Yamaha - War Reignited

It became plain over the winter that the Movistar Yamaha team were going to be a force to be reckoned with in the 2015 MotoGP season. Valentino Rossi had silenced all his critics after taking runner-up spot in the 2014 standings, whilst Jorge Lorenzo had a point to prove after his woeful opening act to his 2014 campaign.

The YZR-M1 had come on leaps and bounds from the first pre-season test in Valencia at the end of the 2014 season and the opening round in Qatar in the last week of March, most notably they introduced their long-awaited fully seamless gearbox – the last piece in the puzzle that was the defeat of Honda. Yamaha had managed to retain their key strengths with the chassis as well as find the stability under braking they needed to push harder into the corners and stick with the Hondas, all of which creating the perfect motorcycle.

With this though, there were suspicions that history could repeat itself with Rossi and Lorenzo.

Rossi asserted dominance in the opening three rounds, holding off a brutal attack from the monstrously quick Factory Ducati's of Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso in Qatar and managing a third at the very much Honda-centric Circuit of the Americas in the US. Argentina saw the Doctor use all of his cunning to make the extra-hard rear Bridgestone work with the M1 and claw back a five-second gap on leader Marc Marquez to get within striking distance on the penultimate lap. The Honda, now encountering issues with the slightly softer hard tyre, defended with all his might but things went awry; contact with the Italian as he scythed his way through at turn six saw the Spaniard hit the deck and left Rossi to cruise to a second win of the season – both coming from eighth on the grid.

There were no signs of Rossi's and Lorenzo's old feud rearing its head, because it seemed as if once again Jorge's season was to be dictated by awful opening races. In Qatar, a race he really should have won, the foam lining in his crash helmet came undone during the race and restricted his vision. He arrived in Austin with a nasty bout of bronchitis and was unable to stay with his team-mate, finishing three seconds adrift in fourth. This carried over to Argentina where he was a distant fifth, and this left him twenty-nine points away from Rossi in the championship standings.

A change was needed from the Spaniard, and the following four rounds were to be crucial in his title bid. He sailed to four successive victories in Spain, France, Italy and Catalunya, demolishing the gap in the standings to his team-mate to just one point heading into the eighth round in Holland. But then his slump seemed to return. A lowly eighth on the grid in qualifying for the Dutch TT left him with work to do in the race. He managed to get up to third by the end of the opening lap, but just couldn't get the feel from the tyres he wanted with Yamaha's revised chassis they had brought to the event and made no inroads into the leaders, finishing fourteen seconds from first. In Germany, despite an amazing start that saw him cut his way past Marquez around the outside of turn one, he just lacked the pace needed to make the rostrum and dropped nine seconds back in fourth.

From Jerez to Barcelona, Rossi took four more podiums, but looked no match for Lorenzo. The pace was there but his qualifying and patchy starts left him with more work to do than was needed, and when into a position where he was clear of traffic and onto the podium Lorenzo was just too far out of reach for the Italian. This was most evident at the Catalan Grand Prix where Rossi started down in eighth again and fought his way back through the field to second to finish just eight tenths shy of Lorenzo by the chequered flag. Two of those four races Rossi could have won, and this would prove costly as the championship reached its conclusion.

So was he unable to be quick over a single lap? The answer came just two weeks later in Holland. Rossi stormed to pole position and went onto win the race, but the latter part did not come by so easily. Honda had sorted some of the gremlins of the RC213V and they were in a position to win. Rossi and Marquez have clashed before in epic contests, but the Spaniard always got the upper hand. Not this time, however. The pair battled it out over twenty-six intense laps, the outcome of the race coming down to the final chicane on the final lap. Marquez went for a lunge up the inside of Rossi as he tried to use the superior braking stability of the hard front tyre to its maximum. But Rossi had began leaning into the corner and the pair made contact, the entire Dutch crowd on their feet, breath bated as the Italian skipped across the gravel trap. He'd survived the journey and notched up win number three of the season.

Rossi had finally gone up against Marquez and beaten him, but this victory became a catalyst in the souring of relations between the pair – a fallout that would prove to cost Rossi the title.

By mid-way, Rossi held a slender advantage over Lorenzo of just thirteen points after securing another third place at the Sachsenring. Qualifying hindered the championship leader again at the following rounds at Indianapolis and Brno, the latter of which seeing his team-mate almost wipe out the gap between them after a crushing display of sheer brilliance in the Czech Republic.

Lying on equal points as the British Grand Prix rolled around, Lorenzo looked set to take the lead into Misano after Rossi sat some way off the pace in practice. But help was to come from above as blue skies gave way to typical British Summertime rain. Rossi, no stranger to heroic performances in the wet, put in possibly his finest performance of the year in the treacherous conditions of Silverstone. The Italian absorbed the pressure heaped upon him from the Honda of Marquez, keeping his composure whilst the reigning champ fell foul to his RC213V at Copse.

This was to be fortuitous for Lorenzo, because it gifted him fourth spot after an almost amateur error cost him any shot at the win. He opted to run without a nose-guard inside his crash helmet, and as the rain came down on the warm up lap his visor began fogging up. This cost him twelve points, and this ill fortune continued into San Marino. The weather played a part once again, but this time his mistake was altogether more shameful. Lorenzo had the pace to win that Grand Prix, but instead he followed Rossi around the rapidly drying Misano circuit, several laps after main challenger Marquez had swapped bike, and with every tour his finishing position lowered and lowered. Jorge threw in the towel and bailed into pit-lane with seven laps left whilst Rossi stayed out. As the number 99 pushed to try and emerge ahead of his team-mate he threw it all away at the penultimate corner. More importantly, with Valentino finishing fifth, he'd lost a further eleven points. He knew instantly his error as he slammed his fist into the gravel (so hard in fact that he actually required a trip to the medical centre for precautionary checks). He knew he'd been baited by his team-mate and, though it cost him a bigger points haul, Valentino knew that the title had taken just that little step closer to him.

