Motegi is a circuit that should be familiar to anyone who has ever played any racing game on any games console because it seems to feature in absolutely everything. And why not? From a racing point of view it's a cracking circuit, with tight, ultra technical sections, scary flat out kinks and some pretty steep elevation changes. Technically it's extremely demanding, with particular emphasis on braking and acceleration. In fact, bikes have to run bigger front discs to dissipate the heat they build up and the tyre manufacturers have to develop a specific Motegi front tyre to cope with the extra loads generated through having the front mashed down under hard braking so many times each lap.

Talking of tyres, by the way, it was announced this weekend that MotoGP will be following SBK and becoming a single tyre manufacturer series. Who that manufacturer is isn't known, but we do know that it won't be Dunlop, who officially withdrew from proceedings almost as soon as the announcement was made.

Anyhow. Coming to Motegi with a commanding eighty seven point lead, Valentino Rossi simply needed to finish on the podium to tie up the championship with three rounds still left to go. Interestingly, this isn't one of the Italian's best circuits, having never won here on a four stroke. But he's been on the podium plenty of times, though, and also lost the title her last year. If we're looking at strong histories then it's Loris Capirossi we should be commenting on, having won the last three GPs here on the trot, all with Ducati.

But enough of history. This year's meeting started off where Indianapolis finished. Wet and cold. Wet practice sessions are fine if the rest of the weekend stays the same, but in this case it was just Friday, Saturday dawning warm and sunny. That's OK for the bigger teams and more experienced riders who can get themselves a setup that works fast from existing base data. But newer riders and smaller teams struggle when they lose a couple of hours to inclement weather, let alone a whole day. And so it as that the wet Friday saw four world champions in the top slots, with 2006 champ Hayden leading Rossi and Stoner from current 250 champion Lorenzo.

Saturday, as I said before, was warm and sunny. Casey Stoner wasted no time in stamping his authority on the circuit, recording a practice time over a third of a second faster than Rossi, with only Pedrosa coming any closer than that. But while practice may be good for head games, Valentino Rossi seems impervious to them. The only way to beat The Doctor is to be faster than him when it counts. And practice doesn't count.

Qualifying turned things slightly on their head. Though Stoner took and held pole he didn't have it all his own way. In fact, for a while it looked as thought Capirossi's previous good form would put him back at the front. Colin Edwards, too, made a foray to the top of the grid before being beaten by the Suzuki rider. But it was Stoner who had the controlling hand, scorching though to knock Nicky hayden (who had just deposed Capirossi) off the top and secure his pole position. Or it would have secured pole, had Jorge Lorenzo not produced to astonishing laps, one after the other, both of which were faster than the Ducati rider and dealt another blow to Stoner's confidence.

So the grid saw Lorenzo heading Stoner and Hayden on the front row. Rossi sat behind his team mate, joined on the second row by Pedrosa and Capirossi. Row three saw Colin Edwards in front of Randy de Puniet and Shinya Nakano while the top ten was closed off by James Toseland on the front of the fourth row after a difficult qualifying session dogged by wheelspin and side grip problems.

Race day was mercifully dry, and despite the occasional drop of rain which manifested itself during the earlier races remained pretty much the same throughout. Dry but nowhere near as warm as Saturday, which could have the capacity to make a huge difference to setup as cooler track means less tyre wear, generally, and therefore perhaps a softer compound might be in order. Or perhaps not.

So lights out and it was Casey Stoner who made a fantastic start, bettered only by Dani Pedrosa who came from fifth to be second by the first corner. Lorenzo made a poor start off the line but then muscled past Rossi to take fourth while Nicky Hayden settled into third. Wildcard Kousuke Akiyoshi on the third Suzuki took an extremely early bath, throwing the blue machine into the gravel on the very first corner and retiring to have a rather one sided conversation with Paul Denning in the Rizla Suzuki pit.

After what seemed an age, the first lap was complete. Stoner came through with Pedrosa glued to the back of the Ducati, then Nicky Hayden followed by Lorenzo with Rossi all over him like a rash. Capirossi sat in sixth with a bit of a gap already forming both in front and behind him. Colin Edwards was just ahead of Toseland, who had also made an excellent start, with Shinya Nakano just behind.

