MotoGP: 46 for 46

It's not a long run to the first corner at Sepang and so Valentino Rossi, 6th on the grid and therefore on the second row, expected to be amongst the leaders when he got there. But instead he was 11th.

"I knew I had good pace," he said after the race. Just how good underlined that he remains the rider to beat.

For sure, so long as he finished ninth or better, Lorenzo would be crowned 2010 world champion. But in truth, although he is respected, he is not loved in the way that Rossi is.

The team had told Rossi off for the argy-bargy in Japan last weekend. Rossi grinned. There was no way he was going to hand Lorenzo a free pass.

And so, from 11th, Rossi set about a series of audacious overtaking manoeuvres. There was no need for brutality. Rossi on a mission has such bearing that no one stays in his way for long. Although the small field means that, on a big, open, track like Sepang, there are plenty of ways around each corner.

Rossi won. Easily.

Dovizioso was a close second. Lorenzo, who had had trouble getting his bike started and then had tyre problems, drifted in third. Stoner, who was mixing it at the front fell off shortly after the start. Capirossi's ankle injury overcame him and he parked, limping off.

On the slowing down, celebration, lap Lorenzo got a Spanish flag caught in his back wheel and he had to stop while a group of people untangled it.

The difference between Rossi and Lorenzo is marked. Lorenzo is an excellent rider and a superb racer. But he does not have Rossi's star quality and really does not seem like a champion even though, as of today, he is.

Rossi congratulated him, saying "he deserves it."

But it's pretty obvious that Rossi has no intention of letting him keep the title.

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