 1 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 The Misano World Circuit is an Italian racetrack located next to the town of Misano Adriatico in the frazione of Santamonica. Race day attendance: 55,103; air temperature 24°. |
 2 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 The circuit was originally 3.488 kilometres and hosted its first event in 1972. In 1993, the track length was increased to 4.064 kilometres. The Curvone is taken at 270 KMH. Valentino lives 11km away in the town of Tavullia and this is truly his home race. |
 3 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 In a self-mocking gesture so typical of Valentino, he had his helmet painted to reflect his silly mistake the week before when he crashed in Indianapolis. He contacted his cartoonist, Aldo Drudi, and they came up with the donkey theme. |
 4 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 The back of his helmet is emblazoned with the words "The Donkey" in the same font and style as "The Doctor". He said to himself as he crashed at Indianapolis "F-ing donkey" and it became his theme for this week in Misano. His two dogs sport donkey's ears as well. |
 5 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 Some Donkey; he was fastest in FP1 and FP2, and he qualified on pole. For the 20 minute Sunday warmup he was fastest again. Casey Stoner, for the third race in a row, did not compete. |
 6 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 Lorenzo had another front row start and Pedrosa qualified third, once again the fastest Honda. Here Valentino jokes with the BBC's Matthew Roberts. In other news, Pedrosa and Dovizioso signed to ride for HRC during 2010 and Hayden extended his Ducati contract for another year. |
 7 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 Pedrosa got away to his usual good start and led into turn 1 closely followed by Tony Elias (24). |
 8 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 Into turn 2 and Pedrosa was in front closely followed by Tony Elias. At this point, Rossi was in third and Lorenzo was in fourth. |
 9 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 Disaster strikes. Alex De Angelis tries an incredibly stupid pass at turn 2 that knocks out Colin Edwards. Lorenzo is hit but escapes. |
 10 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 De Angelis takes out Colin Edwards but Capirossi (65) rides around the carnage. Edwards later commented " We're in Italy and you have to deal with dumb Italians. He just took his brain out." |
 11 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 Edwards then takes Hayden (69) out. Nicky was furious because he had a good chance to do well this weekend. He commented "I know in racing people can make mistakes and I have done plenty in my life but I'm not happy with Alex because this wasn't racing - it was just stupid to try and pull a move like that on cold tyres, in the second corner on the first lap." |
 12 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 During lap 1, Lorenzo passed Rossi into third. Dovizioso is some distance back in fifth. |
 13 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 Turn 2 again and the debris has been cleaned away. Rossi said later that he had a full tank of fuel so he waited until some fuel was gone and his tyres had come up to temperature. |
 14 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 The front four started to pull away from the others but Pedrosa was unable to escape. |
 15 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 Lorenzo was having difficulty getting around Elias and Dovizioso had closed behind so Rossi passed both Lorenzo and Elias on lap 5. Lorenzo also passed Elias on lap 5. |
 16 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 On lap 8, Rossi passed Pedrosa to take the lead for the first time. Rossi immediately broke the lap record to create a large gap back to second. |
 17 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 It was not until lap 14 that Lorenzo was able to pass Pedrosa but Rossi had used these laps to create a comfortable gap that Lorenzo was never able to close. Rossi went on to win by 2.4 seconds. |
 18 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 Valentino's mechanics Alex Briggs AUS Bernard Ansiau BEL, replete with donkey's ears, wait in parc ferme for him to return. |
 19 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 He even wore the donkey's ears himself on the podium. It was all very funny. |
 20 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 Valentino was fastest in every session, took pole, the fastest lap, set a new race record and won the event. Lorenzo pushed hard but Rossi said that there were three or four corners where he was faster and this made the difference. This was the fifth 1-2 finish for the pair this season (with Rossi at 4 to 1). |
 21 Round 13 - Misano Adriatico, Sunday, September 06, 2009 Yamaha is way in front with the two top riders on the two fastest bikes. There is now a four week break until Estoril in Portugal where Casey Stoner is expected to rejoin the championship. Edward's first DNF saw him demoted to sixth place. |
