Before last year Rossi had just one podium to his name at Laguna since MotoGP returned there in 2005, but he produced one of the performances of his career in 2008 to win an important victory, which went on to prove one of the key turning points of his season. A race-long battle with Casey Stoner threw up some nail-biting moments between the pair but the Italian prevailed to take his first win on American soil. After two wins on the bounce he is heading stateside in flying form and will be hoping to extend his championship lead this weekend with another great result. Thursday sees the now traditional Laguna Seca Superkart race and Rossi this year will make a few display laps in a Superkart before Yamaha legends Wayne Rainey, Eddie Lawson and Kenny Roberts Senior take centre stage for the real thing.

Lorenzo was a Laguna Seca first-timer last year and a promising showing during practice came to nothing when he high-sided on the first lap. The 22-year-old went on to taste American success later in the season with a podium in Indianapolis and he is determined that he will get to grips with the tricky Laguna track this time around. The youngster has had a brilliant season to date and will undoubtedly be in the mix once again this weekend as he seeks to better his team-mate with a return to the top of the podium.

Laguna Seca is an all-American track where the intense dry heat, unpredictable asphalt and anti-clockwise layout reward the loose and aggressive riding style of the US dirt-trackers. The track boasts some of the most dramatic elevation changes on the world championship circuit as well as fast, sweeping corners, the most notorious of which is the world-famous ‘Corkscrew’. Machine set-up is relatively straightforward, with throttle connection a much more important factor than top-end power and a well balanced chassis the key to those elevation changes and diverse corners.

Valentino Rossi - “Back to normal!”
“The wonderful memory of the 100th win is still fresh, but now we have just a few days to recover before the next race, which is hard for everyone. We have to try to relax as much as possible and recharge the batteries a little, because Laguna is always a tough weekend and often very hot. Last year I had a great battle with Stoner and for me it was for sure one of the turning points of the championship and a very important win; I have some good memories. I think this year it will be hard again because Lorenzo is in brilliant form and I am sure Stoner will also be back to his best. Laguna is a great place to race and an exciting track, I also have a little trip to Los Angeles and Yamaha US first which I am looking forward to. The championship is very open at this point so we need to keep focus, get back to normal after Assen and try to get another good result this weekend.”

Jorge Lorenzo - “Looking forward to the challenge”
“Last year Laguna wasn’t good for me but I don’t think about this. It’s the only time I’ve been there but I don’t see that as a problem – until 2008 I’d never won in Portugal before and I won my first race there in MotoGP, and then again this year I won in Motegi where I’d never won before, so I don’t consider any track ‘bad’ for me – the past doesn’t matter. We are feeling very strong after the last races and everyone is very motivated to continue in the same way so I am looking forward to the challenge and learning more about the track. I will do my best and hopefully that will mean we can run at the front again.”

Davide Brivio - “Focus on the championship”
“We still have great memories from Laguna Seca in 2008 and we’re happy to be arriving there after two wins and leading the championship. It’s a great place to race and the American fans are always brilliant so we hope we can give them another good show! Our package is working well everywhere now so hopefully the case will be the same again this weekend. Now that the 100 target has been reached we can focus on the next target – the championship! Now we race for that.”

Daniele Romagnoli - “A consistent package”
“After the last great race in Assen this is a very short break for everyone but we have to move straight on to the US for the next round! The high motivation in our team continues after another strong performance from Jorge and we are looking forward to having the chance for another good result. This year our package is much more consistent and we know that we can put up another good fight, despite Jorge’s inexperience at Laguna. Everyone in the team enjoys going to Laguna – it’s a great place – so we’re looking forward to another exciting weekend.”

Valentino Rossi : Information
Age: 30
Lives: Tavullia, Italy
Bike: Yamaha
GP victories: 100 (79 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc)
First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc)
First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc)
GP starts: 217 (157 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc)
Pole positions: 53 (43 x MotoGP/500cc, 5 x 250cc, 5 x 125cc)
World Championships: 8 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 5 x MotoGP)

Jorge Lorenzo: Information
Age: 22
Lives: Barcelona, Spain
Bike: Yamaha
GP victories: 24 (3 x MotoGP, 17 x 250cc, 4 x 125cc)
First GP victory: Brazil, 2003 (125cc)
First GP: Jerez, Spain, 2002 (125cc)
GP starts: 118 (24 x MotoGP, 48 x 250cc, 46 x 125cc)
Pole positions: 33 (7 x MotoGP, 23 x 250cc, 3 x 125cc)
World Championships: 2 (250cc, 2006/7)

Laguna Seca: Record Lap
C. Stoner (Ducati) 2008, 1′21.488

Laguna Seca: Best Lap
C. Stoner (Ducati) 2008, 1′20.700

Grand Prix Results: Laguna Seca 2008
1. V. Rossi (Yamaha) 44′04.311
2. C.Stoner (Ducati) +13.001
3. C.Vermeulen (Suzuki) +26.609

. J. Lorenzo (Yamaha) NF

His team-mate Jorge Lorenzo finished a strong second and had a milestone of his own to celebrate as it was the fiftieth podium of his career. Like Rossi, The Mallorcan has now finished on the podium in all but one round this season. Yamaha Tech 3 riders Colin Edwards and James Toseland made it four Yamahas in the top six after finishing fourth and sixth respectively.

