The beginning of Valentino Rossi’s season this year and his MotoGP title defence allowedw him to gain two second places behind his strongest rivals, Casey Stoner in Qatar and Jorge Lorenzo in Japan.

The results were a masterpiece of his consistency with the challenging Yamaha M1, Rossi does not enjoy coming second. He therefore celebrated with joy amongst a passionate Spanish crowd when he claimed his first win of the season at the Gran Premio bwin.com de España.

His Jerez performance was also vintage Rossi, then Le Mans was not what we all expected from The Doctor as he smashed in a difficult wet-dry event when he swapped onto slicks too early and then swapped bikes twice more before finally arriving home in 16th place.

Losing a seven-year winning streak at Mugello behind Stoner and Lorenzo was not enjoyable for Rossi, he increased the heat on his nearest competitors at the next round.

His last corner victory in Barcelona from rival colleage Lorenzo came at the finale of an interesting battle between the duo, it was a significant time with Stoner appearing with signs of an illness that weekend and the Aussie could only gain a distant third.

The threesome left Catalunya in a three way tie for the lead, but Rossi came back again with an amazing performance from pole at the Cathedral of Motorcycling, leaving Lorenzo to chase his shadow around the historic Assen track, as Rossi claimed the 100th GP win of his remarkable career.

Lorenzo was keeping the pressure on and both Fiat Yamaha competitors were on the stage again at Laguna Seca, Rossi second and Lorenzo third, behind a great performance from Dani Pedrosa. The journey to Germany for round nine allowed another Rossi-Lorenzo duel, with the Italian winning by just 0.099 seconds.

Some surprise results saw maiden MotoGP victor Andrea Dovizioso, Randy de Puniet and Colin Edwards on the podium in the final World Championship duel at Donington Park, however Rossi still extended his standings advantage. He picked up his bike after a smash on the wet-dry circuit to finish fifth having started on pole, while Lorenzo smashed out, Pedrosa was ninth and Stoner was fourteenth -  his final GP appearance to date.

This left Rossi with a 25 point lead over Lorenzo before adventuring to the Czech Republic. The trip to Brno was an ideal weekend for Rossi at the track where he scored his first victory on a 125cc motorbike in 1996,  he claimed another victory from pole as Lorenzo suffered his second consecutive DNF.

Two weeks later at Indianapolis, Rossi’s tries to repeat his debut Brickyard win from 2008, but it became disaster as he crashed out and Lorenzo swapped places with Rossi for the win. The points gap is now 25 points with only five events left.

Another Rossi-Lorenzo duel at Misano, meant that the local boy went into the break with a 30 point title advantage ahead of the ending races at Estoril, Phillip Island, Sepang and Valencia.

It takes a courageous man to bet against a seventh premier class title for Rossi, but the World Champion knows that Lorenzo will again challenge his title to the best of his ability.