© Empics / PA Photos

For this race, 24-year-old Ben Spies was making his first MotoGP appearance on a Yamaha. The American rider had won his national Superbike title three times for Suzuki, and also rode for the Rizla team in three 2008 Grands Prix to good effect. This year he had switched to Yamaha for the Superbike World Championship and, with 14 victories, had won that title at the first attempt. It was the first such title for Yamaha. In advance of a full GP season for Tech 3 Yamaha, Spies raced at Valencia with a Sterilgarda-backed bike for Yamaha Factory Racing, his machine an up-to-date test bike with the latest spec. engine.

Qualifying was not so good for Yamaha at this event. With their leading rider starting third, it was the first time all year that they had not had someone in the top two. For the third time, pole position went to Marlboro Ducati team leader Stoner, with team-mate Nicky Hayden on row two in sixth. Second went to Repsol Honda rider Pedrosa, with his partner Andrea Dovizioso only tenth. The Fiat Yamahas were third and fourth, Jorge Lorenzo in front of Rossi.

Valentino’s settings had not given him the grip he wanted in qualifying, but changes for the race day warm-up session had apparently given him reason to be more optimistic. Best of the rest once again was Monster Tech 3 Yamaha man Colin Edwards, in fifth. His current team-mate, James Toseland (twice a Superbike winner here), would start his last GP for the foreseeable future from P14. 2010 replacement man Spies would start from ninth - and he was fifth fastest in warm-up.

Honda customer riders were between Hayden and Spies, with Randy de Puniet seventh for LCR and Toní Elías eighth for Gresini. Between Dovizioso and Toseland were Mika Kallio (Pramac Ducati), Alex de Angelis (Gresini) and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki); and the last four qualifiers were Marco Melandri (Hayate Kawasaki), Aleix Espargaró (Pramac), Gábor Talmácsi (Scot Honda) and Chris Vermeulen (Rizla). Other former GP winners at this circuit were de Puniet, Kallio, de Angelis and Melandri.

The final warm-up lap before the race saw Stoner taking it very easy going wide round turn one to let the others pass him at higher speeds. A few corners later the Australian crashed his pole sitting Ducati, later reporting that he’d been caught out by cold tyres. He instantly became a non-starter, leaving the pole slot empty and Pedrosa now the man furthest forward. The Honda rider duly led away, with fellow Spaniard Elías jumping to second. Lorenzo quickly got ahead of Rossi to give the fans at Valencia three countrymen leading.

Pedrosa, Elías and Lorenzo led Rossi, Edwards, de Puniet, Hayden, de Angelis, Spies, Melandri and Capirossi. Marco soon moved up a place, while Loris lost places to Toseland and Kallio, but remained in front of Dovizioso, Talmácsi, Espargaró and Vermeulen. Pedrosa was fastest early on, and soon had a promising lead from the next three. Elías was second only until Lorenzo took a tighter line inside him to overtake at the final left-handed turn 14. Immediately, on the main start-finish straight, Rossi used the slipstream to pull to the left of the Honda and brake for left-handed turn one and also go by.

Pedrosa set another new fastest lap as the Yamaha pair behind him moved clear of Elías, who now had to worry about Edwards, de Puniet and Hayden. Lorenzo had a major moment out of the right loop turn eleven, going out onto the kerb for the following short straight. He regained control but was passed by Rossi, who found himself about 2.5s behind the leader. Valentino now went fastest himself, bringing that gap down under two seconds as one-third distance approached, and leaving a similar gap back to his team-mate.

That stage of the race saw Pedrosa increase his own pace and accordingly increase the lead over Rossi once more. By half-distance this was around three seconds, and at two-thirds it was four seconds and still growing. Lorenzo began to pull in on Rossi now, cutting that margin to around 1.4s: the Italian responded. Three laps from the end saw Pedrosa’s advantage down to 3.4s as he eased off, but with Rossi now only just under a second in front of Lorenzo. These two were close at the flag, but the first three finished in unchanged order.

