MotoGP - Will Rossi Catch Up?

TEAMCAR - What's the story with Valentino Rossi. Surely he can't really be struggling this much.

What is he doing? His qualifying performance is going backwards. Each race, at present, he is starting further and further back and then storming through the field to end up not quite winning. And not quite winning is probably enough for Rossi to make sure that he can come from behind at the end of the season and overhaul Nicky Heydon's championship lead to be World Champion again.

On Sunday, Rossi did something almost unheard of: he retired. Before that, he was doing his thing of scything through from almost the back to almost the front. Almost unheard of until the French GP in May this year.

In May, Rossi suffered a very rare engine failure with his Yamaha. He was miles in front at the time. Then on Sunday his bike packed up again, seemingly suffering heatstroke. But once again, he had come from the back almost to the front.

In Malaysia, everyone knows what to expect. The bikes will be set up and the tyre engineers will be ready for both heat and the possibility of heavy rain.

Rossi trails Hayden by enough points to make it difficult to catch up. But with five races to go, and Hayden's self-destructive tendencies, it's not over yet.

Rossi's not sandbagging: he's having his toughest season yet. But he's not giving up. He knows that all he has to do is win almost all the remaining races and that one DNF for Hayden will bring him back within easy reach if Rossi's at the pointy end. There's no betting against those things happening before the end of the season.