Motorcycle racing remains popular in Spain, but for this race there would be four instead of five home riders taking part in the GP. Following his leg injury in Qatar, Álvaro Bautistá would not be piloting the lone Rizla Suzuki machine at Jeréz, and former team rider John Hopkins (number 21) would deputise. The 27-year-old US rider has been racing Superbikes for a couple of years, and will join the British series this year, but has been a podium finisher in the past during a seven-year GP career.

But John and the Suzuki were not setting the pace in qualifying - again it was the works Hondas. In fact, the first three on the grid were in the same order as they had been in Qatar, with Repsol pair Stoner and Pedrosa heading factory Yamaha man Lorenzo. Andrea Dovizioso was one place better in sixth on the third of the Repsol Honda RCV bikes, whilst Lorenzo was immediately followed by new Yamaha team-mate Ben Spies, fourth. Fifth went to another works-spec Honda rider, Marco Simoncelli for the San Carlo Gresini team.

The Marlboro-backed works Ducati men were still struggling somewhat with the latest Desmosedici 800, with Nicky Hayden in P11 and Rossi one place behind. Three Ducati customer machines were behind this pair, but one of the Desmos was ahead of them - Pramac rider Randy de Puniet would start from seventh position. The Tech 3 Yamaha riders completed row three, with Colin Edwards ahead of Cal Crutchlow in positions eight and nine.

Between Crutchlow and Hayden was Gresini Honda rider Hiroshi Aoyama, tenth. Right behind the works Ducatis was Héctor Barberá, in P13 with the Mapfre Aspar Ducati. Then it was Hopkins, Loris Capirossi (Pramac Ducati), Karel Abraham (AB Cardion Ducati) and finally Toní Elías (LCR Honda). Qualifying had seen crashes for Spies, de Puniet, Edwards, Aoyama, Rossi and Abraham.

Dry weather made way for wet on race day, the rain intervening in the support races. The MotoGP warm-up gave some riders their first taste of the latest bikes in the wet, and Rossi’s second fastest time suggested that similar conditions in the race would be beneficial. The rain was stopping and starting again as start time approached, and a wet race was declared. All riders chose tyres for a wet track. Stoner got away first, with Lorenzo getting through to second on the outside at Curva Expo 92, the right-handed first corner. By turn four, a cautious Pedrosa had also been pushed back by Simoncelli and Dovizioso.

With the rain still falling, Stoner and Lorenzo were soon pulling away from the rest, with a gap growing between the two of them. Simoncelli looked to be putting some distance between himself and his pursuers, with Dovizioso followed by Spies, Pedrosa, Hayden, Edwards, Rossi, Crutchlow, Barberá, Hopkins, de Puniet, Elías, Capirossi, Aoyama and Abraham. In the early stages, Pedrosa was passed successively by Hayden, Edwards, Rossi and Crutchlow.

Rossi was particularly racy in these conditions. He overtook Hayden on the inside for the final Curva Ducados left-hand hairpin corner, was soon past Spies, and then got ahead of Dovizioso on the inside at turn nine, the right-handed Curva Angel Nieto. He then began to move clear in his pursuit of third man Simoncelli, who was in fact setting the fastest lap. Valentino responded, and meanwhile Marco was getting closer to Lorenzo.

With a small gap between Stoner and Lorenzo, Simoncelli was on the tail of the Spaniard, and Rossi was also catching them. In fact, Marco moved into second with a move on the inside at Expo 92, and at the end of the back straight he was into the lead with his pass on the inside for the tight right-handed Curva Dry Sack. Rossi then overtook Lorenzo on the inside at the second corner, the right-handed Curva Michelin and started to leave his former team-mate behind.

Simoncelli led, with all the MotoGP champions behind him, Stoner from Rossi and Lorenzo, with Hayden on his own in fifth. A dramatic change was about to happen, and it came at the Curva Expo 92. Rossi moved to the inside of Stoner for the right-hander, and he was just ahead when he suffered a lowside crash with the Ducati. With Casey on the outside, he was also taken out. Valentino and his bike were briefly pinned under the Honda until the marshals got there. Both men tried to resume, but only Rossi got going again. Scratch one potential race winner.

Rossi had to gauge whether the Ducati was still up to the challenge, and initially he found himself down in 15th position. This left Simoncelli on his own in the lead, with second man Lorenzo not too far clear of Hayden now. Pedrosa had got back in front of Crutchlow, Edwards and Dovizioso, and was now right behind fourth man Spies. Andrea would now lose out to the Tech 3 pair, and would then find a train of six on his tail due to apparent brake problems that had already seen him go off track.

