Inaugural race = Edge of your seat

100% entertainment - and then some. The first race of 2010 under the lights at Qatar certainly set a high bar for expectations of the rest of the season. Seventeen bikes and riders started, only 13 finished....

The biggest surprise - Casey Stoner, who crashed out of the lead relatively early on.

The biggest disappointment - Alvaro Bautista, who washed out in the last turn on the last lap of his first ever MotoGP race.

Mika Kallio and Aleix Espargaro also crashed out about half way through the race in unrelated incidents.

Cruising over the line to his first victory of the new season was none other than Valentino Rossi. Although not a flawless win for Rossi, he did manage to pull a fairly comfortable lead during the last two laps. His extra push may have come from Andrea Dovizioso who steadily made his way through the pack to overtake teammate Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden before a short-lived game of cat and mouse with Valentino.

Ultimately, Dovi eeked out a spot on the podium - eleven THOUSANDTHS of a second ahead of (or, beside, as it were) Nicky Hayden. Nicky ran an absolutely amazing race. He came out of the box strong and maintained a masterful grip on that big red Duc that has given him so many problems over the past couple of years. He held a podium position for most of the race, which made the final lap damn near heart breaking to watch. Great start to the season for him nonetheless - he's got to be happy with that one.

Second place went to Jorge Lorenzo who fought his way up from fairly deep in the field. It's not so surprising to see Jorge on the podium - he seems to have made that quite the usual protocol since his MotoGP debut - what is surprising is that he did it while riding with a rather significant right-hand injury. Respect.

Marco Simoncelli managed to stay up-on-two throughout the race after two confidence-shattering crashes during the practice sessions - hopefully that will give him a boost going into the next round.

All in all, a fantastic race (that had me screaming at the tv like an idiot)... just the way we like em'. Oh, and I can't forget to lend praise to Dorna for stepping up the broadcasts to HD - New season, new bikes, new riders, under the lights, on the big-ass flat screen, in high definition....

I need a moment.....

Until next time (Motegi - 2 weeks)

Rubb'er Down!!

Kristen