Dovizioso had been down in P14 early in the race and, with Edwards chasing fourth man Elías, the Texan was doing enough to overtake the works Honda rider in the 2009 final standings. Colin duly moved up to fourth, a long way behind the leaders but soon clear of those behind. At this point, Dovizioso needed to advance to seventh, and he had already got past Toseland, Capirossi and Spies for P11. Kallio was also going well, having dealt with Capirossi, Toseland, Spies, de Angelis and Melandri, so the next target for Andrea was Marco, and after him the Honda man got past Mika for eighth.

Hayden had overtaken de Puniet on the inside at the right-handed turn four, so that Nicky was soon on the tail of fifth man Elías as Randy dropped back from them. Before long there was a close group for seventh, involving de Puniet, Dovizioso, Kallio, de Angelis and Spies. Andrea used the slipstream to pass Randy on the inside for turn one which, at half-distance, gave him the extra point to stay in front of Edwards overall.

From here, Hayden had passed Elías for fifth. He didn’t shake off the Gresini team rider as they reached the flag in that order. Behind, Spies had passed Kallio for tenth, and then gained another place from de Angelis with a move at turn six, a left-hander. Not comfortable was de Puniet, who at one point nearly lost the rear of his Honda at turn three. Before long Spies also passed him, and was then on the rear of Dovizioso. The acute left at turn two, with a braking zone after a short straight, saw Ben pass Andrea on the inside, giving Edwards the points advantage again.

And so finishing seventh was Spies, from Dovizioso, Kallio, de Angelis and de Puniet. Toseland had been on his own behind that group and took 12th. Melandri had fallen back and then ran off through a gravel trap and ended up at the back of the field, so Toseland was followed home by Espargaró, Capirossi, Vermeulen, Talmácsi and Melandri. Spies had been aware that passing Dovizioso might help Edwards, and a delighted Colin thanked him straight after the race.

First and third, Spanish riders Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo saluted the crowd on the victory lap, with Valentino Rossi also happy with second place. A total of 28 podium appearances for Yamaha riders in 2009, including one for Colin Edwards, made it the best year for the marque since 1988. But given the recent form of Ducati man Casey Stoner, including in practice for this event, Pedrosa’s handy looking fifth win at Valencia might not have been so clear cut if the Australian had made the race. Stoner was overtaken by Pedrosa on points in the event. As well as Edwards, another who will have been happy was the next best Spaniard. With sixth place, Toní Elías had jumped from equal ninth overall to seventh in the points (his best MotoGP season) - just 11 points ahead of the 13th man in a close group.

It had been a year in which Fiat Yamaha had set the pace, with both their riders making mistakes but Rossi once again proving superior even with a strong challenge from Lorenzo. Stoner’s mid-season ill health had probably cost him the chance of being the third man in that battle but he will go into next season a likely contender to vie for top spot with the two men in blue. And Pedrosa will hope that the Valencia race today showed that Honda are on the up and that he can also be part of that contest. In an interview about his future, Rossi has said that he wants to finish his career at Yamaha, but that Ducati might be an option for him in 2011 - especially if Yamaha are keeping Lorenzo for that year. A review of the 2009 season will follow, and you can join us here again for coverage of the 2010 championship.

Final standings after seventeen races:
1 Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 306
2 Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 261
3 Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 234
4 Casey Stoner (Ducati) 220
5 Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 161
6 Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 160
7 Toní Elías (Honda) 115
8 Alex de Angelis (Honda) 111
9 Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 110
10 Marco Melandri (Kawasaki) 108
11 Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) 106
= Randy de Puniet (Honda) 106
13 Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 104
14 James Toseland (Yamaha) 92
15 Mika Kallio (Ducati) 71
Niccolò Canepa 38; Gábor Talmácsi 19; Aleix Espargaró 16; Sete Gibernau 12; Yuki Takahashi and Ben Spies 9; Michel Fabrizio 0.

1 Yamaha 386; 2 Honda 297; 3 Ducati 272; 4 Suzuki 133; 5 Kawasaki 108.

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