Day of Champions

Last night, the night that Valentino Rossi was crowned MotoGP World Champion, here was no Yamaha party in the now traditional Rossi haunt of Kuala Lumpur's Beach Club. That was because, out of the back gate that links the Sepang racetrack to a dedicated entrance to Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Rossi, looking more tired and emotional than many could remember, was only too pleased to have a long shower and set off for the terminal where, zipping through the VIP lanes, he was soon on a plane to London. For The Doctor, somehow, this race had been harder than he expected; he tried, tried and tried again to get on terms with Capirossi but Rossi's Yamaha was simply no match for the machine of the moment, the Ducati. In fact, Rossi was bracketed - he came second, with Ducati clear first and very close second.

While KL waited to party, some parts of the Yamaha were heading for Italy and some would sleep last night in yet another hotel, in yet another country - this time Bahrain. For the next race is just a week away.

So Rossi's celebration for being MotoGP champion for the fifth year in succession will have to wait.

No such delay for Fernando Alonso: it Raikonnen won, Alonso only needed to finish third to win the F1 World Championsip. So he did. The McLaren cars have at last come good after a dismal reliability record for much of the season. When the cars have worked, Mika has been stunning - but Montoya, for many the best driver in F1 today - has had a series of non-mechanical mishaps including a damaged shoulder damaged in a mysterious off-course incident that kept him out of racing.

Montoya beat Raikonnen and Alonso fair and square, giving McLaren their first one-two finish for almost two years. Had it not been for people running into Montoya it might have been their third in succession, such is the improvement in the car in the past few weeks.

Renault's new package - aero and engine improvements - made the car much faster around Interlagos than expected but still not fast enough, despite a stunning qualifying lap that put the Renault on pole.

At Watkins Glen, New Zealander Scott Dixon won his first IRL race for two years - his last win was on the same track when he clinched the 2003 IRL title. But although he and his team celebrated, it wsa a little further down the field, in fifth place, that the real celebrations were taking place. a 27 year old Englishman had done something special: IRL Champion, first English IRL champion, season winner Indy 500 (only four people have won the Indy 500 and the championship both in the same seasonin the past quarter of a century), winner of record six races in a single year. It was fitting that Dixon's glory came on a "proper" circuit instead of an oval. Strangley, the strength of Britons Dario Franchitti ( a former IRL champion) and Wheldon are on ovals whilst both grew up racing on twisty tarmac.

Wheldon's victory was actually a damp squib. He had a 102 point lead. Under IRL rules, everyone's a winner and even the last place gets 12 points just for qualifying. So once the car was qualified, a single run around the circuit this morning was enough to earn the points to go clear at the top of the driver's table. Wheldon didn't have to drive the race, but he did and he actually raced, not just pottered around keeping out of trouble.