The eight-time World Champion got a strong start from pole and was second at the end of the first lap, passing Casey Stoner soon after to take a lead which he never relinquished. With his M1 and Bridgestone tyres working perfectly throughout, his race pace was even better than he had shown in practice and he gradually stretched his lead from Lorenzo in the latter stages of the race to seal his historic victory. The 30-year-old Italian and his fan-club joined forces on the slow-down lap to unroll a 25-metre banner which pictured every one of his 100 wins, spanning a career which began when he was 17 years old.

Lorenzo had a poor start and lost several positions in the early melee, leaving him to fight his way back to the front in the early laps. It took him until lap five to come through to second but by then Rossi had opened up a gap of nearly 1.5 seconds. The 22-year-old looked to be closing on his team-mate a little at mid race distance but in the latter stages he began to lose a bit of confidence in the front and was happy enough to settle for second and an important 20 points.

With Stoner finishing third today the championship standings remain tight at the top – Rossi leads on 131 points, Lorenzo is second on 126 and Stoner is hard on his heels with 122. The MotoGP paddock now heads directly to California and Laguna Seca for round eight in a week’s time.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 1st Time: 42′14.611
“This is a very emotional moment and for sure I will remember this 100th victory for the rest of my life. When I reached 70, 100 seemed a long way away but here I am and it has been great, great fun getting here. It is down to so many people, like Jeremy and my guys who have been with me for ten years and all of the team who always give 100% and always give me the best bike possible. Especially however I have to thank the friends who have been with me my whole life and my father Graziano, who won here in Assen 30 years ago when I was a baby, and my mother Stefania, because they have always supported me. It’s great to reach this moment here at Assen because it’s the ‘Cathedral’ of motorcycle racing and the most historic track we go to. Today was a perfect race – I got a great start and my bike was incredible which meant that my pace was very strong. In fact I think it was better for everyone’s hearts not to have another last-lap battle like in Barcelona! I had a good advantage from Lorenzo in some parts of the track and it was a great ride for me. Now I have 100 wins and I’m only the second rider to arrive at this number, but Agostini still has 22 more and for me he is still the greatest. 100 is a great result but the atmosphere in our team is wonderful and the motivation is still as high as ever – we want to win a few more races together yet!”

Herve Poncharal – Team Manager
“That was easily the best race of the season for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team and I’m delighted because everybody has put in a lot of hard work. Colin was very impressive again and again he is the best non-factory rider, which considering how tough the competition is now, that is a great achievement. I have to say massive congratulations to James. He’s not had an easy time but he was able to lead an incredible fight in a group that included some of the very best riders in this championship. It was not easy to lead that group like he did but he did an unbelievable job and he definitely deserved that top six. He is a fighter and he proved that today and it was great that we played a big part in Yamaha’s success today, with all four bikes in the top six. I’d also like to say a big thanks to Mr Nakajima from Yamaha. He made an extra special effort and given big support to James this weekend. Now we go to Colin’s home race and a huge race for Monster in very confident mood .”

After yesterday’s bright sunshine today was overcast and cooler but it stayed dry and both riders had a useful morning practice, with Lorenzo running out on top and Rossi fourth. This afternoon’s qualifying saw the usual continuation of set-up work throughout the early stages before Rossi moved into pole with ten minutes to go, with Lorenzo second. The pair swapped positions once more before the Italian set his pole-clinching lap of 1’36.025 to retake pole with four minutes to go. Lorenzo was up on his team-mate’s time on his final flying lap but he dropped a few tenths on the last sector and finished the session 0.368 seconds adrift.

Rossi’s other pole of 2009 came at Motegi, when grid positions were in fact decided on free practice after qualifying was rained off. The World Champion’s last ‘proper’ pole was therefore at Indianapolis last year, on his way to a famous inaugural victory at the American track. Lorenzo meanwhile has qualified on the front row for all seven rounds so far this season.

Tomorrow’s 26-lap race begins at 1400 local time but with rain forecast the weather could prove a factor in the day’s proceedings once again.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 1 Time: 1′35.025 Laps: 29
“This is a really good pole position because I’ve only had one other this season, at Motegi in strange conditions. I had a lot of traffic around me in the last few minutes so I had to be careful to judge exactly the right point to push, but I got it right and I was really happy with my great lap at the end. I feel good and I am very strong with the Bridgestone race tyres but it’s going to be a hard race because the others are also very fast. We still have two or three points on the track where we could improve our performance a bit more so we still have a bit of work to do, but I am confident that we can make another great race. Of course we don’t know about the weather, but this is normal for Assen and we will just have to manage!”

