. With Rossi, Lorenzo and Edwards, Yamaha had got 24 podium results in 2008, their best since managing 28 in 1988; and Yamaha won the constructors’ championship crown with 402 points, a record as it beat Honda’s score of 395 in 2003. Ducati were second best, but still took their total of podium results in the class to 60.

Honda’s year had not been so great, because third in the constructors’ table, with 14 podium results, was their worst showing since 1993, when they were third with 13. They have only ever been first or second in between times. At least rider Pedrosa’s rookie figures were not beaten, because he’d scored 215 points in 2006, where Lorenzo reached 190 this time. He beat the rookie scores of Hayden and Stoner. However, the year was Rossi’s, and he will again be a tough man for the rest to match up to next year.

Final standings after eighteen races:
1 Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 373
2 Casey Stoner (Ducati) 280
3 Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 249
4 Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 190
5 Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 174
6 Nicky Hayden (Honda) 155
7 Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 144
8 Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) 128
9 Shin’ya Nakano (Honda) 126
10 Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 118
11 James Toseland (Yamaha) 105
12 Toní Elías (Ducati) 92
Guintoli 67; de Angelis 63; de Puniet 61; Hopkins 57; Melandri 51; West 50; Ben Spies 20; Jamie Hacking 5; Tadayuki Okada 2; Kousuke Akiyoshi and Nobuatsu Aoki 0

1 Yamaha 402; 2 Ducati 321; 3 Honda 315; 4 Suzuki 181; 5 Kawasaki 88

A full review of the MotoGP season will follow.

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