This has been one of the longest winters I can remember, with so little MotoGP testing time, but it has been an enjoyable one for me because I have had time to try lots of different things and when we have tested the 2010 Yamaha YZR-M1 the results have been excellent.

I’ll start off by telling you about some of the car racing I have done, which kicked off back in November following the 2009 season finale in Valencia. I participated in the 19th edition of the 6 Hours of Vallelunga in a GT3 team with Andrea Ceccato and my old friend Alessio ‘Uccio’ Salucci in a Ferrari 430 prepared by the Kessel Team. Unfortunately my first stint in the car was spoiled by fog, which meant that I had to drive behind the safety car, and then we had a few mechanical issues and an outbreak of fire in the closing stages, which prevented us from challenging for victory.

I was scared a little by the fire, but the safety guys were very quick to react. It’s tough, because we came close to victory. There wasn’t a battle at the start because of the safety car, but we all had fun because we ran well and had many fans there – 10,000 of them in total! Eventually we finished third. If there is an opportunity to return next year, I’d be happy to, because when you are at the front only 40 minutes from the end it leaves a bit of a bitter taste.

In the last weekend of November I competed in the Rally de Monza and finished second. Driving a Ford Focus WRC, I took four out of nine stage wins, but two errors on special stages 4 and 5 meant that I missed out to Dindo Capello, who was driving a Citröen C4. I also took part in the Master’s Show, a competition involving all the participants of the rally in an elimination-round special stage. Despite having the best overall time, I only reached the semi-finals and lost again to Capello, having beaten my friend and new MotoGP rival Marco Simoncelli in the quarter final round.

Anyway, I finished the rally by winning the last super special “Grand Prix” test in the rain so it ended in a good way! In recent years the level of the Rally de Monza has risen a lot and in order to win it is not enough just to be fast, it is also necessary to make very few mistakes. I ended my motorsport year with one more appearance before Christmas at the “Bettega Memorial”, a rally show that is celebrated each year as part of the Bologna Motorshow.

However, I was only away from the steering wheel for a few weeks because at the end of January I went to Barcelona for two days of tests with the Ferrari F1 team. Both days started out wet, which made things complicated at the start, but I was able to put more than 600 kilometres on the clock of the F2008, provided by Maranello’s F1 Clienti department, and set a best lap time of 1.21.900 on the penultimate lap – almost over the time limit the team was allowed to use the track! We kept the last three quarters of an hour to try a ‘time attack’ with little petrol and fresh tyres and I was delighted with my speed. Before the test I would have given anything for such a lap time. I had much more fun compared to my last experience with the Ferrari at Mugello in November 2008, mainly because the track is a little bit easier. It’s more effort in Mugello, but Montmeló is really wonderful, with motorbikes and cars, although I have to say that turn 10 is a little tight (the one with the spins) and you’re braking much later.

I have some new rivals this year, such as my new factory colleague Ben Spies and my good friend Marco Simoncelli. Unfortunately I think that Simoncelli is in a bad condition at the moment because he is off the pace and he’s already had two big crashes and in both he hit his head on the asphalt. For me he has good potential and it is possible he will become one of the protagonists of MotoGP but first of all he has to understand why he goes slow and crashes. This year will be very tough but the good thing for us is that we are also in good shape so it will be another good fight. I am still motivated more than ever. I always try to be at the top of my game, improving and trying to adapt to the new bike. I am experienced and I know that you always need to adapt yourself to new machines, to new regulations. If you ever think you are at the top of your performance, then you have a big problem! Every season has its own story, it is more and more difficult and you always have to be faster. This is my passion and I have had a great career with a lot of good results. The way to race for me is to try and win. When I understand that will not be possible, it will be ciao to MotoGP forever!

It is not yet that time, though, so in the meantime it is just ciao for now! See you on the grid in Qatar.

Vale #46

Hello and welcome to my latest diary update. I’m guessing if you are reading this then you must be a Yamaha fan and in that case then I’m sure you enjoyed the Grand Prix of Catalunya! It was an incredible battle and a brilliant show for everyone, I am happy to have been a part of it. Of course I am sad to have lost because I put my heart on my bike and in my career I am more used to winning last-lap fights like that one, but Valentino was maybe a little bit cleverer or a little bit braver than me at the very end and he was able to beat me.

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.

It is amazing how much media interest can be created by a race that goes down to the last corner, especially when Rossi is involved. The fact it is him has a lot of influence because he has won so many times, he has so many fans and he is a racing legend. Also, when you have two guys from different countries fighting on the same bike, it creates a lot of excitement and people love to see it.

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