Following the excitement of the race in Barcelona there is an air of expectation surrounding the pair and they were indeed fast from the outset, remaining near or at the top of the standings throughout the hour-long session as they looked to refine their base set-ups around the 4.555km ‘Cathedral’. With temperatures in the mid-twenties conditions were perfect and both riders were happy with their progress through the opening practice, though Lorenzo lacked a little rear grip and will be looking to make an improvement in this area tomorrow morning in time for qualifying in the afternoon. Fastest man on track today was Randy de Puniet but Rossi was only 0.005 seconds off the Frenchman, with Lorenzo in turn just over two tenths off the front.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 2nd Time: 1′37.847 Laps: 27
“I’m happy about today’s practice because I was fast from the start and I could ride the bike how I want. This is very important because it means that the modifications we made in Barcelona are working here too, even though this is a different type of track. Now we have one or two small things to fix in order to improve our overall performance and lap time further. Anyway, we’re there, second by just a tiny bit and feeling good. It seems there is a doubt for the weather on Saturday which is a pity; of course I hope it’s dry but if it’s going to be a wet race then I hope we have the chance for one or two wet laps before the race in warm-up otherwise it will be quite hard.”

On Sunday night I decided to stay over at the circuit in my motorhome because we had an early start for the test but I went to bed very late. My good friend Ricky Cardús stayed with me and after going for a walk around the paddock, a few games of motocross on the computer and watching the race again in the Yamaha hospitality, before I knew it the time was 2am!

I don’t usually watch the races back and if I’m honest I only watched the last ten laps of this one. I’m not very good at watching myself because I am constantly picking up on the things I need to improve, so I don’t really enjoy it, but this time there wasn’t much I could improve on! I looked really smooth and precise out there – the only mistake I made was in the final corner, when I didn’t close the door tightly enough. I have seen the overtake from every camera angle and the best one is from above – you can see the distance between us and Rossi’s position perfectly. You can see how close to me he was out of the previous bend, which is when he began to prepare himself for the pass. I was also a little wide in the last three corners, which gave him the opportunity to get so close.

It is hard to find the motivation to get back on your bike for a test on the day after a race as intense as Sunday’s because there is nothing at stake but that is what I had to do on Monday. Basically I worked on improving my braking and trying to brake later than I did in the race because that is the area Rossi was able to make time up on me.

You could say that situation between Rossi and myself at the moment is a little bit like the battle at the start of the 1990s between Wayne Rainey and John Kocinski. I say that because of the age gap between us and for the fact that they were Yamaha team-mates. One of them had won a lot of titles and the other was new on the scene. In that respect our story is similar but with respect to Kocinski I just hope I can win more races and titles against Rossi than he did against Rainey!

Finishing second in Mugello was good as a win for me after an unbelievable race - it was like a movie! In the morning warm-up I was quite worried because I was slow in the rain, then on the sighting lap I slid off into the gravel pit. All I could think about was making it back to the pits as quickly as possible in case there was still a chance to make the grid and luckily I made it just in time. My team had the second bike ready and I was able to still start from the pole position. On the grid I tried not to think about the crash, I just tried to focus. But then I had a big slide off the line and the first part of the race wasn’t so good for me. My guys did a brilliant job getting the damaged bike ready for the change to slick tyres and after that everything changed. I had a great rhythm and I was able to stay on fighting to the end and take second place.

I have received hundreds of emails to my website congratulating me on my performance at Montmeló – many of them from FC Barcelona fans! It was an honour and a privilege to wear their colours on Sunday and a small payback for the enjoyment I got from watching them win the Champions League final in Rome before the Mugello race. I was there when they won the same trophy in Paris a few years ago but Rome was incredible. The feeling I had there was indescribable – I think you have to have seen your team in a big final to understand it.

I live in Barcelona and as you saw from the television on Sunday the weather here is fantastic at the moment. It means I can take advantage of any free time between training to catch some sun, although I like to be indoors too, playing the ‘Pro Evolution’ football game on my console with friends. I’m also really into ‘Gran Turismo’ at the moment and I’m trying to get my gold licence, which allows you to buy better cars. My best car at the moment is a 550bhp Ford GT and I love driving it around Laguna Seca! I am also involved in some charity work in the city and a few weeks before the race here I visited a hospital, to help open a specialist unit where children suffering with cancer are cared for. When you go to a place like this you realise that life is not always as fair as we want it to be. Some children suffer a lot with their health and to be able to give a little bit of time to them, to try and motivate them is a good thing for me to do. It also makes you realise, if you didn’t already know, that whilst winning is currently the most important thing about my job, it is not the most important thing in the world.

I hope some of those children were able to watch and enjoy my battle with Valentino on Sunday and I hope there will be many more like it, starting at Assen next Saturday!

Best regards

Jorge #99