MotoGP

Le Mans, France shares equal parts fame and infamy for motorsports fans. Famous for its renowned 24-hour car race, infamous as a result of the wet conditions with which it persistently plagues (or bestows, if you're a Ducati fan) the MotoGP series.

For the second year in a row, the skies above Le Mans opened up on the Sunday morning of the French motorcycle Grand Prix, but what would follow was not be a typically processional wet race with large gaps between the riders, each one seemingly content to ride at the pace with which he is most comfortable. 

Instead, Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso would exchange the lead nine times in the first 13 laps of the 28-lap contest, and halfway through the race there were six riders with a realistic chance of finishing on the podium.

For some mysterious reason apparently not known to anyone, Ducati's Desmosedici loves riding in the rain. All of the flaws that have for years been irrevocably inherent in the Desmo are seemingly wiped away when there is water on the racing surface. Gone is the lack of front-end feeling when on the brakes heading into the corners. Absent too are the mid-corner understeer and brutish power delivery which ravages the Desmo on corner exits.

As a result, Ducati achieved their best finish of 2012 at a rain-soaked Le Mans when Valentino Rossi took second place after a brilliant battle with the now retired Casey Stoner.

For 2013, Dovizioso, Rossi's replacement in the Ducati garage after the Italian icon left his compatriot manufacturer to resurrect his career with Yamaha, secured the holeshot from third place on the starting grid and, incredibly, led the race into Turn 1.

From there, he would battle back and forth with Pedrosa until the elder half of Honda's Spanish duo was finally able to pull a gap with 10 laps to go. It was his second consecutive win. After a slow start to the season, Pedrosa appears back to the form that saw him win six of the final eight races in 2012.

As Pedrosa was pulling away from Dovizioso, Yamaha Tech 3's Cal Crutchlow was rapidly gaining on the Italian.

Watching Crutchlow stalk and measure his former teammate brought back memories of 2012 when the Tech 3 duo could more often than not be found in a fierce battle from which Dovizioso usually emerged the winner.

This time, Crutchlow got the better of the duel. Throughout his time in MotoGP, the biggest knock against the British rider has been a perceived unwillingness to make an aggressive overtaking maneuver to find a way past the top riders in front of him. He did it twice in Le Mans. With 15 laps to go, Crutchlow got past Rossi with a clean inside move for third place. Ten laps later, he took advantage when Dovizioso's Ducati momentarily lost traction with the rear wheel, allowing Crutchlow to get his power to the ground more effectively and zip past the surely frustrated Italian.

The second-place finish was Crutchlow's best in MotoGP, and perhaps provided a vindication of sorts as rumors have been swirling about the Tech 3 team already having lined up Moto2 star Pol Espargaro as a replacement for Crutchlow in 2014.

Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez has been a MotoGP journalist's dream so far in his rookie campaign. He started the season in impressive fashion by battling nine-time world champion Rossi for second place in Qatar. He then surprised everyone by not only winning the inaugural GP at COTA in Austin, but making it look easy in the process. Then, of course, came the infamous last-corner incident with reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo in Jerez.

In Le Mans, the 20-year-old phenomenon qualified on pole and looked ready to once again dominate the headlines. However, this time he suffered a horrendous start and found himself mired in ninth place by the time he leaned into Turn 1. The middle of the pack is where Marquez would stay for 11 laps as he struggled to gain control of his RC213V in the wet conditions—Sunday being the first time the rookie had faced racing in the wet on a MotoGP bike.

Fittingly, once Marquez had it figured out, the first person in his sights was Lorenzo. The reigning champ had been struggling all race with stability under braking and traction with the rear. As a result, he was passed by just about everyone on a prototype machine as if he had a flat tire.

There would be no drama in their encounter this time. Lorenzo took a wide line indicative of his struggles through a left-hander, and Marquez flew by on the inside without incident.

Marquez would continue his methodical march toward the front until finally, with only one lap to go, he made it past the fading Dovizioso to claim third place, his fourth podium finish in as many premier-class races.

Yamaha needed success in the early part of the season. Qatar, Jerez and now Le Mans are all tracks at which the M1 has traditionally shined, while many of the later races are at tracks that seem to favor the Honda.

Yamaha took care of business in Qatar with a 1-2 finish, but Jerez, shockingly, saw Honda grab a 1-2 and Le Mans was nothing short of a disaster with Rossi crashing and Lorenzo finishing in seventh place. To put that in perspective, Lorenzo didn't finish lower than second throughout the entire 2012 season.

The next round continues the Yamaha-friendly trend at Mugello, another track that has been kind to the M1. They clearly have work to do if they hope to compete for the championship, but they still have the time in which to do it.

