It’s been decades since there was a decent land war in Europe, but today’s match in Portugal, generally one of those silly little neutral countries, provided many of the nationalists in attendance with some happy moments. At the top, as mentioned, Australia defeated Spain.

Estoril, the slightly faded jewel of the Portuguese Riviera, hosts Round 3 of the 2012 MotoGP season. It says something about a track that goes from hosting races late in the season (Round 14 in 2009, Round 17 in 2010) to hosting them early (Round 3 in 2011 and 2012.).

The Moto2 race held an hour earlier on Sunday was called after 17 laps due to rain. As the premier class race approached, garages were frantically trying to decide on set-up and tires, not knowing whether conditions would be dry, wet or both. Moto2 winner Pol Espargaro described it as a “lottery.” Race Direction simplified everything by declaring it a Dry Race, regardless of the conditions. Bottom line – Stoner, Lorenzo and Pedrosa went out on soft front and rear slicks, while the white-hot Tech 3 Yamaha s went out on harder compound. Gavin and Emmett were all a-twitter about tire conservation. The sun came out. The tires, it would turn out, had little to do with anything.

Round Two of the 2012 MotoGP season blows into southern Spain for the first of four Spanish tilts, theGran Premio bwin de España. Jerez is usually one of the best races of the year, both in terms of on-track competition and the concentration of Spanish beauties adorning the stands. The guys with the easiest jobs this weekend are the photographers charged with collecting shots of Paddock Girls. Those with the hardest jobs are Casey Stoner and Ben Spies, who need to find a way around the two dominant Spanish riders at their home crib in Andalusia.

If you enjoyed seeing a lot of The MotoGP Aliens in 2011, you’ll love the 2012 edition. 2011 Champion Casey Stoner looks ready to set track records that will last a decade. Yamaha Big Deal Jorge Lorenzo, on the lesser #99 factory bike, is desperate to stay in the conversation for the title, but running uphill, racing at the limit all the time. For the first time ever, the high fliers of MotoGP will be overtaking slower CRT bikes in the turns during the second half of races. Courting disaster, if you ask me.

The historic dry lakebed track is one of the most famous racecourses in the world, with, arguably, the single most famous turn of any racetrack, the Corkscrew. From Turn 8 to Turn 9 a rider descends more than 10 ten stories in a breathtaking left-right transition. To see it on TV is awe-inspiring, to witness the feat in person, when a freight train of unbaffled MotoGP bikes navigate the corkscrew, is a bucket list item for every motorcycle racing enthusiast.

At the start, today’s race reminded me of my bowling days, when I would miss the headpin to the left, leaving the 1, 3, 6 and 10 pins standing in a row. Heading into turn one of lap one, it appeared that Andrea Dovizioso’s rear tire came into brief contact with Alvaro Bautista’s front. In a flash, Bautista slid into Valentino Rossi, who slid into Randy de Puniet, who slid into Nicky Hayden. All four riders left the track amid a shower of sparks, asses over teakettles, with pieces of motorcycles flying all over the place. Dovizioso inadvertently picking up the spare meant the day was, incredibly, over for the factory Ducatis, Team Suzuki and half of Pramac Racing. 12 riders remained to finish the race, an inauspicious start after the tragedy at Sepang.

The 2011 MotoGP season that started with a bang in Qatar now ends with a whimper in Valencia. What might have been a jubilee year of celebration for Honda Racing Corporation came to a brutal, heartbreaking close on the tarmac of Sepang last month. The usually raucous, testosterone-fueled grid that is the premier class of grand prix motorcycle racing returns to Spain to mourn one of its own. Unfortunately, amid the grief and shock, there remains business to be taken care of.

I have been one of the harsh critics of Marco Simoncelli this season, his first on a factory spec RC212V. After Round 1 at Qatar I commented on his “rugged riding style.” At Estoril, he seemed almost out of control, crashing twice in practice, qualifying second, and crashing out of the lead during the race. At the time, he seemed almost shocked at how fast he was able to run. Round 4 brought the unfortunate incident with Dani Pedrosa about which much has previously been said and written. Silverstone brought another crash, Assen yet another, one in which he took Lorenzo out of contention, pushing too hard on cold tires.

Check back on Monday for the full report of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

At perhaps the most scenic circuit on the entire MotoGP tour, the run-up to today’s race was anything but pretty. 17 riders made the trip from Japan to Australia. Before qualifying practice, that number was down to 16. After qualifying, it became 15. Finally, at the end of the warm-up practice, it fell, literally, to 14. Starting a grand prix with only 14 riders must give Dorna majordomo Carmelo Ezpeleta a bad case of the heebie jeebies.

