Season Review : 2009 MotoGP

 

2009 announced itself to be a four way fight for the title with Valentino Rossi favourite to take another premier class crown. But his biggest rival might become his teammate at Yamaha, double 250cc world champion Jorge Lorenzo. Stoner wants to regain the championship that he lost to Rossi in 2008 and Pedrosa is Honda's leading rider to challenge the other three and reclaim the title for Honda since Nicky Hayden in 2006. Bridgestone would become single tyre supplier for MotoGP and to reduce costs, Friday morning practice was dropped and at a later stage, a limited number of engines would be availble to any rider. Before the kick off, the financial crisis took out Kawasaki and suddenly Marco Melandri and John Hopkins were without a ride. 2009 saw the return of Sete Gibernau to MotoGP on a privateer run Ducati and with the top 250cc riders not making the move up, Mika Kallio was the top rookie.

 

Pedrosa wasn't completely fit before the start of the season, nor was Tech3's James Toseland aftre two heavy crashes during testing. The opening round had to be run on Monday since it was pouring in the Qatarese desert one day earlier. Stoner took his third victory in a row at this track and surely looked to be ready to take on the Yamahas. There was one Kawasaki present though, run by the Hayate team, in the hands of .... Marco Melandri ( who was actually establishing himself as a very talented car racer in the wake of getting back into the top flight for 2010 ). No support and no development was foreseen and Melandri delivered the goods durings the first few races with a spectacular 2nd place at Le Mans as the highlight of the season. After his horror season 2008 on the factory Ducati, the exit of Kawasaki, things definitely didn't look bright for the Italian. But he grabbed his chance, took it, proved once again that he is one of the best riders out there and returns home to Fausto Gresini's team for 2010 on a privateer Honda but with a good shot at some very strong results. In the meantime, the four big guns were in full contention for the championship ( although Pedrosa would suffer from his injuries ) with Rossi wining in Spain and Catalunya, Stoner handing Ducatis first "home" win at Mugello and breaking Rossi's 7 year reign at the Tuscan circuit and Lorenzo crossing the line in first in Japan and France As a result, all three riders were at 106 points when heading for the Dutch TT.

 

Already Stoner had been experiencing quite some trouble to keep up with the other three riders and looked completely exhausted after the finish. The mystery surrounding his physical and/or mental state was leading to all sorts of speculations and after a disastrous British GP, the Aussie decided not to compete in the next three races to sort out his disease and come back healthy. With Pedrosa still not being able to close the gap to the Yamaha boys ( although winning at Laguna Seca) , the title would turn out to be a fight between teammates. After crashing out of the lead twice in as many races, it looked as if Lorenzo was presenting Rossi's ninth on a plate but a rare and stupid mistake by the Italian at indy and 2nd place at Misano brought the Mallorcan back within 30 points of his teammate and everything to play for with 100 points up for grabs. A dominating performance at Estoril, ahead of the returning Casey Stoner and Vale only in 4th, saw Jorge close the gap to 18 points with three races remaining. 

The title chase took a decisive turn at Philip Island. Trying to make up for a poor start, Lorenzo runs into Hayden's Ducati on the run down to the first corner and knocks himself out of the race and the championship. With Stoner back to full fitness and a strong win over Rossi in Australia, Jorge would need some divine intervention to get his hands on the 2009 crown. Rain in Malaysia, a dominating win by Stoner and Lorenzo finishing behind his teammate sealed his 2009 fate and Rossi's 9th world title. Pedrosa went on to win the final round at Valencia and leapfrogged Stoner for third in the standings when the latter crashed on cold tyres during the warm up lap.

Additional facts & figures

• The average difference between first and runner up was 5,111 seconds.
• The gap was less than 1,000 seconds on three occasions.
• The biggest gap was 17,710 at Le Mans.
• The smallest gap was 0,095 seconds at Catalunya.
• 18 riders started the season.
• The field consisted of 4 Yamahas, 5 Ducatis, 6 Hondas, 2 Suzukis and 1 Kawasaki.
• Takahashi was replaced by Talmacsi at Scot Honda, Gibernau had to pull out together with his team due to financial woes and Espargaro replaced Kallio ( and later on Canepa ) at Pramac when the Finn was taking Stoner's seat at the factory squad during his absence.
• World Superbike Champion Ben Spies would ride another Yamaha M1 during the final round of the season.

Moment of the year

It has to be Rossi's dive on the inside at the final turn in Catalunya. With the two Yamahas crushing the opposition, Lorenzo and Rossi were entangled in a awesome tussle and just when it looked as if lorenzo would finally beat his illustrious teammate, Rossi pulled a move that no one expected in a turn where it was to be considered impossible to pass. He stuffed it on the inside of Jorge, managed to keep the bike upright and than accelerate hard onto the straight towards victory. Even when you think he's down and out he still manages to pull something out of the bag....just BRILLIANT!