With the victory, Pedrosa displaced his teammate atop the overall championship leaderboard with 83 points. Marquez, now second, has 77. Lorenzo is a suddenly distant 17 points back in third place, and Crutchlow has leapfrogged Rossi into fourth place with 55 points. Rossi's 12th-place finish after rejoining the race was only good for four points, taking his total to 47.

For full race results, click here.

Just two races into his MotoGP career, 20-year-old Marc Marquez has announced his presence as the future of the sport.

While that is a bold proclamation, Marquez's stunning beginning to his career demands huge projections. 

The Catalonian became the youngest MotoGP winner in history on Sunday in Texas when he took the top spot in the MotoGP of the Americas. 

Ten News' Sandra Sully passed along that info: 

Marc Marquez breaks a 31-year-old record and is now the youngest person ever to win a MotoGP race, with an impressive peformance at Texas.

— Sandra Sully AM 📺🎧📲🏑🌺 (@Sandra_Sully) April 21, 2013

Marquez earned this win at the age of 20 years and 63 days. That is 136 days younger than Freddie Spencer was when he set the record for youngest premier-class grand prix winner back in 1982.

Marquez did so in thrilling fashion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx_l2U0hcd8

With just nine laps to go in Texas, Marquez had to make a nice pass of his teammate Dani Pedrosa. He wound up holding him off by just over 1.5 seconds. 

Defending season champion, Jorge Lorenzo, was third.

Marquez started this race on the pole but got off to a shaky start. However, with fearless and aggressive driving, he atoned to cap off an amazing week. 

Bridgestone MotoGP tweeted this tidbit: 

Not only did @marcmarquez93 become youngest ever #MotoGP winner he grabbed the trifecta of pole position, fastest lap & race win. Impressive

— Bridgestone MSport (@Bridgestone_MS) April 21, 2013

And really, as impressive as this is, no one should be all that surprised by what he was able to accomplish.

He entered this season after winning the Moto2 championship last year, and in the season's first race, in Qatar, he finished third. 

This win is not just notable because of his age. This is a sport that has been starved for newcomers as of late. 

As Crash.net points out, there hasn't been a MotoGP first-time winner since Ben Spies accomplished the feat in 2011.  

The accomplishments didn't stop with his victory. He is now tied atop the world championship standings with Lorenzo. 

While it is still way too early to start predicting Marquez to dethrone Lorenzo (there are 16 races left this season), I'm not going to count him out. 

And even if he doesn't win the championship this year, he will at some point. Marquez will have to learn to take more measured risks to gain the consistency needed to win a championship, but that will come with time. 

And time is definitely on this youngster's side.

Andrea Dovizioso shocked everyone by qualifying fourth-fastest for the opening race of the 2013 MotoGP season in Qatar—just .009s off the front row.

It was then equally surprising to see him rapidly fall down the order after just one lap of the race on his way to a seventh-place finish.

The element of Italy's two-wheeled pride and joy that has frustrated Casey Stoner, nearly ruined Valentino Rossi and now torments Dovizioso is understeer.

Understeer manifests itself in the Desmosedici by pushing it off its line in the corners.

This problem is compounded by the Desmo's other major flaw—a lack of grip from the rear tire once it begins to wear.

Dovizioso, wisely, is less concerned with the latter as long the the former persists (per MotorcycleNews.com):

We have to improve everywhere to stay in front but until we resolve the problem of turning then everything will be not so important because when the bike doesn’t turn you are slow and when the grip goes down the problem becomes bigger.

I pushed really hard to try and improve that point and we have tried a lot of set-ups but with just the set-up we can’t fix.

In summation: They still have absolutely no idea how to fix the problem, though it's painfully evident that some fundamental change is needed.

It can't, however, be said that Ducati isn't trying. 

In 2012—what would turn out to be Rossi's last year with his compatriot manufacturer—Ducati illustrated its willingness to change anything about the bike to make it competitive, even the carbon-fiber frame in which they had professed an impassioned belief for years.

The GP12 used a twin-spar aluminum frame that, it was widely believed, would fix the Desmo's understeer issue.

Even Rossi was optimistic at first (per Blog.Motorcycle.com):

I’m happy because first impressions are important, and already in the first few laps, I could tell that I like the bike. Ducati did a good job in a just a short time. The bike is beautiful, but more importantly, it’s nice to ride. The riding position has improved a lot, and it’s better on braking and corner entry.

I can brake like I want to and take the lines that I like, and I feel comfortable in general. I was able to ride well and not make mistakes, and there’s a reason for that. It means that the bike can be ridden. It’s more agile in change of direction, and it wheelies much less.

We’re 7 tenths back today, and of course there’s still a lot of work to do before we can win. We have to improve in some areas: acceleration, electronics, power delivery and setup. I’d say we’ll be able to make a more accurate assessment at the end of the test, because let’s remember, the bike is only 40 laps old.

