MotoGP season finale – Preview, Valencia

The MotoGP circus winds up at Valencia this weekend - a tight and interesting track that often produces good racing. Though Aussie Casey Stoner and his all-conquering Ducati may have demoralized the opposition somewhat, there will still be a strong desire among his plentiful opposition to finish the season off with a bang and perhaps recover some wounded pride along the way.

From Ducati.com
The Ducati MotoGP Team goes into the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix aiming to complete this momentous, historic season in the best way possible.

World Champion Casey Stoner has already won ten races and a total of 14 podiums so far this year while Loris Capirossi has scored a victory and three further podiums, their efforts aboard their remarkable Desmosedici GP7 machines securing the triple crown of riders', constructors' and teams' World Championships for the Borgo-Panigale -based factory and team.

Livio Suppo -- Ducati MotoGP project director:
"Valencia is a very special place for us because we scored our first one-two there last year. We go there hoping to end this incredible season in the best way possible. Going into this final race of the season I want to say a big thank you to everyone involved in this project: our technical partners Bridgestone and Shell V-Power, all our sponsors and everyone at Ducati Corse. There is a little bit of every Ducati Corse worker in this year's success, it's not just the people on track every weekend who help us to win, everyone has done an amazing job this year."

Casey Stoner -- World Champion:
"Valencia will be a special weekend, the last race of a season that has been a dream come true. The championship may already be done but I don't need any more motivation than each race weekend. Every race is just as important as the others to me, so we go out there every time to try and win. The only difference now is that I'm a bit more relaxed, a bit more confident in my own abilities and what I can do with a bike. Valencia looks very slow and tight but it's surprisingly flowing, I've always really enjoyed it. I had my first GP win there [the 2003 125 GP], so I've had some really good results there, also some bad ones. I tested the Ducati for the first time at Valencia last November and we were pretty much quickest, so I think with the experience we've gained we can do a good job. There are a lot of second and third gear corners, like most tracks, but because most of the corners are right angles and banked so you can flow in there and use a lot of corner speed. That really helps with the gearbox because you only really use two gears, other than on the straights, so it's quite easy to get set up. It's just a matter of getting your braking and entry points right and getting on the gas at the right moment."

From Yamaha-Racing.com:
A challenging first season of 800cc Grand Prix racing comes to an end this weekend as the eighteenth and final round of the 2007 MotoGP World Championship takes place at Valencia in Spain. The traditional season curtain call at the Ricardo Tormo circuit marks the conclusion of a difficult campaign for the Fiat Yamaha Team, although Valentino Rossi does have the chance to salvage a great deal of pride by sealing the runner-up spot with a single point in Sunday's 30-lap race.

Fifteenth place or above would leave Rossi out of reach of Dani Pedrosa, who has to win the race to maintain any chance of usurping the Italian for that coveted second spot in the final standings. The Valencian Grand Prix is the 100th race since the new era of four-stroke MotoGP was introduced in 2002 and it marks a special landmark for Rossi, who is one of only three riders to have appeared in every single one - taking 49 victories along the way. Two of them came at the Ricardo Tormo circuit and a repeat performance in front of his adoring Spanish fans would see the Italian become the first rider to reach the milestone of 100 podium finishes in the 58-year history of premier-class Grand Prix racing.

It will also be a special weekend for Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards, who is set to make his final appearance for the team before joining Herve Poncharal's Yamaha Tech3 outfit in 2008. Valencia has been something of a bogey track in the past for Edwards, who finished ninth last year after three successive eighth place finishes at a circuit that is renowned for its unique stadium-style surroundings. The track itself is characterised by a never-ending burst of tight corners, connected by short straights. The long penultimate looping left-hander and the fast entry to turn one contrast violently with the otherwise geometric flip-flop chicanes and slow speed corners of the infield.

Valentino Rossi: "A long and hard season"
A difficult campaign comes to an end for Valentino Rossi at Valencia with the sole target of sealing the runner-up spot in the championship. The five-time MotoGP World Champion has not finished outside the top two at any level of the championship since taking ninth in his rookie 125cc season of 1996 and he is keen to maintain that run with a single point on Sunday.

"The last race in Malaysia was a disappointment but also very encouraging because, on race day, everything worked very well," says Rossi. "Hopefully we can use this to start on a good note at Valencia because Sepang showed how important it is to start from the front. Valencia has usually been a good track for me, although I don't have such great memories from last year!

"It's been a long and hard season and now we've finally arrived at the last race and we are all hoping that we can have a good weekend. More than anything I want to win and give everyone in the team a happy end to the season; motivation is still very high and we will be doing the best we can in Valencia. Second place is not first but it is still important because I have not been outside the top two since 1996 and I want to keep that going."

Pic: Ducati.com