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With his second place finish yesterday in Malaysia, Valentino Rossi secured his 7th World GP Championship. The Ducatis of Loris Capirossi and Carlos Checa took the other two podium positions with a win and third place finish respectively. This was Capirossi’s and Ducati’s second win in a row. Looks like the ’stones are coming good!

Vale needed only a 4th place finish to secure the championship but in typical world class racer mode he attempted to fight for the win. After a valiant (maybe a pun intended) effort a few laps from the end, he appeared to have something for Loris, but in the end, his fellow Italian was able to pull away. American Nicky Hayden seemed to have third place sewed up after some serious bumping and grinding with Sete Gibernau and Marco Melandri but Checa came storming through from a bad start on the bike/tire combination to have at this race, to take the final podium position in the last laps.

Other’s worth mentioning: the Suzukis of Kenny Roberts and John Hopkins showed better than average with 6th and 9th place finishes. They started on or near the front row but as usual couldn’t maintain the pace for the entire race distance. Max Biaggi was predictably mediocre after a second place finish at Motegi and never really threatened Rossi’s Championship hopes. Shina Nakano put the Kawasaki almost at the front in the opening laps and looked to have the pace before he and Gibernau manged to tangle and take each other out. And, in keeping with his present string of bad luck Sete couldn’t manage to finish the race. I was personally most disappointed with Colin Edwards for not being anywhere near the front after a nice mid-season showing.

Valentino’s 7 Championships include one on the 125s, 1 on the 250s and now 5 in the premier class, the first being on the 500cc two-strokes and the last 4 on four strokes (2 with Honda, now 2 with Yamaha).

Ducati needs to pay this guy whatever he asks and help him be the first racer in history to win the premier class on 3 different makes!