To leave here a second back from the top would be okay because anyway, we know that there’s still much more to be done. But one of the best things from today is that the bike reacts well to changes. That enabled us to drop one or two tenths every outing, which means further progress should be possible

Sadly for MotoGP fans, the changes would not be enough to make the Desmosedici competitive, and The Doctor would spend another soul-crushing year trying in vain to fix his broken steed.  

What fooled Rossi is likely the same thing that allowed Dovizioso to post his impressive qualifying lap in Qatar (per MotorcycleNews.com):

We were so good in practice because we have more grip than Honda and Yamaha when the tyre is new. We can use that positive point to make the lap time but when that grip goes down all the problems come out and I can’t keep the same speed in the middle of the corner.

The reason why we have more grip is the set-up and we use the grip in a better way at the start. But we use the tyre more and our problems come out and become bigger and bigger lap-by-lap.

That's a shame, especially considering that Ducati has four really good motorcycle riders in its garages, including two Americans: Nicky Hayden of the factory team, and Ben Spies of the Pramac satellite team—all of whom are on full-factory machinery for 2013.

Whether or not having four separate sets of data in order to develop the Desmo was the right move, it is clear that Ducati are throwing everything they have at the problem. If they can get the Desmo fixed, what already promises to be a very exciting MotoGP season could turn into a barnburner.

Valentino Rossi made his decision to return to Yamaha for 2013 after two dismal years with Ducati to determine if he could still be competitive amongst the fastest motorcycle road racers in the world.

His preseason test performances indicated that he would be, but the first race action loomed as the true test of Rossi's abilities. 

Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez is the most highly touted MotoGP rookie since reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo. Marquez's 2013 competitiveness was assured, but perhaps not until he had a few races under his belt, and even then, only if the notoriously aggressive rider was able to stay on his bike.

Both riders started the opening race of the 2013 season from less-than-ideal positions, as the new 15-minute qualifying session did not work out well for either of them. With so little time to set a fast lap, both riders found themselves mired in traffic and unable to post a lap time reflective of their true capabilities. Rossi qualified seventh fastest, Marquez sixth. 

Still, Rossi's pace throughout the weekend indicated an ability to run with the leaders if he could get past the slower riders starting in front of him.

He passed two of them by the first corner.

One lap later, however, Rossi suffered what should have been a podium-dashing setback. Heading into Turn 1 of Lap 2, he attempted to take third place from Ducati factory rider Andrea Dovizioso who was directly in front of him. Rossi's move inside was successful, but after he got by Dovizioso he very nearly ran into the back of Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa who was carrying much less speed.

Rossi was forced to pick up his bike to avoid hitting Pedrosa's back tire, which of course made him run wide, lose a bunch of time and three positions. After more than a full lap and a lot of hard work, he was right back where he started the race—seventh place.

Marquez suffered no such setback in his drive toward the front.

On the second lap, Marquez followed Yamaha Tech 3's Cal Crutchlow past the already fading Dovizioso for fourth place.

Then, on the straight to finish the second lap and start the third, Marquez blew by Crutchlow—illustrating conclusively the superior power of the Honda—for third place.

Meanwhile, Rossi was stuck behind LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl for four laps. He was finally able to make it past the German on the eighth lap of the race then quickly pulled away from him.

For the next seven laps Rossi was on an Island, pulling away from Bradl and Dovizioso while inching closer to Crutchlow, Marquez and Pedrosa, who were all battling for second place.

With six laps to go, Marquez pulled past Pedrosa for second place on the start/finish straight.

One lap later, Rossi had caught and passed Crutchlow on the straight for fourth place. The British rider fought back, but unwisely, as he carried too much speed into Turn 1 which forced him to sit his bike up and run off the track.

With Cruthclow having no chance of catching up, Rossi set his sights on Pedrosa and the podium finish that only minutes before seemed to be pulling farther and farther away from him.

One lap later, he had it.

Pedrosa took a slightly wider-than-necessary line through a left-hander which allowed Rossi to slide by underneath and put himself in line for the podium with only four laps to go.

He was not done. On the very next lap, Marquez made the same mistake—this time in a right-hander—and Rossi took full advantage, sliding underneath the Spanish phenom to take second place.

It was thought by many that Marquez, surely trying to quell his reputation as an overly aggressive rider, would not fight as tenaciously as he had in the past during the first few races of his rookie premiere-class campaign.

Thankfully for everyone, that was not the case.

Marquez gave his RC213V all it had down the straight to start the penultimate lap and was able to pull even with Rossi as the riders approached Turn 1.

Marquez was on the outside of Rossi as both riders tipped their bikes into the turn. Rossi ran a little wide, and Marquez saw the window. He ducked his Honda underneath Rossi's Yamaha in the middle of the corner and accelerated past the Italian icon to reclaim second position.

