“This is a wonderful victory because yesterday we were really quite worried!” exclaimed Valentino Rossi after Jerez this past weekend.

Indeed, Rossi was so happy with his opening victory of the year he planted a big kiss on the cheek of the man who gave him the bike capable of winning: Crew Chief Jerry Burgess. There were two other riders standing high above pit lane with him soaking up the Andalusian sun on Sunday, both equally surprised and happy to be there. Dani Pedrosa, recovering from a serious leg injury in preseason testing, and Casey Stoner, who said he was happier with third in Jerez than his victory in Qatar as this track has always been a bogey for him and the Ducati since the class switched to 800s.

To be honest, I can’t remember a happier MotoGP podium in a long time! Valentino was also spotted showing Pedrosa some love when he had finished jumping up and down with joy. Looks as if Dani can do happy, sometimes! And Casey, having overcome one of the season’s biggest hurdles with a major points haul that could prove to be pivotal later in the year. Rossi also made it 64 podiums since joining Yamaha, equaling the record held by another Yamaha legend, one Wayne Rainey.

Rossi and Burgess have a habit of pulling a rabbit from the hat in the last possible moments. They work relentlessly using every minute of setup time available. Major changes were made to the number 46 overnight in a bid to give Rossi a proper weapon to fight with. We saw the same last year at Laguna Seca, when Burgess was given the task of finding three-tenths-of-a-second during race day warm-up to be able to keep pace with Stoner. Vale won the race, Casey cracked and tipped over, and the momentum swung to Yamaha from there on in. As for now, Le Mans is next and Rossi won there last year, with Yamaha sweeping the podium. Then it’s Mugello, his favorite and home track – Can you see a pattern developing?

In complete contrast, on the other side of the Fiat Yamaha partitioning wall sat the man-of-the-moment Jorge Lorenzo. Fresh off a race win in Japan, leading the Championship into his backyard and starting from pole, Jorge had a day to forget. The rise in temperature on race day had played into his teammate’s hands and stopped Lorenzo’s chances of celebrating his Birthday weekend (the Spaniard turned 22 on Monday) with a victory in front of 120,000 of his adoring fans. He pushed hard but with four laps to go lost the front and fell off, within sniffing distance of Stoner and a podium.

“When you’re in front of your fans, at home with so much adrenalin on the bike, of course you try to do the maximum. I’m sorry to all the fans that came to see me, to my team, family and to everybody,” said a dejected Lorenzo after the race.

The race also threw in a couple more curve balls. Randy de Puniet, nicknamed “de Punt” because of his high crash rate, had an inspired ride to 4th and he was followed home by another surprise: Marco Melandri on the Kawasaki that never was, which is now branded ‘Hayate.’ This follows a solid sixth in Japan and he now stands eighth in the championship.

Hayden had another weekend to forget. Unable to get enough heat into his Desmoscedici’s tires he could not run the harder compound Bridgestones that the other Ducati riders went with, having to stick with the soft compound, which he could barely get enough heat into. Edwards went the wrong way with his set up as the temperature changed drastically from qualifying to race. He was in the same boat as fellow Yamaha riders Lorenzo and his teammate Toseland, who also went the wrong way with set up and struggled.

So, the sparser credit-crunched crowd went home empty handed, Spanish riders unable to capitalize on a clean sweep of poles in qualifying. They all crumbled under the weight of home expectations, making it a bin rather than win weekend for the Spaniards.

The real shocker came after Briton Bradley Smith dominated the 125cc race and Hiro Aoyama topped the 250s. Local boy Alvaro Bautista led into the last turn on the last lap in front of Aoyama, only to run wide and allow Aoyama to pick his Honda up and cut inside the Spaniard for the win. One could hear a pin drop amongst the partisan crowd as he crossed the line. It was the first for what seems like an eternity for the Japanese in the 250cc ranks and quite fitting as Bautista beat Aoyama the week prior at his home track in Japan.