Motegi in Japan is a fascinating circuit. Owned, designed and built by Honda as a development facility ten years ago, the circuit has a two kilometre oval for speed testing and the like and a complicated, multi dimensional proper track around and under the oval. Yes, under - just like your old Scalextric set, Motegi has crossovers and tunnels which add a certain atmosphere to the place. It also has the complete range of corners to test even the best setups and probably the hardest braking anywhere on the calendar as riders come downhill on a ferociously fast straight into a ninety degree right hander. With a tunnel straight after it to punish anyone who runs wide on the exit. OK, it's safer than Suzuka but it's still intimidating. Nonetheless, while few riders list Motegi as their favourite circuit, none can deny that it is interesting to ride and at least spectacular to watch most of the time.

Practice showed that Valentino Rossi hasn't given up yet. The seven times world champion, though trailing in the title hunt this year, set himself up at the top of the leaderboard, bettered only by Dani Pedrosa who also has a great deal to prove at this stage of the game. Rossi and Pedrosa between them looked to be theclass act of the weekend, with everyone else seeming relatively slow. Theman who would be champion, Casey Stoner, had a brief foray to the front but then dropped off the pace again, running down in fifth or sixth place. Of course, free practice is great for head games but not a lot else, while qualifying counts for a lot.

And so it was a great boost to his lacklustre season that Nicky Hayden, seemingly back on form after a truly dreadful start to what should have been a triumphal year, took a front row start behind Rossi and Pedrosa. Randy de Puniet and Anthony West made the team green bosses happy as they put their Kawasakis on either end of the second row, sandwiching Toni Elias between them, while Colin Edwards found himself back on the third row, just ahead of Capirossi and Stoner who seemed to have had some problems making everything work properly. Marco Melandri rounded out the top ten while the Rizla Suzuki pair of Hopper and Vermeulen made it into tenth and seventeenth. Vermeulen's misery was compounded by being thoroughly out-qualified by Suzuki test rider and wild card Kousuke Akiyoshi in thirteenth.

Race day, of course, is different. Especially when it's wet as it was this time. Warmup became a frantic tyre data gathering session, though of course the tyre rules make that slightly futile, and everyone was very unsure about how things would develop.

Though it stopped raining before the race started, there was enough water on the track to have the race declared wet. What that means is that riders can start with whatever tyre configuration they wish, and are free to pit in and change bikes once at any point in the race. But they can only change to a bike with totally different tyres - so if they are out on wets to begin with they can only take their second bike on intermediates or slicks. This relatively new rule, brought in for safety, can make things rather interesting.

So with a distinctly wet track and the entire field on wet tyres, the lights went out and the pack streamed away. Apart from Chris Vermeulen, whose Suzuki died on the grid and needed to be restarted. The unfortunate Australian eventually got away some forty seconds behind the leader on the first lap. Ahead of him, a few people made appalling starts. Rossi dropped from second to seventh while Capirossi went down to fourteenth. Anthony West made a fabulous start, spoiled only by the fact that it was slightly before the lights went out. But the end of the first lap saw Pedrosa make the most of his pole position to cross the line first, followed by West and Stoner. Astonishingly, wildcard Akiyoshi was in fourth, having started right back in thirteenth and carved his way through the field like the pro we know him to be. Nicky Hayden was fifth, ahead of Toni Elias and Rossi, while Colin Edwards was ahead of Melandri and de Puniet. Kurtis Roberts retired pretty well straight away, the KR212 continuing its dire performance this season.

Second lap and West muscled his way to the front with Stoner behind him as Pedrosa dropped off the pace slightly. Rossi began to make up for his dreadful start, chasing Melandri who in turn was looking at the back of Akiyoshi's Suzuki. Indeed, it was Melandri who was the man on the move, getting past Akiyoshi and Pedrosa to chase the leading pair. And that pair soon became a solo as West had to endure a ride-through penalty as punishment for his jump start. But team green's hopes were kept alive by Randy de Puniet who made a brief trip to the podium before going off the track in the first of his several excursions.