Three corners later, Rossi pulled along the inside of Marquez as both riders prepared to lean into Turn 4. Rossi was in position for the inside line, and accelerated through the corner, past Marquez, and back into second place.

Marquez stayed close throughout the final lap-and-a-half of the race, but was unable to mount another overtaking attempt—Rossi shutting all the doors before they swung open wide enough to let Marquez through.

Jorge Lorenzo won the race on his factory Yamaha. He started from pole position and led the entire way.

As uninteresting as that was, race fans were nevertheless treated to a classic battle between the most famous motorcycle road racer of all time, and the young lion poised to take his place.

It appears MotoGP once again has its "four aliens."

The answers to the questions we have been asking ourselves since the midway point of last year will begin to be revealed, when the 2013 MotoGP season gets underway beneath the floodlights at the majestic Losail circuit in Qatar.

Few if any of those questions concerned the CRT riders and their machines. But I suppose some mention of them is compulsory in any MotoGP season preview, so we'll get that out of the way now.

They are not competitive, and they are not going to be competitive.

According to Frank Melling at MotorcycleUSA.com, the Power Electronics Aspar Aprilia team achieved their success (they finished 12th and 13th, ahead of the Cardion AB Ducati satellite team) because their bikes are in reality the factory Aprilias that were banned from World Superbike.

So, barring any unforeseeable events, they will finish atop the CRT field in every race. Granted, this creates a small measure of intrigue regarding which of the two teammates—Aleix Espargaro or Randy DePuniet—will finish ahead of the other, but the only way either one of them is going to place inside the top ten is if two or three of the factory or satellite bikes are no longer on the track.

The CRT experiment has created two different races taking place at the same time on the same track. It is a travesty. The purported rule changes for 2014 could profoundly alter things for the better, but it's not 2014 yet.

As for the prototype teams, there is intrigue on several fronts.

Earlier this year, Ducati announced that they were changing the development strategy for their notoriously finicky Desmosedici by equipping both the factory and satellite Pramac teams with identical GP 13 machinery.

This means—at least in theory—that Pramac team riders Andrea Iannone and Ben Spies will be at no disadvantage to their factory counterparts. However, it is fair to doubt the longevity of that status quo if Spies or Iannone (or both) regularly finish ahead of either factory-team rider.

Iannone—who finished third in each of the last three Moto2 seasons—is in his first year of premier-class competition, and has already shown a surprising aptitude with the difficult Desmo.

Rain has always served as an equalizer for the Ducati, so naturally all of the Desmo riders had their best performances of the preseason during the intermittently rain-soaked three-day test at Jerez—but Iannone impressed most of all.

Overall, he finished the test in eighth position with a best lap of 1:40.331, just .01 seconds behind Andrea Dovizioso of the factory Ducati team.

Iannone's Pramac teammate, Ben Spies, didn't fare as well.

The Texan is coming off of a wretchedly ineffective 2012 campaign with the factory Yamaha team in which everything that could go wrong did. From mechanical failures of every stripe to inexplicable crashes to food poisoning, Ben Spies had a lifetime's worth of bad luck in just six months.

His 2013 preseason has started off without any of last year's bad ju-ju, and he has finally declared himself fit after a lengthy recovery process from offseason shoulder surgery that stretched into the first two preseason tests of 2013.

The up-and-comer-turned-disappointment has a lot to prove, and he's going to have to do it on a bike that not even a seven-time premier class world champion could ride competitively in dry conditions over the last two years. But if he can be successful, it is going to be one hell of a story.

Cal Crutchlow returns to the Yamaha Tech 3 team after an impressive 2012 campaign that saw him earn two podium finishes and 150 points.The British rider was able to parlay his successful sophomore season into a new contract with the satellite team.

Crutchlow has looked to be in good form in the preseason, having finished with the fastest overall time (1:39.511 seconds) at the recent test in Jerez. Granted, things probably would have looked different if there had been more dry track time, but Crutchlow has been right at the heels of the top four factory bikes all preseason long.

Showing some of the frustration that goes along with being the neglected stepchild of a manufacturer's Grand Prix racing effort, Crutchlow told MotorcycleNews.com's Matthew Birt:

I want a strong start and then see what we can get from Yamaha over the year because that will play a big factor with how big the gap can be to the factory guys . . . On old machinery I am very happy with how the testing has gone but if we get some upgrades it will be even better again

While Crutchlow is not on a bike that will allow him to compete for the championship, he is close enough to slide past one or two of the top four riders and onto the podium, should they make a mistake.

Like Iannone, Bradley Smith is also in his first year of premier-class competition. However, Smith did not come close to matching the success of his Italian counterpart in Moto2.

His three podium finishes in 2011 were good enough to earn him a respectable seventh-place finish, but the following year he regressed, finishing only ninth in the overall standings without ever standing on the box.