But Jorge struck back in Aragon and Valentino slumped into his old ways on Saturday. His only hope was that Marquez could take the fight to his Yamaha rival, but the Honda rider chucked his RC213V at the scenery again on the second lap and Lorenzo was free to dart away. By the time he'd caught the sister Honda of Dani Pedrosa, Valentino could only hope for a second place. But even that became an impossibility, because Dani wasn't about to give up just so easily. The pair diced for the final handful of laps, Pedrosa emerging the victor.

Just as it looked like Lorenzo's challenge was back on, it took a knock at Motegi two weeks later. The Twin Ring is very much a Lorenzo circuit, but Rossi made sure the Spaniard didn't have things all his own way. Lorenzo took pole again, but Rossi got under his skin by using his tow to go second quickest by just 0.081 seconds. If Lorenzo wasn't already feeling nervous, Sunday came with murky conditions. And once again a daft error on the Spaniard's part cost him a race victory. Jorge was adamant all weekend that his wet pace was equal to, if not better than, Rossi's. He got the holeshot on the opening lap and began to edge away, pushing real hard in the early laps to consolidate his position. Rossi tried to go with him, but a fast-starting Andrea Dovizioso refocused his attention and he had to push hard to keep the Ducati rider at bay. As the GP15 started to lose grip, Lorenzo looked to have sewn this one up. But the track started drying and he began losing edge grip. A tentative Pedrosa had preserved his rubber well and was storming through the field, passing Lorenzo on lap seventeen and then pulling away. Rossi latched onto the back of the Honda and dragged himself along past Lorenzo too, his tyres just marginally better than those of his team-mate. Rossi opened the title gap back up to eighteen points and the pendulum swung back in his favour.

What was so painful about this defeat for Lorenzo was that it was needless; he stated after the race that he hadn't anticipated the track to dry, yet the rain had not been seen since the Moto3 race several hours earlier. If Lorenzo was going to lose this title it would have been because of silly mistakes like this.

As the flag fell on the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, the world had just witnessed the greatest Grand Prix in history. But beneath the surface lay a much darker development, for this was the race the 2015 MotoGP World Championship took a vicious turn.

Marc Marquez had snatched victory from the grasp of Lorenzo on the final lap, whilst Rossi missed out on third by inches to Andrea Iannone and the standings read an eleven-point gap between the Yamaha duo. However, Rossi felt that this result was intended. He stunned the world when he accused Marquez of aiding Lorenzo by deliberately holding up Rossi to stop him getting close to his team-mate. Then came the comments questioning whether the Spaniard was really a Rossi fan in his youth – comments Marquez did not take lightly.

Lorenzo had Rossi beat at Sepang from fairly early on, but the Italian felt he did have the pace to at least run with him. But that race was never to be as Marquez sought revenge. The pair fought hard, sometimes too hard, and this took its toll on Rossi. He countered all of Marquez' passes and the Spaniard rebuffed his, and on and on it went until lap seven when Rossi snapped. Rossi tried to force the Honda rider off track at turn fourteen, but in doing so the pair connected and Marquez went down. Rossi took third, but Lorenzo's second meant the gap stood at just seven points heading in the final round.

But the events of Sepang rumbled on and neither the pair involved, nor Lorenzo came out the other side looking good. Rossi's comments did not sit well with many fans, whilst Marquez was badgered by Rossi supporters. Lorenzo's questioning of Race Direction's decision to send Rossi to the back of the grid in Valencia did not go down well with the team either.

And the situation failed to improve when a CAS appeal was lodged by Rossi to have his penalty reduced or annulled, which was then followed up by Lorenzo seeking to intervene in the trial. Both has their appeals rejected.

Calm appeared as the Valencia weekend got underway after the FIM Permanent Bureau had a word with all of the riders. Lorenzo led the way for the entire Grand Prix, whilst Rossi fought his way through the pack valiantly to fourth. A late scare for Lorenzo came in the form of Dani Pedrosa, but he was fought off by his team-mate and neither were able to pass the Yamaha rider. Lorenzo crossed the line to seal his third premier class crown in dramatic fashion to complete Yamaha's triple-crown success of Teams', Manufacturers' and Riders' Champions for 2015. And that was that.

Or so we thought.

The dust had barely settled on the 2015 season when controversy reared its ugly head. Rossi accused Marquez of deliberately defending Lorenzo and lambasted his team-mate's championship as false. Lorenzo showed no humility in his defence, claiming he deserved the title more. The fallout rumbled on at the FIM Awards Gala when Valentino failed to show up and accept his medal for second in the standings, a snub towards Dorna and his team-mate.

No one is sure how this situation will evolve going into 2016, but it will not be harmonious. War is about to fall on Yamaha's doorstep, and unlike last time this one won't be resolved by one of them running scared to another team. Rossi's time in MotoGP is drawing to a close and he wants to end his career safe in the knowledge that he beat Lorenzo. Jorge already thinks he's the better rider and he'll be out to make sure that point is driven home.

Yamaha will have their hands full next year trying to keep the peace.

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