Sunday - Race Day

1 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The nice thing about going to Malaysia is that we can afford a bit of five-star luxury.	2 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day When we arrive at the circuit, Moto3 morning warmup is under way. It had rained overnight and the track was damp in patches which caused this excursion at turn 14.	3 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day He is OK though. With some help from the marshalls, he is able to rejoin the session.	4 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The 20 minute Moto2 warmup started at 11:10. Then, at 11:40 the 20 minute MotoGP warmup session started. This is the first lap.
5 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Pedrosa returns to the pits during warmup. He was second fastest.	6 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Lorenzo finished warmup on top. Morning warmup is not important in that the grid positions have already been determined. Also, most riders are careful not to crash in warmup because it could spoil their day, so they mostly don't push too hard.	7 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Rossi fell off early in the session at the slow speed turn 2. He was fourth fastest this morning.	8 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Marquez leads Crutchlow and Rossi back to the pits at the end of the session.
9 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Two emergency helicopters stand by in readiness as Rossi completes morning warmup	10 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day For Randy Mamola's customer rides, the passengers need to be very young and very brave. Mamola actually crashed with a passenger on board some time back.	11 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Dean takes my camera and goes back to the pits while Sam and I take possession of our seats.	12 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The Moto3 race doesn't start until 1pm so until then pit lane is open for the punters
13 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Clad in their best Yamaha blue, this lot gather around Valentino Ross's garage. Despite struggling for nearly three years he's still the most popular rider in the paddock.	14 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Oh look, a couple of Ducati shirts.	15 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Dean takes a picture of Sam and I. I'm in the salmon-coloured shirt leaning against the last column on the left.	16 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day One of the Ducati riders pulls a stoppie at the end of his lap while next group go through the gates to meet their fate.
17 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Funny. You would think those two guys had never seen a couple of 10's before.	18 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Then Rossi himself leaves his garage	19 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day It looks like he can't go anywhere without bodyguards.	20 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day "Which way to the latrines?" he asks.
21 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Dean thought I'd be a bit jealous because he got to see Rossi up close and I didn't and I wasn't - I was insanely jealous.	22 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day One of the reasons Rossi is so popular is that he realises who pays the money that pays his wages. He tolerantly smiles while a couple of Malaysians take selfies.	23 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Activity outside the Yamaha factory team garage	24 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Paolo Giannotta obliges the fans. Paulo is listed as a driver/helper which I'm guessing is code for bodyguard.
25 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Max Biaggi, at one time Rossi's closest competitor but Rossi owned him.	26 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day He went on to win two Superbike titles. He's stil fit at 40 years old.	27 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day He won four 250 titles and then came second in the 1998 500 Champiomship behind Mick Doohan. Doohan owned him as well.	28 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Putting the twin-seat Ducatis back on display after the customer rides are over.
29 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day They go through masses of tyres every weekend. The white stripe indicates that these tyres are the softer of the two options. The front wheel in the top rack is the harder.	30 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The better riders get to lean angles of 60° and they can do this mostly because the tyres are so good.	31 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Dean walks to Cal Crutchlow's garage and lo and behold, there he be.	32 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Probably Crutchlow's mechanic
33 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day He goes to Ducati next year to join the factory team.	34 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day He rides away with his mechanic hanging on for dear life behind him.	35 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Then Lorenzo appears and he is the subject of many selfies as well	36 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day He seems to take it with good humour
37 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day He is the reigning world champion at the moment and has grown up quite a bit from the obnoxious kid he once was.	38 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Dean, why do you do this?	39 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Honda Racing Corporation Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto	40 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Nakamoto left the Honda F1 team in 2008 and retured to HRC. He is now the team principal of the Repsol Honda MotoGP team
41 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day This is HRC Team Principal Livio Suppo. He used to be in Ducati with Casey Stoner.	42 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The stands are filling nicely. In years past a small crowd would attend in time to watch only the MotoGP race but not ths year	43 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day That's me supporting the column	44 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The previous photo was extracted from this one.