He was therefore a surprising choice to fill the Monster Energy Yamaha Tech 3 seat vacated by Andrea Dovizioso.

He finished the final preseason test a disappointing 13th-fastest behind De Puniet's Aspar CRT and factory Ducati test rider Michele Pirro.

Young Smith has his work cut out for him if he is going to prove worthy of the ride he was given.

Go & Fun Honda Gresini's Alvaro Bautista had a solid if unspectacular preseason. He finished no better than sixth-fastest overall at any of the tests, but his fifth-fastest finish (only .51 seconds behind the leader) in the second session of the final Sepang test showed that he is capable of a competitive pace.

He suffered a fall in the wet during the second session of the Jerez test, and the resultant finger fractures forced him to sit out the final session.

Still, when healthy and confident, expect Bautista to challenge Crutchlow and Stefan Bradl for fifth place and even the occasional podium. He is, after all, on a factory-supported Honda.

Stefan Bradl, the 2011 Moto2 champ, looks primed for a breakout MotoGP campaign.

2013 will be Bradl's second season on the LCR Honda, and his 2012 success (eighth overall in the championship) has earned him additional factory support for the upcoming season.

After finishing fifth overall at the Jerez test, LCR Honda boss Lucio Cecchinello had this to say about what he anticipates from his rider in the upcoming season (per MotorcycleNews.com):

Historically in MotoGP there is a learning process. With Casey (Stoner) for example in MotoGP he did quite good when he arrived with us and then definitely the second year he was much better. I expect an improvement form Stefan. A couple of times last year he missed the podium and this year he needs to be more constant and get some podiums.

Bradl has given no reason to think Cecchinello's expectations are too lofty; he will be one to watch in 2013.

The factory Ducati duo of Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso will continue the manufacturer's years-long struggle for a return to Grand Prix relevance.

Not since Casey Stoner's 2007 world championship aboard the red-liveried Italian machine has Ducati's Desmosedici come close to competing with Honda and Yamaha for MotoGP supremacy. 

Dovizioso is the new guy. Fresh off of an impressive 2012 campaign aboard a Tech 3 Yamaha on which he scored six podium finishes on his way to fourth place in the overall championship, he will try to succeed where Valentino Rossi so publicly failed.

Hayden is, well, Nicky Hayden. No matter how dire and miserable the situation at Ducati may be, you can count on Hayden to let you know he's not satisfied, yes, but also looking forward to making the bike better and being more competitive.

That he is still able to sustain this mostly sunny disposition after struggling with the Desmosedici for four years is a testament to the strength of his character. And the fact that he was able to maintain his streak of consecutive seasons with a podium finish through three of those four years testifies with equal force to his skill as a rider.

With Audi now in control of Ducati Corse (their racing division), Hayden and Dovizioso will have the best chances of anyone since Casey Stoner to put the Desmosedici back on top of the podium. But it won't be easy for the Germans to figure out the answers to the questions that plagued the Italians for five years.

Success, if it is to come at all in 2013, certainly won't happen in the early part of the season. 

An old rivalry will be renewed inside the factory Yamaha garage in 2013, as Valentino Rossi will once again ride the same machine as Jorge Lorenzo, with whom he shared a tempestuous relationship in 2010.

Rossi returned to the M1 amid questions about his ability to compete with the younger crop of riders, after two disastrous years aboard Ducati's Desmosedici.

He answered those questions emphatically with the third-fastest overall time at the first 2013 preseason test in Sepang, accomplished while riding a bike that had undergone many changes since the last time he swung a leg over it.

Mechanical gremlins caused his second Sepang test to end in disappointment, but he rebounded nicely by posting the second-fastest time during the third and final preseason test, even though conditions in that test were less than ideal.

Rossi is back and ready to challenge for MotoGP supremacy in 2013.

Jorge Lorenzo will look to defend his 2012 championship aboard a machine that was tailor-made for him. The silky smoothness of the Yamaha's performance compliments perfectly Lorenzo's own fluid, flawless style.

The defense of his crown will not be easy: Rossi is back on a competitive machine, and the most highly touted rookie since Lorenzo himself sits atop the best bike on the grid.

Marc Marquez is an answer to the prayers of those fans who have complained about a lack of excitement in the premier class.

Marquez is young, brash and—some would argue—reckless. He is also immensely talented.

In the initial preseason test—his first dry time aboard the RC213V—the rookie finished with the third-fastest time, showing a level of comfort that few expected.

He then went on to utterly dominate all sessions of the private C.O.T.A. test in Austin, Texas.

The kid is for real, and—thanks to a seamless-shift gearbox and an advantage in power—he will put his talents to use aboard the best bike on the grid.

But he is still an overly aggressive rookie. Look for Marquez to challenge for race wins when he is able to stay on the bike all the way to the end.

