Repsol Honda rider Valentino Rossi can clinch the MotoGP title in Brazil this weekend if he manages to win and second-place man Tohru Ukawa finishes off the podium. Rossi leads by 89 and has won each of the last four times he's been to Rio.

Including Brazil, there are five races remaining on the schedule.

So what lessons have we learned from Honda domination in MotoGP this season?

1. Always Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight.

Honda is at its heart a four-stroke company and when the new MotoGP rules where announced, observers were sure Honda's entry would be serious machine. Perhaps the most tested race bike ever built, rumors say the version first raced at Suzuka was the third generation of the RCV. It paid off as the others struggled with machines that were not quite ready for prime time. The Aprilia. The Suzuki.

2. The Band Played On.

Much consternation and theorizing has gone on about the rise of Superbikes in the 1990s. How could machines that weighed more, made less power, and -- according to some -- lacked pedigree because they were production based come so close to the lap times set by 500cc two-stroke beasts? MotoGP gave us the answer. Four-strokes make power in a way that makes for a faster race machine.

While the two-stroke smokers give the rider power in a sudden, explosion-like manner, the howling four-strokes build up force more gradually. Engineers found that 190+ horsepower delivered by the two-strokes was too much for the tires to handle -- especially on the exit of turns -- besides the horsepower levels of the 500s had stagnated the recent years. This more gentle power delivery manner allows the MotoGP bikes to use more peak power without melting the tire exiting the turn; it paid off at the end of the straight, where the smokers got literally smoked as the 990cc machines make like the Energizer Bunny. (A judicious amount of traction control didn't hurt, either.)

But that wasn't the only place the warm, fuzzy power band played a role. The explosiveness of the two-stokes had caused the 500s frames to be made as stiff as possible. The MotoGP bikes could be a little more forgiving and it paid off mid-corner in the turns when the bike is cranked at full lean and the suspension is taxed.

3. Always Get Your Man.

Honda has Val Rossi, the premier marquee rider in MotoGP, maybe the best rider in the entire world. Motorcycle racing has always been -- and hopefully always will be -- about the magical talents of the man at the controls, and young Valentino is once again head and shoulders above the competition. The only dents in his armor were the concentration lapse at South Africa where Ukawa won, and at the Czech go-kart track where Biaggi was beating him when Rossi's tire chunked.

They have the best, now what about the rest? Honda will run Daijiro Kato -- considered to be a riser in MotoGP circles -- on an RCV next year and they signed Nicky Hayden, the man that other guys wanted so badly. And Max Biaggi. 2003: it doesn't become an easier next year for Honda's rivals.

4. The K.I.S.S. Theory Wins Again.

"Do what you do best" is a simple creed, but one that is often ignored in both life and motor racing. As a company, Honda's strengths are four-stroke engine development, electronic engine management systems, and building a motorcycle as a complete package.

They have the capability to make almost anything, but Honda actually didn't over-reach with the RC211V. It doesn't have pneumatic valves or much electro-pneumatic mumbo jumbo. They refrained from "dyno blindness" and made a machine that has few weaknesses.

The end result is a somewhat conservative design with a lot of growing room.

Bad news for Honda's rivals.