Congratulations to Dani Pedrosa and Honda who had an excellent weekend and were right on it from the moment they rolled out of the garage on Friday. Looking at the footage from the weekend I could see it wasn’t easy, the bike was bucking and weaving but Dani and his team managed to turn it into a race winner.

Lorenzo seemed to have the rhythm in the first part of the race then Dani started to come good at the end of the first stint and continued his good form after the restart. The kid was hot and really battled hard for the win and Lorenzo had to settle for 2nd place as he had no answer to the onslaught.

Nothing against Yamaha as they are doing an excellent job, but I am really happy to see a bike other than the Yamaha win again, purely from the perspective of an exciting championship – here’s hoping Honda can keep it up and challenge for regular wins.

With the point spread we have at the moment, you would almost think the championship is a done deal. But Lorenzo’s fireworks display during qualifying means he is onto his 4th engine halfway into the season. For Jorge, the next few races are critical – he needs to make sure he doesn’t bleed too many points to Pedrosa and at the same time hope he doesn’t suffer another engine problem as that could really hurt his championship standing. We will have to keep a close eye on the engine situation as it may be a big factor later in the season.

Rossi’s comeback probably went better than even he imagined. I’m sure he was thinking of finishing in around 4th place, but being just one corner away from a podium was a fantastic effort. The fact that Valentino came back and was so competitive is not only a testament to his skill and the work of the medical team that got him back in shape, but also shows what a well sorted motorcycle the Yamaha M1 is. What ticks me off is that had he not been injured then he would’ve been right up there and we would have had a sweet three-way battle for the lead!

One surprise was that Stoner seemed to wake up a bit once Rossi passed him, though it definitely wasn’t a case of Casey just being out on a gentle Sunday ride until then. I think he realized that he couldn’t live with the pace of Dani and Jorge and resigned himself to his own race and it wasn’t until Rossi snuck past him that he had something to fight for. Fortunately for us race fans; Casey was able to take it to Valentino in what was one of the most entertaining battles of the season thus far. I am sure it was quite sweet for Casey to get one over Rossi – injured or not - and with three podiums in a row, Casey’s confidence in the GP10 must be growing.

Now that Valentino is back, if he manages to finish ahead of Jorge in a few races and Dani strings some more wins together that will really turn the championship on it’s head – let’s not dwell on this too much right now but it’s definitely something for you fans to keep in mind as the season progresses!

As a final word on the Sachsenring I would like to say I am really feeling for both Randy De Puniet and Aleix Espargaro. I wish Randy De Puniet a speedy recovery and I hope that Aleix’s injury doesn’t turn out to be too serious and that he can take part at Laguna Seca.

Speaking of which, I am really fired up about the race at Laguna Seca this weekend – in the past it has hosted some great races and I think this year will be no exception. The previous victors at Laguna; Hayden, Stoner, Rossi and Pedrosa are obviously among the favorites this year, along with Lorenzo but throw in Dovizioso, the homecoming pair of Spies and Edwards and an ever improving Marco Simoncelli then the battle for the top five really starts to look interesting. Personally, I would like to see a Ducati victory at Laguna Seca (not because I ride the two seater!) because the more teams we have fighting for wins the more exciting it is for everyone involved, from the teams, to the riders and of course, the fans.

Finally, the reason I wasn’t at the Sachsenring was because I was in the UK where Dakota won the ACU Academy Cup race at Snetterton – setting the fastest lap along the way to finish 2nd overall in the BSB 125 race by just one tenth of a second! It was a great weekend and it goes to show that when I’m not there for a MotoGP race, you can be sure I’m getting my racing fix elsewhere!

So strap yourselves in for Laguna Seca and enjoy the show!

Randy