That the Honda is the strongest bike surely aided Dani Pedrosa in the latter half of the 2012 season, but no one wins six of the last eight races without some serious talent of their own to help propel them.

After years of immense potential but disappointing results, Pedrosa finally came into his own in 2012.

He continued his newfound form by finishing fastest in each of the first four preseason test sessions—a spot which he quickly reclaimed in the sixth session.

One of the four factory Honda and Yamaha riders is going to claim the 2013 championship. Despite Lorenzo's victory last year, Dani Pedrosa's new form and the fact that he rides the fastest bike on the grid combine to make him the one to beat.

By all accounts, the brand new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas is outstanding.

F1 cars were the first to try out the track in November of last year, and the initial reviews were glowing; its undulating length was hailed by most drivers as challenging, but fun.

From March 12-14 the factory Yamaha and Honda MotoGP teams will head to the Texas track, with Satellite team LCR Honda in tow, for a three-day private test.

It will be the first time any of MotoGP's premier riders see the circuit. Consequently, it will provide a completely level playing field—one that Valentino Rossi believes will give him a better grasp of where he and his M1 stand in relation to his teammate and the Repsol Honda machines.

In his triumphant return to a competitive machine, Rossi finished the first Sepang test third fastest. In the second test, thanks to his M1's seeming reluctance to change the accursed nature that resulted in a nightmarish 2012 season for Ben Spies, Rossi finished fifth fastest, .78 seconds behind his teammate and reigning world champion, Jorge Lorenzo. But had he not been dogged by bad luck throughout the three-day test, there is no reason to believe Rossi would not have been just as close to the leaders as he was in the first go-around.

Historically, Rossi has ridden well at Sepang. The same holds true for Jerez, the site of the last remaining preseason test after Austin. Because all of the riders will essentially be starting from square one when they get to COTA, Rossi will be able to gauge his and his bike's performance against the others without qualifiers.

Here is what Rossi had to say about the test, per MotorcycleNews.com:

Austin is the more difficult test for me because I expect to be competitive in Jerez but Austin we don't know. In my mind I think I am competitive in Sepang and the M1 is always very fast there. I think and I hope it will be the same story in Jerez, which is a very good track for the M1 and me.

Austin will be another story because it is a new track. I have never seen it so it will be the most difficult test to understand our performance at a track that is maybe not positive for us. It will be a very important test to understand the level of the bike and the track.

The track itself has dramatic elevation changes, an abundance of blind apexes and an uncommon mix of both technical and fast sectors. 

It will be interesting to see which of the riders adapts quickest to the completely foreign circuit and  posts the best time on day one. To bet against the 34-year-old Rossi, and his 13 years of Grand Prix experience, would be unwise.

For the second time in the month of February, the best motorcycle road racers in the world were in Sepang, Malaysia with the goal of refining their prototype machines in preparation for the start of the 2013 season on April 7 in Qatar.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the weather gods did not cooperate as agreeably as they did in the first test just three weeks before.

The sky was overcast but the air free of rain drops when the riders took to the track on Tuesday February 26, the opening day of the test. Sadly, rain had fallen periodically over the previous two days and the track surface displayed the dirty, greasy characteristics one would expect to find after significant precipitation.

Despite those less-than-ideal conditions, Dani Pedrosa picked up right where he left off at the first Sepang winter test as he led the session with a best lap time of 2:01.580. It marked the fourth successive session in which Pedrosa established himself as the pace setter.

Perhaps most disconcerting for his competitors, Pedrosa posted three other lap times that all would have been good enough to put him atop the time sheet.

Pedrosa's Repsol Honda teammate, Marc Marquez, continued his impressive rookie-campaign by finishing third, just .362 seconds behind the leader.

Reigning world champion and factory Yamaha lead rider Jorge Lorenzo once again played second fiddle to Pedrosa, a position he occupied in all three sessions of the first Sepang test. He finished the opening session .235 seconds off the pace.

The most surprising development of the day was LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl who finished in fourth place.

Typically low-key, the German rider offered this understatement when asked about a session in which he finished ahead of Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow (per motogp.com): "By the end of our running we had found ourselves in a good position, so that was good."

Speaking of the nine-time world champion, Rossi had the most frustrating day of any factory rider. An unspecified "electrical fault" confined his 2013-spec M1 to the garage for the entirety of the morning session and forced him to use the 2012 machine. Before he could get the 2013 M1 out on track in the afternoon, the skies opened up and didn't cease releasing their burden until it was too late—any chance of more dry track time on Tuesday had vanished. Rossi finished the session in a disappointing fifth place, but still only .448 behind the leader.

Wednesday, the second day of the test, brought with it a full eight hours of dry track time and a surprising improvement from the factory Ducati team.

