Watching Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo scrapping for territory at Brno was like seeing two stags locking horns in the wild. Every practice session is an opportunity for one-upmanship between the two Yamaha riders at the moment and Valentino’s three pole positions in a row, having only previously scored two all season, is testament to that.

The battle between the two is forcing both of them to ride on the limit, as we saw from Valentino’s crash at the end of qualifying, the fact he registered the first pole record since the introduction of the single tyre rule, and the way they were both setting lap record after lap record in the race. There is an energy and intensity between them on the track that is typical of a battle for alpha male dominance. Mistakes happen when you are on the limit and they both made them in the Czech Republic – the only difference being that Rossi’s came in qualifying whilst unfortunately for Lorenzo his came in the race.

I am now being asked the question I have been asked on so many occasions at this stage of the season: has Valentino won the championship? The straight answer is that he could have broken his wrist in qualifying at Brno so nothing is ever certain in motorcycle racing. However, barring injury it looks done and dusted and let’s just say the bookies won’t be offering long odds.

You have to take your hat off to Yamaha, who were fast out of the box on Friday and demonstrated that from a technical point of view they certainly hadn’t taken their hand off the throttle during the short summer break. None of the other factories have been able to close the gap and it was a challenge for Dani to hang in there on the first Honda. Behind them, there was a great race between Toni Elias, Andrea Dovizioso and Loris Capirossi.

Toni made some remarks after the race about not having a ride for next year even though he scores podiums every season, whereas other riders have bikes for next year that don’t have podiums to their name. I think Toni might be overlooking a few results there! Things seem to click into place at certain times for him but for one reason or another he hasn’t been consistent enough. If he wants to know why he is out of a ride he only has to look at somebody like Randy De Puniet, who has been racking up points since the first race of the season on a satellite bike. Teams are looking at the overall picture – not just a couple of standout performances. I have heard there is a Moto2 offer on the table for Toni and whilst I understand he doesn’t want to take a step down it actually might not be such a bad thing. He’s a little guy with experience of the tracks and he’d be a really strong title contender, which could be the way to put himself back in contention for a top MotoGP ride in 2011.

It is important the sport keeps bringing people through and Marco Simoncelli, Héctor Barberá and Álvaro Bautista are all moving up to MotoGP next year. Some people may argue they don’t have the quality of the guys they are replacing but I wouldn’t necessarily agree. They are young, fresh, fast, extremely popular in their home countries and deserve their chance.

Probably the biggest surprise was Bautista signing for Suzuki, which was the only factory team he could have gone to as a rookie. I’m sure Bautista was offered the satellite Ducati with the Aspar team and it’s a tough call to say which is the better option, but I would probably lean in the direction of Suzuki. The bike may not be up to winning races just yet but they are an established team, he will have a hugely experienced team-mate and with a two-year contract in place it is a good place to begin his MotoGP education.

It also works for Suzuki to have fresh impetus and a fresh approach. As a factory they have been struggling in recent years but Loris Capirossi showed at Brno that there is plenty of promise in the bike, especially with the new engine. There is still plenty of life in Loris too and it seems it will be Chris Vermeulen, not Loris, who will be making way for Bautista. We’ve not seen the real Chris for a while – he has been nursing injuries, which hasn’t done him any favours, but at the end of the day he hasn’t done himself justice this season. There is no doubt he has talent because he won a race and scored podiums for Suzuki but perhaps their relationship has gone a bit stale.

Next up is Indianapolis and by the time we get there we may well have news of the biggest rider transfer shock since Valentino Rossi moved from Honda to Yamaha. I’m talking about Jorge Lorenzo signing for Ducati and by the time you read this it may have already been announced. My sources in Spain are telling me it will be made official before we head to America and the knock on effects could be huge. Nicky Hayden would be the obvious candidate to replace him at Yamaha but don’t rule out Dani Pedrosa or Andrea Dovizioso, who have not signed deals with HRC despite the bullish claims of their new president at Brno.

Personally I can’t wait to get out to Indy, which will have an extra edge to it this time around – as if it were needed! The first year there for MotoGP was as well organised as you would expect and it was a proud moment for our sport to be able to compete there, despite the weather! 90,000 people braved Hurricane Icke last year so hopefully with better weather this year there will be even more.

I’m actually going to be heading a parade of about 60 bikes through downtown Indianapolis next Thursday at 10am. I’ll be riding the MotoX2 Ducati Desmosedici (hopefully with the Mayor of Indianapolis as my passenger!) so if you can make it come down and say hello!

Randy