Performance of the year

Well, Rossi won his 100th race at Assen, Edwards finishing 5th in the standings, Rossi's move ( as described above ), Lorenzo's win in Portugal....or even De Angelis' brave move down the inside at his home race ( what was he thinking ???? ) could be rated as an astonishing performance but I have to go with Melandri's rebound into competition . After finally landing a true factory ride, it turns into his biggest nightmare. He brakes his contract ( with mutual consent ) and signs a deal with the factory Kawasaki team. Not long before the start of the season, Team Green decides to pull the plug on their MotoGP project and so Marco's again without a ride and all seast taken and nowhere to go. He goes car racing instead to keep himself busy, is quite succesfull at it and then the opportunity arises to enter the 2009 MotoGP World Championship after all albeit on a privateer Kawasaki and without any support or development from the factory. A carefull start brings him 14th at the opening round in Qatar but 6th in Motegi, followed by 5th in Jerez leads to an astonishing second place in Le Mans. In Mugello he manages to lead the race for a brief instance but it only took him 5 races to show the motorcycling world again what he is capable of. For 2010, he rejoins Gresini on a Honda and let's hope he can pull in some great performances one many occasions like he did on an inferior bike in 2009.

Season Review : 2009 250cc

 

The final season of 250's promised to feature the usual suspects : 2008 world champion Marco Simoncelli stayed to defend his title, Alvaro Bautista was looking to bring the crown back to Spain and follow up on his 2006 125cc world title. Hector Barbera needed to put in a more consitent performance and be less crazy if he wanted to have an outright shot at the final 250cc World Championship.the influx from 125's was rather small appart from the 2008 world champion Mike DiMeglio who partnered Bautista at Mapfre Aspar's team. Mattia Pasini, Thomas Luthi, Alex Debon were still there as well as Hiroshi Aoyama who joined the Scot Honda team after KTM decided to pull out of 250cc racing. 

Qatar was won by Barbera flanked by Frenchman Jules Cluzel who took a stunning 2nd place and rookie DiMeglio in 3d. Simoncelli's defence would start at round two after sitting out the opener due to injury. However, a flat front tyre prevented him from getting a points score and so he started the season exactly the same as one year earlier : 0 points after two races. At Jerez, an exciting race ended with a tussle between homie Bautista and Aoyama on the Honda. The Japanese rider managed to stay in front and clinched a surprise victory whereas Simoncelli scored his first points of the season coming home in 3d. 

  

The 2008 champ won in France and got beaten to the line by Pasini in their home race at Mugello but he crashed in Catalunya were Bautista managed to clinch his first victory of the season. Assen was a turning point in the season. An exciting battle between Bautista and again Aoyama ended right before the start of the final lap when the Spaniard misjudged an error by Hiro and ran into the back of the Japanese. The latter managed to stay in the saddle but Alvaro's race was over. Even with some damage to his bike, Aoyama brought it home safely and recorded his second victory of 2009. A consistent run of finishes and some very strong outings helped the Japanese to lead the world championship at this stage with Bautista trailing him by 13 points. A string of 6 consecutive top 4 finishes kept him firmly in the running for the title but Marco started to close in during mid season. 4 wins, 1 fourth place and one DNF brought him within striking distance of Aoyama. Aspar's leading rider managed to stay in touch as well with 5 podium finishes and 1 DNF. 

 

A very consistent Barbera secured his second win of the season in Misano and kept his title hopes alive. Bautista's crash in Portugal would start a string of lacklustre showings and with it an end of his title aspirations. It was clear that SuperSic and Hiro would battle to the end for title glory. Hector's chances of running away with the title would depend more on the errors made by these two than on his own strong performances. In general, he was there but only during a few races he was able to keep up and fight for victory with the Italian and Japanse. Winning in Australia, Marco closed in a further 16 points and was trailing only by 12 with two races to go. Aoyama was untouchable in Sepang and regained 9 more points on the Italian to lead by 21 before the final race.

 

11th place would suffice for an historic end of an historic era but the drama unfolded even before mid race. Simoncelli was doing what he needed to do : leading and trying to grab that victory. Aoyama was comfortably riding in the leading pack when he ran wide into the gravel trap and lost a lot of time getting out of the sand not wanting to drop the bike. He regained in 11th place but there didn't seem to be much damage since his lap times were fast enough to close in on the riders in front of him and provide himself with some breathing space. A couple of laps from the end, the title was decided when Simoncelli crashed out of the lead. Barbera went on to win his 3d race of the season and even jumped Simoncelli to take second place in the standings.  

Additional facts & figures

• The average margin between first and second was 3,961 seconds.
• 6 races out of 16 ended with less than 1,000 seconds covering winner and runner up.
• The biggest difference was at Le Mans : 18,128 seconds.
• The smallest gap was at Misano : 0,040 seconds.
• The season started with 28 regular riders.
• The field was made of 19 Aprilias, 7 Hondas and 2 Gileras.