45 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The guy behind Paolo Giannotta is Matteo Flamigni, Valentino Rossi's Data Technician (often purported to be the most valuable member of a team)	46 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day At 1pm the Moto3 race begins	47 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Luis Salom gets the checkered flag in first place. Alex Rins and Miguel Olivera take the next two places.	48 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Not terribly interesting - especially with Iberian riders taking the first three places - but worthy of note is Australian Jack miller. He has consistently been the top Honda which, this year, has been outclassed by KTM.
49 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The grid assembles for the Moto2 race which gets under way at 2:20 pm.	50 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The riders make their way to their grid positions.	51 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The Moto2 riders have completed their warmup lap and reassemble on the grid. The start lights, hanging from the left side "Advance" sign, are off.	52 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The man with the red flag departs and the lights are still off.
53 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The lights turn red and all bikes are at maximum revs. The sound is fabulous	54 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The red lights turn off and the race begins.	55 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Thirty four Moto2 bikes scramble for position.	56 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Unfortunately a few corners later, five riders are involved in a serious crash and the race is red-flagged. It was originally scheduled to be 19-laps but after a connsiderable delay, the race is shortened to 12 laps.
57 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Tito Rabat receives the checkered flag and wins the shortened Moto2 race. He topped every session, took pole and won the race - a perfect weekend.	58 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Pol Espargaro finishes second and competition leader Scott Redding finished seventh. Redding's lead decreased from twenty points to nine.	59 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day This is the result of the shortened race. The five at the bottom were those involved in the first lap crash and did not restart. Anthony West was the only Australian in the field but he finished outside of the top ten.	60 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The MotoGP grid prepares as the Moto2 top three riders spray champagne at the podium ceremony.
61 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day MotoGP is scheduled to start at 4pm and is to be a 20 lap race. The temperature is a reasonable 31°.	62 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Dani Pedrosa approaches the grid . . .	63 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day . . . as does Jorge Lorenzo . . .	64 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day . . . and Valentino Rossi.
65 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Only about 1 minute late, the MotoGP riders begin their warmup lap.	66 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day A little over two minutes later, the grid reassembles.	67 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The red flag is out and will be taken away once the marshall at the back waves the green flag to indicate that the grid has reassembled.	68 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Red lights are on and 24 bikes sit on their rev limiters.
69 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Lights are out and "They're away!"	70 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Lorenzo has an excellent start but Pedrosa overtakes him at the end of the first lap.	71 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Lorenzo becomes involved in an intense battle with Marquez, who finally makes a passing move on lap 9 at turn 14. Rossi continues to fall behind the top three as the gaps between each rider increase.	72 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The last eleven laps are particularly unexciting as the gaps between the top four gradually increase with an even bigger gap back to fifth.
73 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Dani Pedrosa wins the 2013 Malaysian MotoGP race.	74 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Pedrosa's victory was his first for almost five months. He last stood atop the podium at Le Mans in mid-May.	75 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Lorenzo crosses in third place with Marquez nearly three seconds in front of him.	76 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Valentino Rossi has a lonely ride to fourth spot. Alvaro Bautista came out on top in a battle with Cal Crutchlow. Bautista moved up to sixth place in the championship, ahead of Stefan Bradl who missed the race because of a broken ankle.
77 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Pedrosa, Marquez and Lorenzo, the top three, gather in Parc Ferme.	78 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Hector Barbera and Michael Laverty were handed ride-through penalties for jumping the start. Five riders failed to finish, including Nicky Hayden who parked his Ducati on the main straight with technical problems.	79 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The result means all three of the MotoGP rostrum finishers retain mathematical possibilities of clinching the 2013 World Championship. However, Marquez is the only rider who can claim the title at Phillip Island next weekend. (Marquez was disqualified at P.I. and scored zero points).	80 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The Spanish National Anthum plays yet again. The top three are all Spanish which is very much the way the year went in MotoGP.
81 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Spraying champagne.	82 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day Today, Spanish riders took seven of the nine podium positions: 1 & 2 in Moto3, 1 & 2 in Moto2 and 1, 2 & 3 in MotoGP. Depressing	83 Sunday 13 October 2013 - Race day The race was not a good one - ten seconds to fourth and 22 seconds to fifth, BUT it was a great experience. After the race our waiting cab took us to the LCCT where Dean and Sam flew back to Singapore and I returned directly to Sydney.