I have no intention of talking about tyres today - well, not much, otherwise the subject of the single-tyre rule
might overshadow the mighty achievement of Valentino Rossi in winning his sixth title in the top class at Motegi
today and in the process giving Yamaha the constructors' championship and Fiat Yamaha the team title. Let's just
look at what Rossi achieved today after a torrid fight with Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa. Rossi now has eight world
titles, six in the premier class; only Ago, Angel Nieto, Mike Hailwood and Carlo Ubbiali have won more. Only Ago has
won more in the top class. Rossi also becomes only the second rider to regain the premier title after a two year
gap, again this equals one of Ago's achievements. Rossi's sixth top class title takes him past Mick Doohan and
closer to Ago's eight 500cc crowns.

By any standards the numbers alone mark Valentino out as an all-time great, but it's the manner of his achievements
that still impresses most. After another distinctly wacky celebration in which he sat down at a lawyer's desk to
have his eighth title officially validated (I am not making this up) he told us that this was the championship for
which he had to work hardest. He also considers that he is riding better than he ever has, making only one mistake
all year on the first lap at Assen. This is his third title on Yamaha, equalling the three he won with Honda,
something Vale obviously considers important; he pointed out that he had good times with Honda but 'I feel a lot
more a Yamaha rider.' Valentino is acutely aware of his place in the sport's history and he has 'some important
goals' for the next two years. They would include a hundredth GP win (he has 96 across all classes) and even Ago's record total of 122.

He won today with a Norrick Abe sticker on his helmet, a tribute to the Japanese 500cc race winner who died almost a
year ago in a traffic accident. A Japanese journalist asked him about the tribute and received as elegant, human and
charming an answer as you could hope for. Vale explained how when he first came to the 125s there was a gang of fast
Japanese riders who he liked and was great friends with, and how he was so happy to see them this weekend - Ueda,
Tokodume, Sakata and 'my teacher' Haruchika Aoki. But it was the Japanese GP of 1995 that made the young Rossi a
Norrick fan - he nearly wore out the video of that race. With typical attention to detail Vale's helmet sticker
showed a red bike with the green numbers - that was the Honda that Abe rode in that famous wild-card race , not the
Yamaha of his fulltime GP career.

This really isn't a time to talk about tyres, I'll do that tomorrow.