Wow. Qatar was a boring race. Unfortunately for Rossi, Ducati brought their A-game and Yamaha was outclassed. While it is evident that the Yamaha is, as always, the best handling bike on the grid, the Duc is just a beast on the straights. It looked like Casey was on a 990 and Rossi was on a factory 600 the way he would bast past him. From the coverage on MotoGP.com, you could only really watch the Stoner/Rossi "battle" that never really was. Rossi didn't ever really have a chance because of the motor that Duc brought and the one Yamaha didn't. He would have had to pull out over .5 seconds on the twisty bits to even have a chance of staying in front of Stoner on the front straight. Luckily enough for Stoner he was sufficiently hast to keep that from happening.

Poor ol' Nicky still hasn't felt the love from the 800 that he wants, and so was never a factor over the course of the weekend. Pedrosa looked like he might have something to bring, but quickly faded back into mitts of the injured Hopper. Speaking of which, Hopper had an incredible race, I can't imagine the pain of riding one of those bike with the carbon brakes with a broken hand. When my hand was broken I shied away from shaking hands from anyone, I imagine that it felt like shaking hands with Mr Hand Crusher for about 45 minutes straight. A true demonstration of grit, Hopper has earned some serious points in my book. Too bad Vermuelen hasn't show the same kind of form as he did in the Superbikes, but hopefully we will get to see him really turn it on this year and win one. I would love to see the perennial backmarker that is Suzuki take the championship this year.

I think Rossi is an incredible racer, but I think the world has talked him up too much to be this unbeatable rider, which he isn't. He is REALLY good, but he can be beat, and I would love to see it happen in a season where the Yamaha is competitive the whole season through. All the naysayers would have to really start thinking then. Without Formula 1 to blame for his, 'lack of focus' I dont know what they would say.