90 Wins for Valentino Rossi

2007 was a bad season for Valentino Rossi when he finished just third in the championship standings: his worst ever finish in the overall riders' standings in any season in his career.

Of course, a lot of riders would still be quite happy with third at the very least. But when you're Valentino Rossi, hailed as arguably the best of all time in MotoGP (many say even better than Giacomo Agostini), no less than first place is expected.

Well, certain rule changes did affect the standings when Bridgestone tires had a great advantage over the Michelin tires. Rossi's Michelin shod Yamaha was therefore outclassed by Casey Stoner's Bridgestone shod Ducati. Stoner eventually ended up winning the World Title.

To make matters worse for Rossi, Dani Pedrosa riding the Repsol Honda was able to grab second position overall at the last minute dropping Rossi to third in the standings.

All that however seems like a distant past. Valentino Rossi, now riding a Bridgestone shod Yamaha M1 has raced to victory in Le Mans: his second consecutive win this season and his 90th victory over all. The result propelled the Italian back to the top of the standings once again.

There are still 13 races left in the season and making predictions now would be foolish. But one thing is clear though, Valentino Rossi is still riding at the top of his game. And his racing form in France cannot deny that.

Despite a slightly dissapointing start that dropped him from fourth to fifth, Valentino Rossi battled his way into first place, picking his spots carefully and ovewrtaking his rivals decisively. The moment Rossi siezed first position, he slowly pulled away from Pedrosa and Stoner who was battling for second and third position.

There was nothing much Pedrosa and Stoner could do. Valentino Rossi was clearly 'in the zone' setting consistent blistering lap times in succession.

Nature however stepped in to make the race more interesting when light showers poured thereby making the track slippery and unpredictable. The pit lane was opened in case the riders decided to switch to bikes equipped with wet racing tires. No one except Marco Melandri pitted. The race became a balancing act where the riders had to determine which parts of the circuit they could still go flat-out and where they ought to feaher the throttle to avoid crashing out. The situation was perfect for trailing riders since race leaders ususally take more caution during unpredictable conditions.

Unfortunately for Rossi's rivals, the rain only reinforced Rossi's position even more. The Italian had an uncanny feel for the track conditions and managed to still keep the fastest pace on slick tires despite the track's diminishing grip levels. Rossi opened up a gap of around ten seconds.

Pedrosa and Stoner, on the other hand, significantly dropped in pace and were overtaken by Jorge Lorenzo (Rossi's rookie teammate) and Colin Edwards (riding for Tech 3 Yamaha).

Reigning champion Stoner would face even more problems as his Ducati suffered mechanical problems that dropped him down further to 16th place. As for Pedrosa, he couldn't recover his pace and had to settle for fourth place.

The rain would stop and the lap times would pick up again. But any late charge was all too little too late. Rossi was in cruise control taking a comfortable four second victory. Lorenzo finishing in second and Colin Edwards finishing third made it a Yamaha 1-2-3 finish.