The Doctor is in

Fantastic race weekend.

MotoGP was a hoot.

Valentino Rossi has been in good form but not perfectly so. He is currently at the top of the rider’s standings in MotoGP with 142 points after consecutive wins in Shanghai Le Mans, Mugello and coming in 2nd today at Catalunya. Dani Perdrosa won that one by a mile but the real story was the tussle between Rossi and Stoner for 2nd place. The riders went at it tooth & nail around turn 1 and the chicane switching positions over four times in the course of the race.

For Pedrosa, it was his second win this season after grabbing pole on Portugal’s podium (Estoril) earlier this year.  Today’s performance was emphatic, Pedrosa had built a massive 6 second lead on  Rossi and Stoner but throttled down when he knew he had it in the bag to win by 2 seconds over Rossi.

Today’s win puts him only 7 points behind Rossi as we go to  Donington Park in the British isles on 22nd June.

It wasn’t all bikes and boys though,as these things go there was plenty of eye candy to keep things on an even keel. Enjoy.

F1

Thing’s were a little more dramatic on the formula 1 circuit in Canada. Lewis Hamilton knocked both  himself and Kimi Raikonnen out of the race when he ran into the rear of Raikonnen’s Ferrari which had stopped for a red light at the pit-lane exit.

Nico Rosberg also damaged his front wing when he cosequently ran into Hamilton’s car. The two drivers are faced with a 10 place grid penalty in the next round.

It was a disappointing race for Hamilton in Montreal where he had his maiden win last year and it left many of the fans who had turned out to see him crushed. However, the casualty count at the circuit stood at  35% with 7 out of the 20 drivers registering DNF.

Both Renaults both did not finish with Alonso spinning out of the race and Nelson Piquet retiring with brake failure. Force India’s Adrian Sutil retired in the 12th lap with a broken gearbox as did his teamate Giancarlo Fisichella who spun out of the race, Kazuki Nakajima nudged his Williams into the rear of Jenson Button’s Honda and with a dislodged front wing sticking under his car, crashed into the pit-lane wall.

Hamilton and Raikonnen were the other two drivers who failed to finish. Hamilton had managed to open up a 6 second lead in the early stages of the race but lost it all when the safety car wa deployed following Sutil’s retirement in lap 17. It was after the drivers’ pitted in lap 19 that the crash between Hamilton and Raikonnen occurred.

Robert Kubica led Nick Heidfeld for a BMW one-two and his maiden win to put him at the top of the driver standings, 4 points clear of Hamilton. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa drove faboulously despite a poor start as he overtook both Rubens Barrichello and Hekki Kovalinen at the hairpin turn in what was a fantastic maneouvre  by the Brazilian. He came in 5th to put him at an even 38 points with Hamilton.

See you in magny-Cours, France on the 22nd of June.

Audiophile: The Killers – Read my mind
Off my shelf: Batman; Year one – Frank Miller, Lynn varley
Midday Matinee: The Hill  (1965)
Starring: Sean Connery, Michael Redgrave, Ian Hendry and Harry Andrews
Directed by: Sidney Lumet