Round fourteen (rearranged from April) was at Honda’s own circuit at Motegi in Japan, but the event was not destined to go in Pedrosa’s favour. A problem with the throttle in Friday practice saw him crash and get hurt. With a broken collarbone, he had to fly back to Spain for an operation, and he also sprained an ankle. With Dani missing this race, Lorenzo’s title was virtually assured. Third man Casey Stoner was too far back to overtake the 23-year-old.

The road circuit at Motegi, where there is also an Indycar oval track, has several long straights and heavy-braking slower corners, with a couple of faster bends. In a decade of GP races there, quite a few of the current MotoGP field had recorded victories. The most senior competitor is Loris Capirossi, and he won the main race in 2005-06-07. In the same years, Mika Kallio was also three times successful in support class races. Leaving out Pedrosa, two-time winners are Valentino Rossi and Hiroshi Aoyama, with other successes having gone to Lorenzo, Héctor Barberá, Álvaro Bautistá, Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli.

In qualifying, even in the absence of Pedrosa, Honda still came out on top, with Repsol rider Andrea Dovizioso taking his first MotoGP class pole position. In the past, his best had been third place on one occasion. Lorenzo could afford to be conservative, so chose to run an older Yamaha engine and save an unused one for a later race. Having been on the front row of the grid everywhere else, this contributed to him being on row two and ‘only’ fourth. He would race with a Japanese themed crash helmet design. Team-mate Rossi had his best starting position since his comeback from injury, qualifying second.

Marlboro Ducati lead rider Casey Stoner was between the two Yamaha men, in third place. The first of the non-works riders was fifth man Colin Edwards, for Tech 3 Yamaha, just a place in front of young team-mate Ben Spies. Honda riders were next, Randy de Puniet seventh (for the LCR team), then Simoncelli eighth (for San Carlo Gresini). Rizla Suzuki’s riders completed the top ten, with Bautistá heading Capirossi (who’d had a late qualifying crash).

Nicky Hayden (Marlboro Ducati) and Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda) were next; and Pramac Ducati’s riders were at either end of the final group of qualifiers, with Aleix Espargaró in thirteenth and Kallio in P16. Between them were 2010 MotoGP rookies Aoyama (Interwetten Honda) and Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar Ducati).

For the race, all the riders opted for the softer compound rear Bridgestone tyres, but with only Lorenzo and Hayden on the softer front tyres. Dovizioso led away, from Stoner and Rossi. Following two right-handers, there is a straight down to the left at turn three, where you can pass by being on the inside for the braking zone. This corner saw Stoner overtake Dovizioso, and Lorenzo do the same thing to Rossi. Edwards followed, from Capirossi, Simoncelli, Spies, Melandri and Hayden. Barberá would soon lose eleventh to de Puniet, from Espargaró, Aoyama and Kallio.

Stoner and Dovizioso began to ease clear of Lorenzo and Rossi; but meanwhile turn five, an acute right that preceded the oval underpass, had seen Spies and Hayden, Nicky on the inside, go off the track. Ben was quicker to get back on track, with his compatriot a couple of places behind in last place. The first two traded fastest laps, but Rossi was on the attack behind his team-mate, and would soon go quicker still. Simoncelli overtook Edwards to go into fifth, but before long the leaders had left both of them behind.

Turn ten is a right-handed Hairpin bend, with a short straight on the way in and a longer one going downhill on the way out. Rossi dived through past Lorenzo on the inside here, staying ahead for the next right at 90° Corner. Meanwhile, second man Dovizioso closed again on leader Stoner, getting the gap down to 0.4s. Half-distance was looming, and Casey responded at this stage, building his advantage to 1s in the next few laps. From there he remained sufficiently out of reach, but the late stages were enlivened by the Fiat Yamaha contest for third.

Lorenzo passed Rossi on the inside for turn one, but he went wide and let the Italian back through. Jorge closed in again, and the penultimate lap saw him have another go, this time at turn five. Going a little bit wide here, the Spaniard left enough space for Valentino to force his way straight back through, so that the pair then swapped this way and that in robust style as the following series of bends unfolded. Rossi remained in front at the conclusion of this passage of action.

Turn six is the fast right-handed bend called 130R, which leads to the left-right esses. On the last lap, Lorenzo moved to the outside at 130R, which allowed him to pass with the inside line for the entry to the next bend. The S-Curve right at turn eight leads to the tight left V-Corner, and this saw Rossi retake the place going in on the brakes. From there he kept his position to the flag, taking third behind Stoner and Dovizioso, despite suffering with tyre wear. Lorenzo was just off the podium for only the second time.

Meanwhile, Edwards had fended off an attack from Capirossi and moved again to challenge Simoncelli. He made it through and secured a clear fifth place, with Marco sixth home. Suzuki seemed to be having a good race, even though Bautistá lost out at the start. He fought through past the likes of Melandri and de Puniet to take up eighth spot behind his team-mate. This was how they were placed towards the end of the race until Capirossi ran wide and off the track as his bike failed on him. Álvaro had been targeting a top six result, and ended up one place off that.

Spies was making some good progress, passing Espargaró, Aoyama, Barberá, de Puniet (who had an off-track moment) and ultimately Melandri, who dropped back a bit late on. Ben finished eighth therefore, having moved well clear of the field behind him. Ninth was de Puniet’s reward, from Aoyama and Melandri. Hayden made up some ground to take twelfth, ahead of Barberá, Espargaró and Kallio, with only Capirossi and Pedrosa absent on the list of finishers.

Casey Stoner took his first ever win at the Motegi circuit, where he had previously been second a couple of times, and with other top six results. This was his 22nd win in the premier Grand Prix class, which put him level with no less than Geoff Duke, John Surtees and Kenny Roberts Sr. It was also the 30th MotoGP race win for Ducati. Like he had been at Silverstone, Andrea Dovizioso proved the closest challenger to the winner on the day, and he recorded the 250th podium appearance in the class for HRC with Repsol title sponsorship. With Rossi ahead of Lorenzo, another Yamaha man doing well was Colin Edwards, with his best result of the season to date.

Further news concerning 2011: Lorenzo has signed for two more years with Yamaha, and meanwhile Rossi will be taking his crew, headed as ever by Jerry Burgess, with him to Ducati. Edwards stays with the Tech 3 team for a fourth season.

Standings after fourteen races: Lorenzo 297; Pedrosa 228; Stoner 180; Dovizioso 159; Rossi 156; Spies 139; Hayden 129; de Puniet 88; Simoncelli 84; Edwards 81; Melandri 79; Barberá 69.
Yamaha 309; Honda 285; Ducati 220; Suzuki 81.

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