Seven other men in the MotoGP field had won at this circuit in GP racing, but only Loris Capirossi had done so more than once - with two successes. Last year Casey Stoner had won, with Rossi only third. But almost the unthinkable happened this year, and Valentino was going to miss the race. In fact, it was worse than that. In Saturday practice, at the left-right Biondetti ‘S’ towards the end of the lap, running on cold tyres Rossi suffered a highside crash. There was an injury to his right ankle, and the shin bone was broken. The world champion was going to be out for maybe a couple of months.

Rossi had crashed before, of course, but with a leg injury this was going to be the first Grand Prix he would miss - the first of a few in a row. Although in second place in the championship, the Italian was surely going to drop out of contention now. On the face of it, with a bigger lead over the leading Honda and Ducati riders, Lorenzo is now on target for the MotoGP title, if he keeps up the consistent podium finishes. But of course anything can happen, and time will tell. By race time on Sunday Rossi had already had a successful operation on his leg.

Rossi has always been the big draw for the Italians, but there were still four of their countrymen taking part in qualifying. However, it came down to the two leading Spaniards in the rush to be quickest, and pole position went to Repsol Honda team leader Dani Pedrosa, his second of the season. Lorenzo was second, followed by the two Marlboro Ducati riders, Stoner and then Nicky Hayden. All three of the American riders qualified better here than in the season to date, with Hayden’s fourth and the two Tech 3 Yamaha men also well up - Colin Edwards fifth and Ben Spies seventh.

Matching his last two performances, LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet was sixth. The second works Honda was only in eighth, with Repsol man Andrea Dovizioso the first of the Italians. Rounding off the third row of the grid for the first time was Aleix Espargaró, for Pramac Ducati with their modified livery. Tenth was Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda), from Marco Simoncelli, in an improved eleventh for Gresini Honda. Then it was Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and Héctor Barberá (Aspar Ducati), also a best yet. Marco Melandri (Gresini), and the injury affected pair Mika Kallio (Pramac) and Álvaro Bautista (Rizla) completed the 16-man grid.

There were hot conditions for the race, and most competitors opted for the hard compound Bridgestone tyres. A few went for the medium rear, including the two works Ducati riders. Dovizioso seemed to have the best start, emerging in fourth, behind the first three riders on the grid. Pedrosa led from Lorenzo and Stoner, but quickly enough the Australian was shuffled back behind Dovizioso and Spies, and was then heading Espargaró, Hayden and Simoncelli. When Nicky went past Aleix, Marco made contact with one of the Ducatis and had a trip into the gravel, to emerge in last place.

Going into lap two, third man Dovizioso used the slipstream from Lorenzo. Taking the inside line for the long run along the Rettilineo main straight to the right-handed San Donato corner, he got into a bit of a wobble and didn’t quite draw ahead. Jorge held second behind Pedrosa. The leaders remained close, from Spies and Stoner, and then Hayden and Melandri. Nicky kept his place even when he went deep into San Donato. Andrea tried again in the same way on the Yamaha ahead, with the same result, but further back Edwards was dropping through the pack.

Spies was going better than his experienced team-mate, but the 25-year-old did now lose out to the two works Ducatis, Stoner and Hayden. This left him in front of two customer Honda men, Melandri and de Puniet. Marco also moved ahead, so that the Italian was already in sixth from his start in P14. But the fastest man was on a works-spec RC212V, as leader Pedrosa began to draw away without apparent difficulty, taking the lap record a couple of times. He took his advantage to three and then four seconds.

Honda looked even better off when Dovizioso moved up to second, this time going to the outside of Lorenzo over the start-finish line, then braking later to be first into San Donato. Fourth man Stoner was losing touch, and behind him team-mate Hayden was under attack from Melandri. Marco was already through into fifth when Nicky ended his run of fourth place finishes as he suffered a lowside crash at the long Correntaio right-hand bend. This came after Lorenzo regained second from Dovizioso, braking on the inside at San Donato.

Pedrosa was out of range and heading for a lead of over seven seconds, which he would then allow to reduce as he eased off in the last five laps. But Lorenzo and Dovizioso continued to race round in pretty close proximity, until Andrea found he could not stay with the Yamaha man in the late stages. The Italian made the podium in his home race, but the two Spaniards beat him to the flag. A lengthy battle for fourth place had developed behind these championship contenders.

Melandri had closed down the gap to Stoner, and when he made an outside pass to go fourth, de Puniet was already close behind the pair of them. Spies managed to be reasonably in touch, as well, but not quite on the back of the French rider. Casey regained his place with a move on the inside at Savelli, a downhill left curve immediately after the Casanova right-hander. This allowed a tussle between the two Honda riders behind the Australian.

The two sweeping Arrabbiata right-handers follow on from Savelli, and the second of these saw de Puniet go through on the inside, only for Melandri to get it back when Randy also ran wide at the exit. Past half-distance, Stoner went wide and deep at San Donato, allowing both de Puniet and Melandri through on the normal line. Randy took a turn going wide at the same place, where there is a lot of deceleration force needed, especially when defending, but he recovered fifth from Casey in the next left-right combination of Luco and Poggio Secco.

This meant that Melandri was now fourth, from de Puniet, Stoner and the trailing Spies. The next move in the continuing contest saw Randy overtake Marco on the inside at right-handed Scarperia, after Arrabbiata 2. But the order was reversed again along the Rettilineo straight. Towards the end, de Puniet passed Melandri again at Luco, but out of the long left loop of Bucine, into the main straight to start the final lap, the 29-year-old got into a wobble so that Marco and Casey both powered ahead.

Stoner was able to pass Melandri on the inside for Savelli, but the Honda rider came back inside for Arrabbiata 1 - only this time he went a bit wide and Casey got the place. Stoner was fourth home, then Melandri and de Puniet, with Spies slightly more distant at the end but still holding seventh. Eighth had been held by Capirossi until he dropped places, with Edwards the first to pass him to take over. But Colin managed to lose a number of places at half-distance, and now Espargaró headed Aoyama, Capirossi, Simoncelli and Barberá.

Like Pedrosa, Stoner and Melandri ahead of him, Espargaró took the flag for his best result of the season to date, and he was eighth. Simoncelli did the same thing in recovering to take ninth, from Capirossi, Aoyama, Barberá, Edwards and Bautista. Kallio did not finish - like Hayden his outing ended in a lowside crash.

Dani Pedrosa was convincing in victory, as was his Honda for the first race this year not won by Yamaha. Honda has won a least a couple of GP races in the top class in every season from 1982, and their winning record now continues into 2010. In the process, Dani advanced his number of points scored in the MotoGP class to a total beyond 1000 - he reached 1005. Casey Stoner did the same in moving onto 1010. Dani also went past Rossi into second overall, marginally closing down the advantage held by Jorge Lorenzo. Five more wins for Pedrosa, with Lorenzo second, would be enough to close the gap - with only four races down, the championship is still wide open.

In Valentino Rossi’s absence from this race, there were already rumours about who might substitute for him while he is out. The theory was that former Yamaha works rider Colin Edwards would fit the bill. He has current experience of the M1, and is also likely to be approved by his ex-team-mate Rossi. If he does get selected there will be a short term gap to fill in the Tech 3 team, but either way somebody different will have a MotoGP chance while the Italian’s leg is mending. We will see what happens.

Standings after four races: Lorenzo 90; Pedrosa 65; Rossi 61; Dovizioso 58; Hayden 39; de Puniet 36; Melandri 32; Stoner 24; Simoncelli 23; Spies 20; Edwards and Barberá 19.
Yamaha 75; Honda 52; Ducati 39; Suzuki 13.

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