MotoGP: For Rossi, winning is not the only thing

Jorge Lorenzo is all but champion for 2010, a position largely fixed on Friday when Dani Pedrosa had a seemingly small crash but it broke his collarbone so severely that he immediately flew to Spain where he was admitted to hospital and a titanium plate inserted to fix his injury. As Pedrosa will stay in hospital for at least one and possibly two days, it is unlikely he will compete in next Sunday's race in Malaysia.

But current Champ, Valentino Rossi, has no intention of allowing Lorenzo an easy ride - in more ways than one. Pushing Lorenzo off the front row of the grid for the first time this season, Rossi fluffed his start and Lorenzo pounced. As Stoner and Dovizioso (who had gained his first ever MotoGP pole) pulled away, Rossi stalked Lorenzo, passing him in an audacious move that disconcerted the not-quite-world-champion.

Lorenzo had thought his weekend more or less complete: as last season, he had played some kind of brinkmanship with the team over his contract. But there were few options left open to him. Yamaha, of course, wanted to make their big announcement at the Japanese Grand Prix - and so the news of a two year contract was calculated to make the news.

But that calculation omitted one small factor: Rossi is already racing next year's championship - he knows that this year's is out of reach after both a broken leg and a shoulder injury. But he needs to make certain that both Lorenzo and Stoner know that he's going to be hard to beat next year. And he needs to make sure that Hayden knows his place as number two to Rossi in the Ducati team.

And so it plays into Rossi's hands that Stoner has at last got the bike working; his team-mate Hayden, however, struggled : a small off on lap five, alongside, Spies, saw Hayden flounder at the back whilst Spies worked his way up to eighth.

So, Stoner wins and Rossi can say "excellent: I'll have that bike next year." Rossi beats Pedrosa and he can say "I can beat you on the same machine, even after injuries - and I'll have the Ducati next year." And Hayden pootles around and Rossi can say "I'll bring the Championship to Ducati - all you have to do is just as you are doing: stay out of my way."

And there was one more thing Rossi wanted to say: he wanted to thank the Japanese team on Japanese soil and the best way to do that was to beat his team-mate.

And so, when Lorenzo passed Rossi, Rossi set about hounding him, lap after lap, corner after corner, wheel-turn after wheel-turn. Once Rossi passed, Lorenzo eased off, taking care of his bike and his tyres except for an occasional thrust to remind Rossi he was there. Then Lorenzo came back hard with five laps to go - and began a series of assaults on Rossi, diving inside, outside, dodging back and forth.

Rossi is not a rider that intimidates easily - and trying to mug him is never going to prove a simple task. And so Lorenzo found. Every time he passed Rossi, Rossi came back - sometimes within the same corner - to retake the place. On the penultimate lap, Lorenzo rode close to Rossi, apparently trying to force Rossi to take to the grass. Rossi didn't: he held his line and put his elbows out. Lorenzo reciprocated. With both bikes leaning at a crazy angle, turning through a high-speed bend, both scrabbling for grip as centrifugal force pulled them away from the kerb, both riders kept the power on and bashed elbows.

The bashing was so obvious that, during a post-race interview, Colin Edwards - seeing the footage shown on a screen - broke off to make an exclamation.

Hard racing? The term was redefined - at least for MotoGP - in Japan today.

And Rossi, known for his impish smile, was lacking that as he dismounted. Talking to his team, quietly and forcefully, he made it plain that he did not approve of his team-mate trying to force him off the track. Then, after a moment's pause, he turned: the grin was back and he said aloud "that was fun."

It clearly wasn't. But Rossi had made his point.

Lorenzo may be the Champion in Waiting but Rossi is still the boss.

There's no rest for the teams: the bikes are already being packed for their short journey to Malaysia for the Malaysian GP next weekend, the short turn-around being forced by the postponement of the Japanese GP from April due to the cloud of volcanic ash that disrupted flights out of Europe earlier this year.

After today's event, Malaysian fans are bound to be waiting with great anticipation.

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Our choice of social venues for motor racing fans in central Kuala Lumpur:

Chinese restaurant: Marco Polo: real Hong Kong style Chinese food. Lunch and Dinner First Floor, Wisma Lim Foo Yong, Jalan Raja Chulan,

Bar and restaurant: Carmens: grills, fish, snacks and a one of KL's best wine lists plus bar and big screens. All day every day except Sunday. Ground Floor, Wisma Lim Foo Yong, Jalan Raja Chulan, KL

English pub/bar: Ceylon Bar: terrace, bar, English food including Sunday (all day Saturday and Sunday, weekdays, evenings only) Full English Breakfast with pork sausages and real bacon, big screens, 20-2 Jalan Changkat Bukit Bintang 50200 Kuala Lumpur

Japanese: Yoko's: modern Japanese food, excellent range of saki, Evenings. 36 Jalan Changkat Bukit Bintang 50200 Kuala Lumpur.