Yamaha teammates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo have no doubts about who is their biggest challenger to the Moto GP Championship in 2010 – each other.

In qualifying for the Catalunya race Rossi held the top spot for most of the latter part of the session and no other rider seemed to be able to come close, that is until his teammate and no doubt thorn in his side, Lorenzo, pipped him to the pole position in the final minutes, leaving Rossi behind on time by only 0.013, how close?

Casey Stoner never really looked on form but did still manage to take the third place on the grid but was a reasonable gap behind the two Yamahas at 0.452 behind Rossi.

A still recovering Dani Pedrosa crashed in qualifying onto his already sore hip and no doubt fans wondered if he would be well enough to race.

However, all eyes were on Rossi and Lorenzo and we were not disappointed. Lorenzo led from pole position for the first part of the race and soon Lorenzo, Rossi and Stoner were firmly entrenched into the first three positions, riding so closely that we could almost not bare to watch, with neither Rossi nor Stoner able to improve their positions.

Rossi did manage to take the lead and the two Fiat Yamahas gapped Stoner with the fans being treated to some extremely close riding from the pair. In the second half of the race Lorenzo got back past Rossi but could not gap him and in the last couple of laps the pair delighted the crowd with their epic battle as the lead position changed several times as both riders put brave overtaking moves on the other.

The win looked to be Lorenzos as he led Rossi into the penultimate corner but in an astonishing move on the last corner, with Lorenzo surprisingly not blocking the line, Rossi got passed him and won by less than one-tenth of a second.

There is a youtube video of the last lap below (with German commentary) and as someone has put in the comment on the youtube website: “Who cares about F1? when we have MotoGP”, couldn’t agree more…enjoy.

The extremely hot temperatures had an effect on the riders and all looked physically exhausted after the race. Casey Stoner managed to take third in front of Andrea Dovizioso by just a 0.052s gap, but said afterwards he was disappointed with the position because the bike was running great. However the Ducati rider had been ill since Saturday afternoon and looked close to collapse.

These finishing positions mean that Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner all have the same amount of championship points at the top of the leaderboard. So we can expect more exciting battles to come.

Rossi was clearly delighted with his 99th career win and congratulated Lorenzo on an excellent race to which Lorenzo replied “wait until the next race”, which incidentally is at Assen one of Lorenzo’s favourite circuits, so indeed we cannot wait.

Elsewhere in the race, Pedrosa did compete and rode an excellent race firstly holding off teammate Dovizioso before he eventually got past and then having a long battle with Loris Capirossi who eventually got the better of him, Pedrosa eventually finishing 6th.

Colin Edwards finished 7th a good result for him and his fellow countryman Nicky Hayden had his best result on the Ducati so far finishing tenth. There has reportedly been a lot of work being done on the Ducati to make it rideable for Hayden and if this result is anything to go by then it seems to be working.

Brit James Toseland who qualified well in 9th position had a terrible start and eventually finished 13th.

Finally, there was also drama in the 125 race. After a race long battle between Julian Simon and Andrea Iannone, with one lap to go Simon mistakenly thought the race was over and started celebrating as his team frantically pointed to his pit board which clearly showed there was one lap to go – oops! – Simon did manage to re-group and fought from the last corner to the line but eventually took 4th. It seems Simon got over excited in front of his home crowd.

Moto GP Final results:

Pos. Rider Nation Team Total time
1 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 43’11.897
2 J. LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.095
3 C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team + 8.884
4 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team + 8.936
5 L. CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 19.831
6 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team + 22.182
7 C. EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 23.547
8 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 25.265
9 M. KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing + 31.797
10 N. HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team + 33.593
11 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 36.683
12 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 36.874
13 J. TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 39.433
14 M. MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team + 44.788
15 S. GIBERNAU SPA Grupo Francisco Hernando + 46.754
16 N. CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing + 55.873
17 G. TALMACSI HUN Scot Racing Team MotoGP + 1’27.640

Moto GP Championship standings:

Pos. Rider Nation Team Points
1 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 106
2 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team 106
3 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 106
4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team 69
5 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team 67
6 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 54
7 Marco MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team 50
8 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 49
9 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 42
10 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 42
11 James TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 29
12 Mika KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing 26
13 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini 25
14 Toni ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini 23
15 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team 19
16 Niccolo CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing 10
17 Sete GIBERNAU SPA Grupo Francisco Hernando 9
18 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN Scot Racing Team MotoGP 8