With a steadily drying track it was inevitable that people were going to have to come in and change bikes, so things showed plenty of promise. Getting in early, Loris Capirossi took a gamble and came out on intermediates. Meanwhile, though, things had settled down at the front, with Melandri leading Stoner leading Rossi leading Pedrosa in a high speed juggernaut. And despite the fact that their wet tyres must have been way past their best, they kept up a punishing pace for eight more laps. Then Rossi decided it was time to get a move on and passed first Stoner and then Melandri. Melandri went straight into the pits for his spare bike while Rossi carried on for another lap. The writing was on the wall for the wet shod riders as at this stage Capirossi, on warm and scrubbed in intermediates, was taking something like seven seconds a lap out of Rossi's lead.

Rossi pitted and the strategy was perfect. The wily Doctor had sufficient in reserve to come out in second place, with just Capirossi ahead of him. But disastrously, Rossi's intermediate tyres simply didn't work, leaving him unable to brake properly or to get the bike turned. One lap saw him drop nine places and leave the track at least once before pitting again. Reassured that there was nothing actually wrong, he went back out and pushed as hard as he could, eventually salvaging something. Colin Edwards was similarly afflicted when he changed bikes, so that made for a pretty dismal day in the Fiat Yamaha garage.

Better than Dani Pedrosa's crew were having, though. The Spaniard stayed out after Rossi pitted in, enjoying a brief spell at the front. Very brief, as the next corner he highsided the Honda out of contention. The video pictures suggest that Mr HRC, watching from the pits, was not impressed.

So with a clear track in front of him, Loris Capirossi did what he does very well indeed, especially here. He stretched the Ducati's legs and made himself a buffer zone. Behind him Randy de Puniet rode an astonishing race to claw his way back up to second place despite a couple of trips into the gravel. And Toni Elias resisted enormous pressure from Sylvain Guintoli to hold third, though seeing a Dunlop shod Tech3 Yamaha up at the front of the field was pretty amazing anyway. By now, of course, Casey Stoner knew two things, He knew that he was in front of Rossi and he knew that if he stayed there he'd take the title.So he was quite happy to circulate at a decent pace in fifth, and indeed was relaxed enough not to fight too hard when Melandri came through and demoted him to sixth.

Cruelly with just four laps to go Akiyoshi's Suzuki expired while the wildcard rider was in seventh place. A pretty poor reward for a fantastic ride. Another amazing ride from ateam green rider saw Westy come past Hayden and Barros to take seventh, despite his ride through penalty and some other excitement. Alex Barros also past Hayden, while the champion managed to stay in front of Hopkins and Vermeulen, who had been scrapping for tenth for much of the race. Valentino Rossi finished thirteenth, over a minute down and just ahead of Colin Edwards.

So Loris Capirossi has won the last three MotoGP races at Motegi. Ducati have won the World Championship for their first time. Casey Stoner has won the title fair and square, through a combination of mature and very skilled riding and a bike that behaved pretty much faultlessly. And one of the first people to congratulate him was Valentino Rossi, sporting to the very end.

With the title decided it's going to blunt things a little for the next three races. But there are still seventy five points up for grabs. That could make a huge difference to quite a few positions, something rather important to bear in mind as contracts are still being renegotiated in some cases...

In three weeks time we go to Australia. Stoner will get a hero's welcome, and rightly so. And the others will fight tooth and nail for the glory that remains. See you there...

SB

Results

1 Loris Capirossi (Ducati)
2 Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki)
3 Toni Elias (Honda)
4 Sylvain Guintoli (Yamaha)
5 Marco Melandri (Honda)
6 Casey Stoner (Ducati)
7 Anthony West (Kawasaki)
8 Alex Barros (Ducati)
9 Nicky Hayden (Honda)
10 John Hopkins (Suzuki)

Championship Points after 15 rounds

1 Casey Stoner 297 (2007 World Champion)
2 Valentino Rossi 214
3 Dani Pedrosa 188
4 John Hopkins 156
5 Chris Vermeulen 152
6 Marco Melandri 148
7 Loris Capirossi 130
8 Nicky Hayden 112
9 Colin Edwards 108
10 Alex Barros 91

PS That title? Back at Misano I said "They think it's all over..." Well it is now.