Nicky Hayden completed 69 laps, more than the distance of three races, and his teammate Andrea Dovizioso completed 49 laps. Both riders posted their fastest times of the year—Hayden with a 2:01.778 and Dovizioso with a 2:01.803, good for eighth and ninth place, respectively.

Hayden summed up the improvement (per Crash.net): “The good weather helped us to do a full day, and although it wasn't easy, we did a good step. We tried some things with the fork that really helped smooth out the bumps, and I had improved feeling and much better consistency."

Rossi's fortunes were very nearly the opposite of his former team's on day two. He experienced another technical problem with his M1 in the morning and finished the day in fifth place again, but his time was .783 seconds behind the leader—bringing to mind the ill luck Ben Spies experienced throughout the 2012 season on Yamaha's second factory bike.

The stars of the day were Lorenzo and Crutchlow. 

Lorenzo was the first man to beat Pedrosa in 2013 with a scorching lap of 2:00.282—still not as fast as Pedrosa's 2:00.100 in the third session of the previous test, but impressive nonetheless.

Crutchlow managed a third-place finish, ahead of Marquez and Rossi, with a time of 2:00.907. Afterwards, he was pragmatic in his assessment of his impressive day (per MotorcycleNews.com):

I'm happy with my pace because we've tried a couple of different settings and we need to work on fine-tuning the best one. The main goal has been trying to stop the front of the bike lifting so much when I change direction on the throttle.  The bike feels quite heavy so we need to reduce how much the fork comes up without sacrificing too much in another area like the braking.

I'm sure if I had put in some new tyres at the start of the day I could have gone faster. But I waited to use mine around lunch and I still went faster, even though the track temperature was much higher at that point. I'm not really too concerned about the times though. I'm just concentrating on making the package we have got better for the first race in Qatar.

The morning session of the third and final day, if nothing else, gave the riders a chance to test their wet setup. Marquez, aggressive to a fault, went down on the wet track, but it was only a minor tumble and he was able to walk away unscathed.

Once the track dried out in the afternoon, the Repsol Honda duo solidified their standing as the strongest team.

Pedrosa led the session with a best lap of 2:00.562, and, though it was only a preseason test, Marquez finished in second place for the first time in the premier class—only .081 seconds behind his teammate.

Pedrosa expressed his satisfaction with the three-day test (per TheCheckeredFlag.co.uk):

“This morning we were able to try out the wet weather setup; it was only for a short time, but nevertheless we were able to put in some laps with it. In the afternoon, with the track dry and with slicks, we continued working on suspension settings. Overall, it’s been a positive three days. Now we’re off to Austin, and this is going to be an interesting test for the team and for myself. We’ve never ridden there and it’s a new track”.

Rossi's struggles continued on the third day.

This time, instead of an electrical problem, it was the M1's brakes that betrayed him (per Crash.net): "Today it was the brakes - we lost time modifying the setting because the bike didn't stop and then after one and a half hours we understand that the problem was the brakes. The system lost pressure. So we were unlucky."

Unlucky? Yes, absolutely. But, that Rossi still managed to finish just .070 seconds behind Lorenzo indicates that once he becomes better acclimated with the M1, Rossi will be fighting with Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Marquez for race wins. Unless, of course, Ben Spies' old bike continues its pernicious ways.

Spies himself continued the struggle of returning to full fitness following offseason shoulder surgery.

He finished day three in 14th place behind Randy DePuniet (who rides a CRT machine) and Ducati test rider Michele Pirro. 2013, at least initially, is shaping up to be a long, arduous trek toward competitiveness for Ben Spies.

Two riders who left Sepang under more positive circumstances were Stefan Bradl, whose LCR Honda is now "factory supported," and Alvaro Bautista.

After his impressive day-one performance, Bradl finished both of the subsequent sessions in seventh place, and was happy to be there. He is still getting to know his newly factory-supported machine, and believes it has more to give (per TheCheckeredFlag.co.uk):

It has been another productive test for us! We still have to improve few tenths of a second but we did anyway good progress with the new bike. We found some interesting front suspension settings, which allowed us to increase the front tyre feeling and some new traction control map gaining a bit more drive in the corner exits. I am looking forward to discover the new circuit in Texas and continue our bike development!

Bautista was equally upbeat after finishing fifth in the final session, only .016 seconds behind Rossi.

His Go & Fun Honda Gresini is the lone prototype machine using Showa suspension—the rest choosing Ohlins—and it has been postulated that Honda, who owns a controlling interest in Showa, was forcing the suspension components on the Spanish rider's machine.

Whether they are or not, it appears the Showa suspension is up to the task of competing with Ohlins.

