 1 Twin Ring Motegi, Japan |
 2 Qualifying was Lorenzo, Stoner and Hayden while Rossi started fourth. Stoner got a blinding start but so did Pedrosa from fifth on the grid. Rossi dropped back to fifth with his usual cautious start. Pedrosa in his first dry race on Bridgestones moved into the lead and held it for the next four laps. |
 3 Stoner executed a fairly tough (but clean) pass on Pedrosa on lap 6 to take the lead. Stoner had previously been highly critical of Rossi's passes so, in the middle of the pass, he waved his apologies to Pedrosa and kept going. Rossi was closely following in third and overtook Pedrosa on the same lap to move into second. |
 4 Rossi and Stoner slugged it out for the next eight laps with Casey breaking the race record on lap 9. Pedrosa still held third but dropped 4.9 seconds back by the end. On lap 14 Rossi passed Stoner to take the lead. Both riders were consistently in the 1.47's, a pace only Pedrosa and Lorenzo could occasionally match. |
 5 Rossi slowly opened up the gap in the remaining laps to nearly 2 seconds to take the win that sealed his eighth world championship. He still rode for the win although a fourth place would have secured the championship. |
 6 The celebrations began. He had the "paperwork" notarised by lawyer Ottavio Ottaviano with the official seal. His T shirt said "Sorry for the delay" on the front and had the ingredients for a world championship soup on the back: one 150KG Yamaha, one 70kg rider, etc. One funny touch was the addition of a 'Young red wine' bottled in California from the Rossi vineyard on 20th July 2008 (the date of the US GP at Laguna Seca). |
 7 It was an all-Bridgestone podium with Pedrosa claiming his first since switching brands. Stoner and Pedrosa were quite generous in their praise of Rossi who had ridden a perfect race and an almost perfect season (Assen excluded). Championship points with three races remaining were: Rossi 312, Stoner 220, Pedrosa 209. |
 8 All team members signed the special helmet which will go into a Rossi museum in Tavullia. This was also Rossi's 70th premier category win which put him two clear of Agostini. |
 9 Staement by Rossi at Motegi |
10 Kropotkin's Motegi race report |
