Valentino Rossi chalked up another milestone here at the historic Sachsenring in East Germany, equaling Ago’s all-time podium record of 159 in all classes and scoring his 101st career win. The 99 of Lorenzo was ironically beaten to the flag by 0.099 of a second.

After a brief interruption from a feeling-better Casey Stoner, who took the lead away from the Yamahas on Lap 7, normal order was restored 10 laps later when Rossi dived back past the Aussie on the brakes at the bottom of the scary-fast hill at the back of the pits. Lorenzo followed past the Aussie later in the lap.

Gorgeous George then again went toe-to-toe with VR for the remainder of the race, passing Rossi going into Turn 1 starting Lap 26 only for Valentino to return the move on the young Spaniard two laps later, seemingly on purpose in the same place to make it stick to the flag. Kinda, “that was good Jorge...but this is how it’s done.”

Lorenzo had a last-gasp lunge exiting the final corner, but the Sachsenring finishing line has been moved back much closer, stopping any surprise hood-winking on the run to the flag.

It’s almost like Valentino is playing with Jorge trying to get into his head but at the same time relishing “the fight.” Lorenzo, who struts like a young prize fighter, is just soaking all this experience up from the old hand, learning round by round, just like the Rocky films Jorge watches for motivation. And, yes, he does listen to “Eye of the Tiger” pounding through his Oakley Thumps while he zones in on the grid!

Lorenzo was quite philosophical after the race: “Keeping pace with Valentino today was a big challenge for me, especially since I’m not at full fitness after Laguna, so I am happy that I was able to push him until the end. Passing him was very difficult because he braked hard and late every time and in fact I made a bit of a mistake because I thought there were a few more laps left when I passed him! I hoped to overtake him and then try to pull away, but it didn’t work out today. Of course I am disappointed to lose another very close race, it is always sad but I know that we are capable of fighting with him and considering his experience this is something I must be proud of.”

This rivalry is going to run and run with Lorenzo getting stronger every time, until it’s Rossi who is forced aside by the younger, hungrier pretender.

Nicky Hayden packed the speed and form he found at Laguna into the freight containers housing his Desmoscedici’s for the long flight east. And straight out of the box he was at the sharp end of the times at another track that contains predominately lefthanders that favor his dirt track background.

Building on his own base setting from Laguna rather than Ducati’s database, he was quick in both dry and wet sessions qualifying fourth. Unfortunately, he was unable to capitalize on his progress come the race, getting boxed in at the first corner than having to play catch up on a track that is difficult to pass on.

“I knew I had to get a good start if I was going to do anything special today but I got into turn one hot and everybody came underneath me,” said the Kentucky Kid.

Nick’s confidence dented after a morning warm-up crash and the mother of all qualifying crashes that flicked Nicky off his Ducati and then body-slammed him upside-down into Niccolo Canepa, who was on his outside knocking the young Italian clean off - a real ugly egg-beater of a crash that thankfully both boys walked away from.

“To be honest after my crash in warm-up I started the race a little uptight because I didn’t want to wreck another bike or throw away everything we have gained and learned this weekend. It wasn’t the race we were looking for, so I’m sorry to the team because the bike was capable of more here.”

The positive here is that Nick is finally beginning to figure his own way with the temperamental Desmoscedici and making progress on a bike that only Casey Stoner has managed to gel with.

Colin Edwards struggled with set-up issues on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine, compounded by changeable conditions in practice that left everybody short of dry set-up time.

“It was a weird race and I had a similar problem to the last few races. It feels like I’ve got a load of weight on the rear pushing me into the corners. I can’t get the bike to turn and today was pretty much the same.”

The team have received some new electronics to help with anti-wheelie and starts and although Colin and teammate James Toseland feel it’s a help, they need longer with it for set-up.

We back-to-back this round with next weekend’s British round at Donington Park, which is due to be the last one as we swap with F1 and move to a revamped Silverstone in 2010. So as we draw breath and look forward to another fascinating encounter during this nail-biting season I’ll leave you with Valentino Rossi.

“I think races like this are great for the sport. Now we have a small advantage in the championship and we’re going straight to Donington, one of my favorite tracks where I really hope I can win after a few bad years without a victory!”