After the test, Bautista gushed about his machine (per thecheckeredflag.co.uk):

I am delighted. Things couldn’t have gone much better than they did today. This has been an extremely useful and positive test for us. Now we know we have the tools to fight at the front but more importantly we have gained an understanding of the changes we need to make in order to make swift improvements to the set-up. My feeling with the bike was really good today. There were already some positive signs yesterday and we were able to confirm them today. I can’t wait to get back on track because I am having a lot of fun with this bike at the moment.

With Bautista, Bradl and Crutchlow all showing the pace to fight for the podium, and, of course, Rossi's presence atop a competitive machine and newcomer Marquez's tenacious style and blisteringly fast pace, it appears 2013 may be the most competitive MotoGP season in a very long time.

It took the exasperated departure of their national hero and sport icon Valentino Rossi after two dismal, failure-ridden years, but it appears that Ducati are finally doing absolutely everything they can to improve their notoriously finicky GP machine, the Desmosedici. 

The Desmo wasn't always a manic machine to ride. In fact, its first year in MotoGP started with considerable success.  

In 2003, Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss were the first pilot's of Italy's new two-wheeled racing machine. In the opening race of the season, Capirossi, an Italian, put his country's two-wheeled pride and joy on the podium with a third-place finish. 

Five races later, Capirossi won the Desmo's first Grand Prix victory in Catalunya, Spain. The Italian manufacturer would finish their maiden season of Grand Prix racing second overall in the constructors championship, trailing only Honda, who had World Champion Valentino Rossi piloting one of their machines. 

After two relatively fruitless seasons during which the Desmo began to develop the negative reputation that has dogged it ever since, 2006 provided something of a resurgence.

Capirossi took victory in the first race of the season. Ducati would go winless in the next 10 races, but would then win three of the last six. 

Their final win of the season came at the closing round in Valencia, Spain. Troy Bayliss, having just achieved his second World Superbike title for Ducati, returned to the MotoGP team for the injured Sete Gibernau. Bayliss rode as if he had never left—better, actually. He qualified in second position, quickly went into the lead after the start and then led the rest of the way, all 30 laps of the race. It was a dominant performance and a fitting end to Bayliss' GP career.

Casey Stoner began building his legend as the only rider able to successfully and consistently tame the Desmosedici in his 2007 championship season.

In 2008 he scored 280 points on his way to a second-place finish, it remains the highest point total for a runner up in MotoGP history.

However, Stoner's fortunes began to shift in 2009. He started the season strong, but then became afflicted by a mysterious illness that was eventually diagnosed as lactose intolerance but not before it forced him to miss three consecutive races, effectively putting an end to any championship aspirations for that season. The bike was also becoming more difficult to ride.

In 2010, the Desmosedici defiantly and definitively turned on its new master. 

Stoner crashed out of the first and third races and didn't register his first podium of the season until the sixth race.

What happened?

The lack of front-end feel that Stoner and Ducati had been struggling with continued to worsen until eventually not even Stoner could effectively ride the thing.

The reasons behind Stoner's ability to ride the Desmosedici better than anyone before him were two-fold. First and foremost: he rode like a mad man, which is what one has to do when they are not getting any feedback from the front end. If they are going to go fast, they must always be on the edge.

The second reason was his particular riding style. Having started racing motorcycles on dirt tracks, Stoner learned at a very young age how to ride without much front-end feel.

It was these two factors, his style and experience, that allowed him to master the Desmosedici.

Rossi, who had learned to ride on minibikes and is more of a tactician on the track, never had a chance. 

Rossi himself has admitted as much: "Casey was the only rider that can be fast with the Ducati. All the other guys that try have destroyed not only their career but their mind, so congratulations to Casey."

Before switching to Ducati, Rossi had amassed 136 premier-class podiums including 79 wins. 

In his two years with the Bologna factory he only had three podium finishes. One of them came in a wet race—a condition that lessens the Ducati's problems—and the other two came because Dani Pedrosa, who would have finished in front of him, crashed out of the races.

An icon disparaged, Ducati now had no choice but to pull out all the stops to regain credibility in the MotoGP paddock.

With Andrea Dovizioso taking Rossi's place in the factory garage alongside Nicky Hayden, and Andrea Iannone and Ben Spies piloting the Ignite Pramac "satellite" team, Ducati saw a chance to have four legitimate MotoGP riders offer them feedback on the Desmosedici. 

Both teams, all four riders, will have full factory machinery in 2013.

Some critics will say that none of these four riders have ever successfully developed a bike, or that the best way would be to have one clearly defined leader on whom the manufacturer can lean.

Ducati are hoping that four minds working on the same project and four divergent sets of data will expedite development.

No matter if you agree with Ducati's tactics or not, there is no denying their desire to improve as evidenced by their willingness to dedicate vast amounts of money toward that end. And they may not have that long of a road left to travel.

If the path to success is paved with failure, Ducati’s journey must be nearly at an end.