by Nico Cereghini

Pedrosa, and seven. No one has ever won more than Dani this year in MotoGP. Six wins for Jorge and five for Casey.

Chaotic, the last race: track still wet, no rain in sight, slick or rain? Lorenzo made the right choice with slick tyres, Pedrosa choose slick at the last minute and started from the pit lane with Hayden, Crutchlow and Bautista; lastly, Vale and Dovi, on rain, pulled into the pits after four laps to change bikes. When the Honda 26 regained lost ground and reached the leader after 11 laps, the two Spaniards could have battled for the title, more than half the race was left; instead Jorge spectacularly crashed out and, luckily, without consequences. Overly eager to lap Ellison, the error was a sign of edginess: Jorge was racing for glory, he wanted to win to confirm his rightful title, instead he lost the race that equalled out the bikes: on that track only the drive and strategy counted.

Numerous crashes. Hayden, Crutchlow and even Stefan Bradl crashed out when he was third and decided to end his brilliant first season on the podium. Heavy losses for Dovizioso and Rossi, lapped, in sixth and tenth place. The Valentino-Ducati team finished in line with their two-year streak: disastrous, unfortunately. Michele Pirro, fifth overall and first in CRT, did well. Danilo Petrucci not far behind finishing eighth. Lastly, at his farewell race, Casey Stoner who didn’t want to risk it gained his last podium: third behind the Japanese rider Nakasuga. Although not clearly captured on film, he appeared to be crying during his victory lap and his showmanship and class will be sorely missed.

The Moto3 race was fantastic and uncertain with champion Cortese bested on the last lap by team mate Kent with third going to the ever more convincing Khairuddin finishing before Binder, Faubel and Rossi. A poor finish for the Italians, with Antonelli 13th ahead of Tonucci. Fenati, who can’t take the rain, has a lot to work for in the future, just 18th.

Moto2 was more exciting, with so much water on the track and with Marquez moved to the back of the pack on penalty (he made Corsi crash in trials) but able to win it. Gino Rea and Simone Corsi stood out in the first laps, Pol Espargaro until he touched the Roman and crashed (in eighth), Terol and Simon. Marc was in the lead two laps from the finish and this consecrated his new world champion title. But engine superiority crushed his performance: the powers should be similar, the engines are drawn at random, but his always seems to be the best, he left half the pack 500 metres behind with pure acceleration as the lights went green.

by Nico Cereghini

No one forgot Supersic. The world remembered Simoncelli and witnessed Fausto Gresini hold an emotional plaque installation ceremony at the corner where the young rider lost his life one year ago. Well done. Then the show began, at least for the two "lesser" categories: Sandro Cortese, who has dominated the season, wanted a win on his Austrian KTM to secure the World Title Championship which was an almost mathematical certainty. Alex De Angelis finally got his winning form back after a difficult year.

The Moto3 race was a titanic battle with local hero Khairuddin finally in with a good chance of winning. He led for most of the race with a clean, feisty and tough style but failed in his effort to become the first Malaysian to win a World Championship race when Cortese passed him at the last corner. Although born in Germany, Sandro's parents are from Calabria (as anyone who has seen them party will testify). Folger came home third after a good start but was let down by a lack of top speed on the straights. Salom crossed the line in fourth followed by Oliveira, Kent, Rins, Vazquez and Ajo. Vinales didn't race following a split with his team.

De Angelis won a year ago in Australia and did well to do so again at Sepang under treacherous conditions. He beat West and a surprisingly competitive Gino Rea who took his first podium finish. Marquez was a faller but given the points difference between him and Espargaro, who was outside the top ten, could have secured the Championship here. The surprise of the race was the Malaysian rider Syharin on his Petronas FTR machine. He led for several laps and just missed out on the podium. Simon came home fifth followed by Iannone, Pol Espargaro came eleventh and now lies 48 points behind the leader with just two races to go.

The weather conditions for the MotoGP race were disastrous and the race was stopped on lap fourteen due to torrential rain and standing water everywhere. The results were taken from lap thirteen making Pedrosa the winner even on water where despite everything he was still the fastest rider on the track. Dani and his Honda have become the perfect match. This was his sixth win of 2012 (like Lorenzo) and his fifth out of the last six races (including Misano where Barbera took him out). His rival from Yamaha took his "usual" second place following his attempt to make a gap, getting caught then getting left behind. An aggressive Stoner crossed the line in third after making up a lot of ground on Lorenzo.

Hayden rode well to come home fourth a few seconds after Stoner and in front of Valentino who had started well ahead of his team mate and wasn't too far off a virtual podium place. A mistake by Rossi however dropped him to six seconds behind the American. The Ducatis went bad at Sepang and although both Nicky and Vale had identical falls in practice, they were blessed by good fortune during the race with the mistakes made by others in front of them like Dovizioso (who finished thirteenth), Crutchlow and Bradl. There were a lot of falls, luckily with no serious consequences and the rain simply got worse. Spies, De Puniet, Edwards and Silva were among fallers most of whom came off at turn 7. Petrucci and Pirro came home eleventh and twelfth ahead of Dovizioso and Rolfo.

Jorge Lorenzo's lead in the Championship has now been whittled down to 23 points. While that may seem a lot, it is by no means unreachable when all that remains is the race in Australia next Sunday then Valencia a fortnight later. All it takes is one mistake to score no points and the fact that Pedrosa can actually win is clear for all to see.