Champion Rossi leads Valencia charge

From motogp.com

Valentino Rossi may have sealed the 2009 MotoGP World Championship at Sepang, but there are still scores to be settled involving Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, and a host of other riders in the final round of the season at Valencia this weekend.

A ninth world title was wrapped up by Rossi in Malaysia, leaving the remainder of the MotoGP class to decide the final standings beyond first place for the 2009 season at the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana.

Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo pushed him the closest for the title this year, and now the 22 year-old looks primed to secure second spot in his second season in the premier class. With a 25-point margin between him and Stoner in third, it would take a non-point scoring finish from the Spaniard and a race win for the Ducati Marlboro man to dislodge Lorenzo from the runner-up position.

Far likelier for Stoner, who comes into round 17 in a rich vein of form having won his last two races at Sepang and Phillip Island, is third place to round off a season interrupted by illness. Speculation will linger as to how the final standings could have looked had the 2007 World Champion not missed Brno, Indianapolis and Misano due to fatigue, but the focus is now on preventing Pedrosa from regaining third place. With victory last year and second the season before, the 24 year-old Australian has a strong pedigree at Valencia.

Repsol Honda’s Pedrosa is 11 points adrift in fourth, and needs a strong showing at a track where he won in 2007 and finished second at last time out.

The competition for fifth place is still very much alive, with just six points the difference between Andrea Dovizioso and Colin Edwards. The Italian’s crash at Sepang was not largely capitalized on by Edwards, whose 13th-placed classification means that the fight for fifth will now go down to the wire at Valencia.

Seventh place, meanwhile, is still to be decided upon between no less than six likely candidates. Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing), Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), Alex de Angelis and Toni Elías (both San Carlo Honda Gresini), Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) and Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) are all separated by just seven points from positions seven to 12.

All have top-10 finishes at Valencia within the past two seasons, with Melandri’s fourth in 2007 the most notable recent result from the pack.

Nicky Hayden, at a further eight points adrift of De Puniet, has an outside chance of challenging for seventh if he manages his second podium of the year and other results go his way.

Also riding at Valencia will be American star Ben Spies, who will take to the track as a wildcard for Yamaha in preparation for his first full MotoGP season with Monster Yamaha Tech 3 in 2010.

After prevailing in his epic battle with Marco Simoncelli at Sepang, Hiroshi Aoyama is within touching distance of being named the 2009 250cc World Champion in the final race of the season at Valencia.

Simoncelli had narrowed the gap at the top of the standings to just 12 points prior to Malaysia, but an enthralling ‘head-to-head’ was won by Aoyama who now heads to Spain with a 21-point cushion.

Should Simoncelli win his seventh race of the campaign at Valencia – thus surpassing his total from 2008 when he won the title – Aoyama would need to finish no lower than 11th to still take the crown.

Bancaja Aspar team-mates Julián Simón and Bradley Smith have already secured first and second places respectively in the 125cc World Championship, but the duo will still look to put on strong showings at Valencia in the final race of the season.

Clinching the title at Phillip Island did not stop Simón from producing another fine display at Sepang last time out, as he took his sixth race victory of the season, and the Spaniard will hope to improve on a best previous result of sixth at Valencia in the 250cc class in 2007.

A win at the final round would make Simón the first rider to take three successive victories in the 125cc class since Alvaro Bautista in 2006.