Valentino Rossi finished third behind Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa at a rain-soaked Sepang to take the 2009 MotoGP World Championship title. Despite finishing today's premier class of the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix in third position, Valentino Rossi of the Fiat Yamaha Team managed to seal the world championship.
In the rain halted race at the Sepang Circuit here, Rossi clocked 47 minutes 44.219 seconds, 19.385s behind Casey Stoner of Ducati Marlboro Team, who clinched the Malaysian Grand Prix title.
Rossi noted that he was delighted to seal the championship title with one race left this season. The final round of the 2009 season will be held in Valencia, Spain on Nov 8.
"With one round to go, I have clinched the world title. I thank all the people who helped me achieve this. We did some great fighting here.
"Unfortunately it was bad weather. I was not good at the first lap especially the first turn. Everybody had the same rhythm and the situation was very tricky.
"I had to make sure that I did not make any mistake. I had to understand the track conditions very quickly. Usually, during the test in wet conditions, we need about an hour to tackle the situation," said the 30-year-old Italian in the post-race press conference.
With 286 points after Sunday's race, Rossi sealed his seventh MotoGP World Championship title.
Casey Stoner was the race victor at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix on Sunday, but it was Valentino Rossi whose achievement of third place laid the foundation for the story of the weekend.
Stoner’s second successive win was impressive enough, as was his astounding 14.666s margin of victory, but it was the Italian’s result that secured his ninth world title – a seventh in the premier class – as he defended his 2008 crown, with Dani Pedrosa finishing second with his 78th career podium across all classes.
"It is another strange race. We had a lot of testing in the wet here and it was very helpful. After the first lap, I start feeling comfortable with the track condition. The wet track dried up very quickly and I just kept going.
"I did not expect to pull off such a gap. I am happy with the pace. I am looking forward to the race in Valencia," said Stoner.
The race started on a wet track after a 35-minute delay due to rain, and there was drama from the off. A problem during the sighting lap with his machine for Jorge Lorenzo meant that failure to join the starting grid in time resulted in relegation from second to the back.
It made little difference to the Spaniard however as he flew up to overtake Rossi, who dropped to tenth after a sluggish start from pole position. Lorenzo eventually finished in fourth position.
Randy de Puniet had a very early nasty high-side which fortunately resulted in no injury for the Frenchman, as Stoner established a four-second lead at the front over Pedrosa after just two laps.
Nicky Hayden was dogged in his attempt to hold off Lorenzo in fifth place, but the Fiat Yamaha rider managed to pass the Ducati Marlboro man before Rossi passed both to move into fourth spot after eight laps.
Shortly after, Stoner’s lead at the front had grown to a huge 15 seconds, but there was no such deficit between Pedrosa in third and his Repsol Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, who diced for second spot. Disaster struck for the Italian however, as on lap 14 he succumbed to the wet conditions and slid off, allowing Rossi to move up to third and target Pedrosa.
The Spaniard was out of Rossi’s grasp for the remainder however, but third was one place higher than he required to take the title (had Lorenzo won the race), and a characteristically flamboyant celebration followed involving a chicken dressed in the Italian’s blue and yellow colours.
Elsewhere, Aleix Espargaró impressed with an eleventh-placed finish in his third MotoGP race of the campaign for Pramac, while Monster Yamaha Tech 3 pair Colin Edwards and James Toseland both struggled, finishing in 13th and 15th respectively.
After Lorenzo took fourth spot he duly handed hearty congratulations to Rossi, with Hayden equalling his second-best result of the season in fifth. Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki), Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini), Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing), Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) completed the top ten.
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