Analysis

The talking is over, the bikes are on the track, and a collective sigh of relief has risen from the paddock. We're racing again - well, practicing, but racing will come - and the pent up frustrations of 85 testosterone-addled, hypercompetitive, overactive young men have finally found release. That's not to say that there wasn't still plenty of talking going on - there was, mostly about Motegi, more of which later - but for once, we could talk about what was going on on track.

And that was pretty much a repeat of Le Mans, in all three classes. In MotoGP, Casey Stoner topped both sessions, and did so in intimidating fashion. His performance in the afternoon FP2 session was particularly impressive: with the track wet from the light drizzle that blighted the circuit on and off all day long, Stoner waited in the pits, watching what the other riders were doing in the conditions; fitted a set of wet tires to his Honda RC212V, went out on a fast lap and put two seconds on the field on his first complete lap out of the pits, did another lap and then came back in. He then sat waiting until conditions improved and the track dried out, then went out to do a few more laps, beating 2nd place man Marco Simoncelli by half a second, nearly nine tenths on Jorge Lorenzo in 4th, and two seconds on Valentino Rossi back in 7th.

Sometimes the pundits are right: the race weekend at Miller Motorsports Park turned out exactly as predicted, with a convincing double victory for Carlos Checa. The Spaniard put in a repeat performance of last year, with the crucial difference that on Monday, he avoided the technical problems that left him stranded by the wayside in both races. Checa was a little slow off the mark in race 1, taking all of 6 laps to take over the lead and run away with the race, the Althea Ducati rider treading carefully in the still chilly and uncertain conditions. Race 2 was a different matter altogether, Checa taking the lead into the first corner and out of sight by the end of the first lap. The Spaniard barely put a foot wrong all weekend, his only mistake being to slip over in the mud while trying to pick up a Ducati flag from a fan to celebrate victory in race 1.

But while Checa's record is impressive - six wins out of ten starts, with two more podiums thrown in for good measure - his 61-point championship lead is down to more than just his own dominance. Number 2 in the championship is Marco Melandri, who had a very mediocre weekend at Miller after a strong outing at Monza. In 3rd place is Max Biaggi, who seems determined to do everything in his power to lose his #1 plate in the most heartbreaking way possible this year.

Carlos Checa picked up on the first day at Miller where he left off after last year's race: running at the front but plagued by technical problems. The Spaniard dominated here last year, but was forced to pull out of both races when his Althea Ducati packed up. So it was a little bit worrying for Checa when, after blitzing straight to the top of the timesheets in FP1, Checa's 1198R packed up on him, with what was apparently diagnosed as an electrical problem. Going out on the second bike, Checa continued to dominate, until his bike packed up a second time in the same session, this time reportedly with gearbox problems.

Despite the painful echoes of 2010, Checa was back out in the afternoon, this time ending the first session of qualifying without any technical dramas, but with an advantage of nearly eight-tenths of a second over the nearest competition. The Spaniard was merciless from the start: his first flying lap during qualifying was faster than any other rider had managed during FP2, and he got quicker from there, eventually getting to within a couple of tenths of the race lap record. If the bike stays in one piece, it's going to be hard to beat Checa at Miller - if the weather stays dry, of course.

If you switched on for the last 10 minutes of qualifying at Le Mans this afternoon, you were in for a treat. A thrilling finale to qualifying reminded everyone of why MotoGP doesn't really need Superpole, as exciting as that can be on a World Superbike weekend. Casey Stoner finally secured his third pole of the season by just 0.059 seconds, or fractionally more than a bike length. Marco Simoncelli had been using his lanky frame to muscle the San Carlo Gresini RC212V around the track in pursuit of Stoner's time, but the Italian came up just a fraction short. With Simoncelli this close in qualifying, it should be a pretty close race, right?

Ask Colin Edwards, and he'll rid you of that delusion straight away: "I'm willing to make a wager," the Texan told MotoGP.com, "Stoner's going to win hands down unless someone takes him out or something strange happens. Looking at his lap chart, it's just phenomenal, he's doing lap times on the hard tire that I can't even qualify at." And indeed, looking at the race pace the riders were clocking before they put in soft rubber and stowed their common sense for a spot on the grid tells another story altogether: after putting on a fresh set of hard tires to finalize his race setup, Casey Stoner posted a bunch of laps in the mid-1'33s, where the other riders were happy to get close to low 1'34s in race trim.