In my last column I said that the championship is all but over and the reality is that with a 30-point gap and just four races to go the odds are still stacked against Jorge Lorenzo. However, we saw at Indianapolis that Valentino Rossi is human and as a racer, or even an ex-racer, that is always a relief!

Valentino stood himself up as the Donkey after his crash in America but it was a case of cat and mouse again at Misano, with the Italian giving the Spaniard the runaround in his backyard. Rossi bounced back from his disappointment at Indy to dominate every session in Italy and far from showing any signs of pressure or stress he did it all with a smile on his face. That is a sign of the true champion that he is. There was no need for burnouts or crazy celebrations because he made his point on the track and after all the politics of Lorenzo signing his new contract, with reports coming from some areas that Valentino is not happy with certain conditions of the deal, the current World Champion reaffirmed himself as the top dog at Yamaha and in the championship.

However, even though he does a good job of hiding it there is pressure on Rossi and it is going to stay on because every single session is a fight between him and Lorenzo. There will be no relenting until the end of the season in what has become a tit for tat battle: ‘anything you can do I can do better’. Right up to the final lap of qualifying they were trying to squeeze the last drop of juice out of a lemon that had dried up a long time ago and it was further proof that Valentino cannot and will not give up and take second place at any time. He has said himself it that his approach can occasionally cause him to crash but it also is crucial to the amount of races and titles he’s won.

The rider line-up for next season has become somewhat clearer over the last couple of races but instead of talking about the riders who are set to come in, I’d like to focus on the guys who could be heading for the exit door. Potentially I am talking about James Toseland and Chris Vermeulen – two hugely talented riders, World Champions in their own right, who we should not be saying goodbye to at this stage. Lots of people like to take a pop at the guys who aren’t scoring the top results and I’d like to remind those people of how close this sport is and how finely balanced things are. For example, take a look at the lap times from Misano, where Toseland and Vermeulen were basically running the same pace as Andrea Dovizioso and Loris Capirossi.

Pick out any lap at random; I’ve taken lap 17, and these are the lap times: Dovizioso 1’36.3, Capirossi 1’36.4, Elias 1’36.2, Kallio 1’35.8, Melandri 1’36.1, Vermeulen 1’36.2, Toseland 1’36.2 and Espargaró 1’36.4.

Everybody is incredibly close and that makes it extremely difficult to pass and make progress through the order. What you saw on television when Lorenzo was stuck behind Pedrosa for several laps, unable to get past even though he clearly had the edge, is happening all the way down the order. Even though he had a similar pace to Dovizioso, Toseland finished fully twelve seconds behind him - seven seconds behind Kallio! The front three are in a different league at the moment but behind them anything can happen and that fourth place, which suddenly becomes a podium if one of the front three falls off like at Brno and Indy, is wide open.

For this very reason qualifying well is becoming more and more important but unfortunately some riders aren’t able to get as much out of the softer tyres as others. A classic example is Alex de Angelis, who showed excellent race pace in practice, couldn’t improve on the softer rubber and then made a desperate start from seventh on the grid, taking Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards out with an ill-advised lunge in the second turn. That was a real shame by the way because those three guys all had good pace and could have been slinging mud at each other for the whole race. As it was they ended up slinging gravel!

My point is that guys like Vermeulen and Toseland deserve a place in MotoGP, as does Toni Elias, as does De Angelis. All of them are huge personalities, they are great for the markets that are important to the global appeal of MotoGP and most importantly they are top riders. Of course, fresh blood always stimulates and I have championed the rise of 250 riders in the past but in this case I don’t think the likes of Álvaro Bautista, Marco Simoncelli or Hector Barberá are going to be any better than the guys we look set to lose.

The ideal scenario is for them to come up and join those guys! The most important question right now is why aren’t there enough motorcycles for them all? Unfortunately MotoGP involves astronomical costs and if the manufacturers want to win the title they have to put their resources into the factory team and everything else has to follow. At least steps are being taken to address this matter for the future.

As for Ben Spies, I would like him to come, you would like to think he wants to come and you would have to think Dorna want him to come too - we know Yamaha do! I know Speed TV in America have started to show same-day broadcasts of his races, which is a sign of his popularity over there, and having been as dominant as he has in WSB, this is the natural step. You read different things in different places but the Yamaha press release leaves any possibility open. As far as I know, the agreement is that if he becomes World Champion he’s most likely to come to MotoGP.

Of course, there are still 150 points up for grabs in that series and nothing is secure but his momentum is going to be hard to break. As I said before I’d like to see Toseland and Vermeulen stay but I would also like to see room in the paddock made for Spies to join them, not replace them.

Last but not least, Casey Stoner get your butt back here - we need some more colour at the front of these races!

Randy