Rossi dived underneath Lorenzo to take fourth on the first turn of lap two, passing hayden easily enough just a couple of corners later. And up at the front Pedrosa appeared to outbrake himself and went through a corner far faster than Stoner, positively flying past him on the exit and immediately setting about making a gap for himself. It didn't quite work that way, though, and the Ducati stayed pretty close behind him all the time. During this lap the gap from the lead group to the following Capirossi grew to over a second. And Rossi himself was over a second faster than Pedrosa and Stoner. The stage was being set for the mother of all battles.

It was clear that the diminutive Stoner and even smaller Pedrosa were considerably quicker than Rossi accelerating out of the tight sections. But Rossi was destroying them everywhere else, and by the end of lap three he was right with them and pushing hard. At the right hander at the bottom of the long downhill back straight, Stoner made a particularly aggressive pass on Pedrosa - sufficient that he held his hand up to apologise afterwards - and retook the lead. Pedrosa was forced to run wide and roll off a little, a combination that spells disaster when Valentino Rossi is on your tail. And so it was this time, Pedrosa going into the lead and coming out third. Slightly further back, Jorge Lorenzo and Nicky hayden were having a hell of a scrap, decided on the next lap as Lorenzo made an heroic pass to take a solid fourth place and start trying to reel in his arch rival Pedrosa. Up at the front, Stoner and Rossi were pulling out around half a second a lap on Pedrosa. Not because the Spaniard had slowed but because they were going so very well.

Everything settled down for a bit at this point. Pedrosa was slowly being overhauled by Lorenzo, Rossi was slowly closing on Stoner and everyone else was slowly catching Capirossi. In fact the majority of the action for a while happened in the fight for sixth, which eventually became the fight for fifth as the pack caught Nicky Hayden. Andrea Dovizioso, who had a dire qualifying and a not much better start, fought his way through and took ninth from Toseland at the halfway point, joining on the back of the pack but failing to get any further. Toseland then spent the next fifteen laps tussling with John Hopkins, losing out on the final lap and being demoted to eleventh after a worthy ride. Hopper, then, made a welcome return to the top ten, a long way behind Dovizioso who wasn't able to move up past Nakano, Edwards and Capirossi whose six wheel freight train was all over the back of Hayden's Honda. Still behind, though, which will have made Hayden happier.

Lap fourteen saw an extremely robust block pass by Rossi, putting the Italian into the lead and allowing him top open an immediate gap of over half a second. No doubt about it, Rossi had got Stoner phased as the Australian seemed to have no response to the string of fastest laps the Yamaha rider put in, despite having spent the earlier part of the race trading lap records.

And so it was that Rossi simply extended an unassailable lead. No big drama on his part, just lap after lap of inch perfect riding. And while Rossi rode demo laps, Stoner got more and more ragged just trying to maintain the pace. No disrespect to the guy - anyone else would have been in the gravel at best - but quite simply today Valentino Rossi made Stoner look like the relatively inexperienced kid he really is.

A few seconds back, Lorenzo and Pedrosa were locked together in a struggle which only finished at the hairpin at the top of the back straight when Lorenzo ran in hot and clipped the back of Pedrosa's bike. Though both stayed on it affected the Yamaha rider's rhythm enough that he dropped back by a couple of tenths and conceded the last podium spot to Pedrosa.

So Valentino Rossi won his eight world title - his sixth in the premier class - after a two year break. Only Giacomo Agostini has managed that before. Indeed, only Ago has won more GPs or more titles, and I'm sure that Rossi will be aiming to lift both of those records before he retires.

There are three rounds still remaining and Rossi can relax in the knowledge that the title is his. Which should mean he rides around as has fun. Of course, what will happen is that he'll race as hard as ever and be fighting for the top slot everywhere. And oh boy does he go well at Phillip Island...

SB

Motegi MotoGP Results

1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
2. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
4. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
5. Nicky Hayden (Honda)
6. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)
7. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)
8. Shinya Nakano (Honda)
9. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)
10. John Hopkins (Kawasaki)

MotoGP standings (after fifteen rounds)

1. Valentino Rossi 312 (2008 MotoGP World Champion)
2. Casey Stoner 220
3. Dani Pedrosa 209
4. Jorge Lorenzo 169
5. Andrea Dovizioso 136
6. Colin Edwards 118
7. Chris Vermeulen 117
8. Nicky Hayden 115
9. Loris Capirossi 96
10. Shinya Nakano 95