The modified and reversed Misano circuit in Italy, near Rossi’s home town of Tavullia, has hosted the San Marino Grand Prix since 2007. Valentino had won there in 2008, and he wanted a repeat performance. He did not want to repeat his Indy crash, which he admitted was his own mistake. He commemorated this unfortunate outcome with a new, and surely temporary, crash helmet design. It depicted him as a donkey!

Rossi wanted to reassert himself over Lorenzo at Misano, and he made a good job of it by going faster than the Spaniard in all the practice and qualifying sessions. The Italian rider was on pole position again, the fifth time in seven events and his sixth for the season. Jorge - also a Misano winner - has not missed out on the front row of the grid all year, but this time he was separated from his Yamaha partner by second man Dani Pedrosa, on the Repsol Honda.

Customer Honda and Yamaha machines appeared on row two, with Gresini rider Toní Elías fourth and Tech 3 rider Colin Edwards fifth. The Texan was now thought to have virtually reconfirmed his position in the team for 2010, at the behest of the manufacturer, making team-mate James Toseland vulnerable again to contracted Yamaha rider Ben Spies. The Superbike front runner will continue with the marque, but the question is in which series.

Nicky Hayden’s recent form on the Marlboro Ducati continued with sixth place this time, five slots ahead of partner Mika Kallio. The Finn is expected to go back to the Pramac team next time as Casey Stoner hopes to be back to full fitness. Hayden was followed by fellow podium man at Indy, Alex de Angelis. Like Elías and Hayden, the San Carlo Gresini rider has also had a run of good qualification results lately - but the two Honda men still don’t know if they’ll be in GPs next year.

Eighth went to Repsol rider Andrea Dovizioso, this time using a different brand of suspension components on his 2009 Honda RCV. Then it was Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda), Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and Kallio. In P12 was Marco Melandri (Hayate Kawasaki), from Chris Vermeulen (Rizla), Toseland, Aleix Espargaró and Niccolò Canepa (both Pramac Ducati), and Gábor Talmácsi (Scot Honda). Talmácsi had won last year’s 125cc race here, with Espargaró qualifying third in the 250s.

The race at Misano starts with a run into the right-handed Curva Rimini corner, then virtually straight away there is the left-handed Variante del Parco. Pedrosa took the lead away from the line, followed by Elías and then Rossi - behind there was about to be mayhem. Lorenzo was fourth and Edwards fifth, but going into Parco there was a tangle as de Angelis went into the side of Edwards on his left. Colin could not do anything and he just clipped the rear of Jorge, whilst Hayden was coming up on the outside of his countryman. Lorenzo survived, but de Angelis, Edwards and Hayden all went down, with de Puniet also going off track but staying on the bike.

Seconds into the race there were three men out, all of them finishing in the top five a week earlier. So Pedrosa led Elías, Rossi and Lorenzo, and after the incident it was Capirossi into fifth, from Dovizioso, Melandri, Talmácsi (up nine places), Kallio, Toseland and Vermeulen. The last right-hander on the course is Curva del Carro, which is quite a tight turn after a fast section. Elías made to pass his former 125 team-mate here for the lead, braking on the inside, but then he went wide and left room for Pedrosa to go back through.

Rossi was the man with most support among the crowd, but going into Rimini for lap two, at the end of the main straight, Lorenzo overtook the Italian on the inside. Pedrosa, Elías and Lorenzo now made it a one-two-three for Spain. The first four were already starting to open a small gap to Capirossi, but then Dovizioso took over fifth, braking inside the Suzuki man at the end of the straight for the banked left-hander at Curva della Quercia, or turn seven. Before long he was joining the men ahead, while Loris established himself in a clear sixth.

Lorenzo was fastest early on, but meanwhile Pedrosa fought off the attentions of Elías and soon opened a 0.9s advantage. Rossi went back into third by passing Lorenzo at Rimini, and then he was able to out-brake Elías for second on the inside for Quercia. Jorge followed on by passing Toní inside at Carro, and soon he had Dovizioso on his tail. A new fastest lap brought Valentino up to Dani again, with Lorenzo taking a new lap record to join them.

Curva del Tramonto is a long right-hander with two apexes, and Dovizioso had got inside Elías there to move into fourth. But these two had to continue to race each other as the first three were now moving out of range. Further back, Talmácsi had lost four places so that Capirossi and Melandri were now followed by Kallio, Toseland, Vermeulen and Espargaró, with the Hungarian heading only Canepa and de Puniet.

Up front, Rossi managed to go onto a wider line at Tramonto, so that Lorenzo was placed to try and get on the inside. But he remained third, and soon Rossi had a chance to overtake Pedrosa for the lead. This was at Curva del Rio, the right-handed fourth corner. Dani was just wide there, and Valentino forced his way through on the inside, this being with quarter race distance gone. A new fastest lap from the popular new leader saw his advantage grow to 0.7s fairly quickly, with Lorenzo still trapped behind Pedrosa.

Rossi’s lead over Pedrosa extended to beyond one second, and to more like 1.5s. Lorenzo continued to look for a gap to get past the Honda, and finally got a chance when Dani ran wide on the way out of Quercia. The gap between the two leading Yamahas fluctuated a bit as the pair continued to circulate, but with ten laps remaining Rossi sped up and took his margin to two seconds and beyond. It was closer to three when he eased off for the last couple of laps, but Valentino duly won it, collecting a yellow 46 The Doctor flag from a fan. Lorenzo was second.

Pedrosa was further away at the flag, in a lonely third. He explained that he’d experienced a misfiring engine on some corners, and this made sense when he ran out of fuel on the slow down lap. Dovizioso had moved into a solid fourth, leaving Elías to fend off the advancing Capirossi. He didn’t manage it, and indeed Loris caught and passed Andrea at Quercia. The last lap saw the Honda rider take back the place from the Suzuki, and they finished close together.

The race behind Elías had seen Kallio get by Melandri and secure seventh, his best result of the year so far, and a consolation for Ducati with Hayden out so early. Late in the race Vermeulen had got ninth from Toseland, and Chris was close to Marco by the end. Toseland finished in front of a usefully placed Espargaró, in his second MotoGP race, then de Puniet, Canepa and Talmácsi - who has been last in almost every race he has done in the series.

It had not turned out well for Valentino Rossi in Indianapolis, but he turned the tables on team-mate Jorge Lorenzo back at home, again looking like he is a hard man for the Spaniard to beat when they both stay out of trouble. A thirty-point advantage now means that podium results in all four of the remaining races should be enough for Rossi, even if Lorenzo wins them all. Theoretically, Dani Pedrosa - now finally ahead of Casey Stoner - and Stoner himself could still beat Rossi. But realistically, Lorenzo is the only man close enough. His next attempt to beat Rossi will be in Portugal, where he certainly did that last year.

Standings after thirteen races: Rossi 237; Lorenzo 207; Pedrosa 157; Stoner 150; Dovizioso 133; Edwards 123; Capirossi 96; de Puniet 88; de Angelis 87; Melandri 86.
Yamaha 305; Honda 220; Ducati 191; Suzuki 120; Kawasaki 86.

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