Moment of the year

Assen 2009 : Bautista runs into the back of Aoyama when the latter makes an error braking into the Geert Timmer chicane on the penultimate lap. The image summarizes the season of both riders for me. The title favourite crashing again in a desperate attempt to get the better of the rider who rode an inferior bike but got the most out of  it and managed to keep both wheels on the tarmac when his fiercest rivals made costly mistakes. Aoyama clinches 4 victories on his way to the title and Bautista only 2 to end up 4th in the final standings. Considering the fact that Hiro managed only 7 podiums compared to 10 for Simoncelli and 10 for Bautista, these statistics are examplory for the 2009 250cc World Championship with a true outsider beating the two big favourites.  The Last Man Standing!

 

Exceptional performance

Jules Cluzel's 2nd place in Qatar. He just came from out of nowhere to battle it out with Barbera and finish on the podium. Before this season, he ran in the midfield and suddenly he's found the pace to run at the front. He ended up 12th but should have been higher up in the ranking if it weren't for some mistakes and crashes when he was running inside the top ten on a number of occasions. Since we are moving on to the Moto2 World championship for 2010, he will join Forward racing in a bid to better the 2009 season and who knows where he might end up in November 2010...

 

Season Review : 2009 125cc

 

The 2009 125cc World Championship announced itself once more to be a close fight with many different riders on the forefront. It's a championship where one rider dominating is rather seldom due to the slim differences in material, considering that 95% runs Aprilia bikes. Team, rider and tactics are crucial to deliver a consistent performance during the season which results in a challenge for the title. 

The preseason favourites are the Aspar boys : Julian Simon, Bradley Smith and Sergio Gadea. The strongest outfit for many years in the 125cc class is chasing another title after losing out to Mike DiMeglio and Derbi racing in 2008. Both Simone Corsi and Nicolas Terol for team Jack & Jones as well as Stefan Bradl are expected to be fighting for the 2009 crown. 

The first two races had a surprise winner : Andrea Iannone. But the following races, the "normal" order was reinstated with Simon winning in Le Mans and Smith victorious in Jerez and Mugello. A very exciting and strange race in Catalunya gave Iannone his 3d victory in 6 races and put him firmly in contention for the title.

Come Assen and it was all about Julian Simon and Bradly Smith for the remainder of the season. Gadea managed to win in Holland but 4 top 2 finishes ( including two wins ) for Simon vaulted him to the top of the standings. Iannone was no longer in contention by then, in fact he only managed to gather 54 points in the last 10 races compared to his 71,5 in the beginning of the season. Corsi nor Bradl could continue their 2008 form and ended 11th and 10th in the standings. Terol managed 5 podiums ( one win in Brno ) to clinch third spot at the end of the year. Gadea recorded a strong mid season ( with one win in Assen ) but was far from consistent to threaten his teammates. The strongest challenge came from little Pol Espargaro whose second half of 2009 provided 6 top 5 finishes ( including two wins ) to end up 4th and a label of 2010 title favourite. 

  

A world class performance by Julian Simon in Philip Island saw him clinch the title with two rounds remaining. Winning the final two races as well, was the icing on the cake so he ended his 2009 campaign in great style and underlining his status of world champion. 

Additional Facts & Figures

• The average margin between first and second during the 2009 season was 3,638 seconds. 
• 10 races out of 16 ended with less than 1,000 seconds covering winner and second place.
• The biggest difference was at Le Mans : 27,084 seconds.
• The smallest gap was at Indianapolis : 0,120 seconds.
• 35 regular riders started the season.
• The field consisted of 23 Aprilias, 5 Derbis, 2 KTM, 2 Maxtra/Hajoue, 2 Loncin and 1 Honda.
• After the first round in Qatar, Hajoue decided to pull the plug on its 125cc project. 

Moment of the year

It was a difficult choice ( the other moment being Simon's misjudgement in Catalunya when he thought he'd won when in fact there was one more lap to go. In the end, he didn't even make the podium. ) but I chose the last corner clash between Pol Espargaro and Andrea Iannone at Misano. Not that this is a rare phenomenon but the argument and action it was followed by was not your everyday sight. Yes, in NHL and on a football pitch it is quite common an your average Saturday Night pub brawl as well but on a race track ?

 

Espargaro runs over to the Italian to get some feedback on his action and what he was thinking ? My guess he must have said to him : "Actions speak louder than words, hombre!" and he reinforced this with a headbutt.

Afterwards he apologised to the Spaniard and received a 5000 USD fine.

Exceptional performance

The final race of the season in Valncia saw a wild card entry by Toni Mang's team for Marcel Schrotter. The boy, both German and European 125cc champion, managed to finish 5th on a underdevelopped Honda.