He also took a third win at a rain soaked German GP. However unlike the last two races he hadn’t led from start to finish. Pedrosa, a rider who isn’t normally comfortable in the wet stormed away with the lead. He was around 10 seconds ahead when he made an error on the pit straight going into turn 1 and fell in a very high speed crash. Stoner inherited the lead and took his third straight victory.

This series of races left the championship looking like this:

Rossi 187            Pedrosa 171   Stoner 167            Lorenzo 114

This crash for Pedrosa whilst leading comfortably has turned out to be a real turning point in his season. His injuries from his high-speed crash meant he couldn’t take part in the next race at Laguna Seca.

This left it to Rossi and Stoner to battle it out at the front. It was clear Stoner’s Ducati was fastest again as he took pole position. Rossi needed to get in front before turn one to have any chance of victory, which he duly did.

Laguna Seca is a hard track to pass at and try as he might Stoner could not find a way past Rossi who was making his Yamaha as wide as possible. This was turning into a classic duel which saw Rossi and Stoner running side by side into the corkscrew and kicking up dirt off the track at times. In fact Rossi nearly ended the race for both of them at one point! It was hard racing of the extreme nature. Stoner was definitely getting a little flustered and he fell at the last turn but was able to carry on. Rossi was long gone now but at least Stoner got second place.

Stoner wasn’t happy about Rossi’s hard racing tactics and this ended up in a war of words with Stoner ending up as the enemy. Rossi has psychologically beaten rivals in the past and there were signs of this here.

The next race (and the last race) was in Brno. Pedrosa was struggling on his Michelin tyres and Lorenzo was still lacking confidence meaning it was to be the sequel of the Rossi and Stoner duel. Stoner took pole and went off in the lead. However he wasn’t able to scamper into the distance and Rossi kept him in his sights and put the pressure on. Mid-race, Stoner pushed slightly too hard and fell off his bike allowing Rossi into the lead to take a comfortable victory.

Looking ahead at the rest of the championship

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