Pedrosa had clearly found the measure of the track conditions, and now he went to pass Spies at turn five, the long right Curva Sito Pons. He found space on the inside which then saw the pair running together along the back straight, with Dani making it through to fourth. Soon enough he also went past Hayden on the inside at Angel Nieto. Lorenzo was now on his own in second place, with Simoncelli three-seconds in front, but the Italian would hit trouble at Expo 92. With his tyres perhaps a bit past it, the rear got away on lean-in and a highside crash quickly followed. Damage to the Honda meant there was no chance to get going again. Scratch another potential race winner.

Lorenzo now led the race, with a gap back to Pedrosa of just over 2.5s. This began to reduce gradually, as Dani left Hayden to battle with Spies, who soon made it past and moved clear. With the race approaching half-distance, the lead was now just under 1.5s. Jorge began to respond, and by two-thirds distance more rain was falling. Soon Dani was back to six-seconds off the leader, with Spies getting close again behind. A mistake out of Curva Sito Pons let Ben get inside and make the pass, but not long afterwards he crashed out at the same corner. Scratch another potential podium finisher.

Therefore, with three laps to go Lorenzo had a comfortable lead and Pedrosa was clear of the next runners. Crutchlow had, a bit earlier, got well clear of team-mate Edwards, but when the rain resumed had managed to take himself into the gravel in a lowside crash. A possible run at Hayden was lost there, but he got a push to restart. Nicky had been instead tracked by Colin and with Aoyama up behind them. Just before Spies crashed, Edwards passed Hayden at Curva Michelin, which put him into the final rostrum position. But at Curva Expo 92 at the start of the final lap Colin’s Yamaha engine stopped. Scratch yet another potential podium finisher.

Lorenzo was the clear winner, and Pedrosa took second. Hayden was back up to third for the flag, with Aoyama not too far behind for his best MotoGP result. These four riders had negotiated the conditions well and avoided any costly mistakes. The same was not true of the fifth man home, but Rossi had recovered well to move past Dovizioso, Capirossi and Hopkins before inheriting another place with Crutchlow’s off. That left him to pass Barberá in the late stages and secure P5, the Spaniard also recording a best finish by retaining sixth.

Abraham had been up behind Crutchlow and Edwards, and therefore perhaps in line to inherit fourth, but after being passed by Aoyama he suffered a lowside crash and had to be pushed to get out of the gravel. This dropped him to P11, even after Crutchlow’s similar incident, but the Czech rider would then regain places at the expense of Hopkins and Crutchlow (plus Spies and Edwards) to take seventh. Crutchlow, Elías, Hopkins, Capirossi and Dovizioso were the remaining finishers, the Repsol man after a pit stop to change onto a new set of wet weather tyres. Following an off, de Puniet had been unable to restart his Ducati.

The Spanish Grand Prix was one in which a number of potential podium finishers made costly mistakes. In particular, the fate of Marco Simoncelli was similar to that of former GP regular Alex Barros, at this same circuit back in 1993. In that season, the Brazilian was on a likely race-winning works motorcycle (the Suzuki) for the first time in his 500cc career, and at Jeréz he might have broken his duck. Working through to the lead past regular winners Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey, Barros then managed to crash out when he might have cruised to the flag. Simoncelli will want to emulate the Brazilian, who did go on to win later that year.

The likely 2011 title contenders had mixed fortunes, with pace setter Casey Stoner unlucky to be caught up in Valentino Rossi’s crash. The Italian had looked in better shape due to the uncertain weather conditions, and still salvaged a useful result. He went to apologise to Stoner, but the Australian was decidedly unimpressed, although neutrals might well have seen it as just one of those things. But with Simoncelli’s exit, the beneficiary was Jorge Lorenzo, who now takes over the championship lead. Having jumped into the lake to celebrate a year earlier, this time Jorge slipped and fell into the water when he went to do the same.

In Qatar, Dani Pedrosa had suffered with ‘arm pump’ because of a trapped nerve, and there was also a shoulder issue. He was due to have a plate removed from the bone in question after the Spanish race. But in the meantime, second at home was a reasonable return, having dropped to tenth early on. It put him second in the table, and ahead of perhaps the man he most needs to beat this year - Stoner. And whilst Simoncelli and Spies both crashed from good positions, spare a thought for Edwards, who made no mistakes only for his bike to fail within a lap of finishing third.

With the postponement of the Japanese GP, round three of the series will be in Portugal, after a four-week break. With the extra recovery time, Bautistá (present at the circuit) was saying that he expected to return to action on the Suzuki at Estoril.

Standings after two races: Lorenzo 45; Pedrosa 36; Stoner 25; Hayden 23; Rossi 20; Aoyama 19; Dovizioso 17; Barberá 14; Crutchlow 13; Abraham 12; Simoncelli 11, Spies 10.
Honda and Yamaha 45; Ducati 25; Suzuki 6.

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