As the 2011 championship season winds to a close, the remaining question is not IF Casey Stoner will be crowned the new world champion, but WHEN. Leading defending champ Jorge Lorenzo by 40 points with three rounds left, Stoner could easily clinch at home this weekend on his 26th birthday. In order for this to occur, two things must happen: Stoner must win the race, and Lorenzo must fail to reach the podium. In this scenario, the Repsol Honda team has good reason to keep the champagne on ice.

Let’s not forget that Japan is still suffering the effects of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis that struck the country in March. Industrial production has been hammered, people are still improvising housing arrangements, and unemployment has increased significantly. Components of the food supply have been tainted by radiation. The electrical grid remains a shambles, with huge questions facing the people concerning their ongoing reliance on nuclear power. Nonetheless, almost 35,000 hardy souls made their way to Motegi for the three MotoGP races today. In the premier class tilt, they certainly got their money’s worth.

After seven months of tragedy, uncertainty, posturing and, finally, contrition, MotoGP makes its annual visit to Japan this week. Thus begins the three-races-in-one-month Pacific swing that will officially decide the 2011 championship. Casey Stoner, having already unofficially won this year’s title, headlines an octet of Honda riders, as HRC stacks the deck in a show of support for its homeland, manufacturing base and internal combustion in general.

The windy, cold, leaden skies at Alcañiz today resembled the mid-October Normandy coast more than the usually sunny Spain in late summer. The factory Honda s, including Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli, dominated practice all weekend, with the exception of Friday afternoon, which was scrubbed due to a power failure. Factory Yamaha pilots Lorenzo and Ben Spies had tried everything they could, but simply were not as fast as the Hondas. As the bikes lined up on the grid Sunday, Lorenzo was hoping simply to podium, as winning appeared out of the question.

Round 14 of the 2011 MotoGP season finds the two leading lights of premier class racing facing off for the third time in Spain. Back in April, Yamaha kingpin Jorge Lorenzo won by a mile at Jerez, while Repsol Honda stud Casey Stoner was busy getting taken down and out by one Valentino Rossi. In early June, it was Stoner’s turn, as he led Lorenzo all day in a rather dull Catalan procession. With 35 points separating the two in September, Lorenzo is under enormous pressure to take the tiebreaker.

At the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca round in July, Steve Rapp qualified his Mission R with a lap of 1:31.376, just 10 seconds off the time of MotoGP pole-sitter Jorge Lorenzo. Could you, riding your bike, get within 10 seconds of Lorenzo and his Yamaha?

As usual this year, the Aliens dominated the practice sessions and claimed their typical top six positions in qualifying. The top three – Stoner, Lorenzo and Pedrosa – got away quickly, with Lorenzo taking the early lead. The only real surprise in the early running was Valentino Rossi, who, by Lap 2, had coaxed his Ducati from the 11 hole to fifth position. Although the local hero would ultimately fade to seventh, his fans, who numbered in the thousands trackside, had at least a glimmer of hope, both for today and tomorrow.

After a productive Sunday in Indiana, Casey Stoner leads the shock troops of MotoGP to the scenic shores of the Adriatic Sea for Round 13. Enjoying a comfortable lead in the standings, the Australian could just hang out on the beach with his beautiful, slightly pregnant wife and leave the sturm und drang to the mortals. Fuggedabouddit – Stoner looks to return to the Misano podium for the first time since 2007.

Despite competing in the closest premier class season in recent memory, Yamaha rey de reyes Jorge Lorenzo can clearly see his slim chances of repeating in 2011 circling the bowl. His race at Brno two weeks ago was an opportunity lost at a circuit custom-made for the M1. A poor tire choice caused him to surrender another 12 points to the surging Casey Stoner. With three races in the next four weeks, Lorenzo needs to fish or cut bait. Right now would be fine.

Stoner’s Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa dominated the practice sessions leading up to the race and qualified on the pole for the first time since Misano last year. Pedrosa, Stoner and Lorenzo – The Three Rivales, if you will – jockeyed for position in the early going, with Lorenzo taking the early lead. On the first turn of Lap 3, the Mallorcan had what they call “a moment”, and both Pedrosa and Stoner went through on him. The third Repsol pilot, Rodney Dangerfield Andrea Dovizioso, suddenly appeared on Lorenzo’s rear, with San Carlo Honda’s loose cannon Marco Simoncelli settling into his customary fifth position.

Those daring young men on their flying machines return to action this week in the Czech Republic, fresh off their annual summer holiday. Having given their various bones, ligaments and connecting tissues a few weeks to knit, the grid should be at full strength after a tumultuous first half of the season. Unfortunately, there is no immediately obvious reason why the ruling class of the big bikes – Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa – won’t continue to dominate the action down the stretch.

Step Up

Comparing today’s U.S. Grand Prix to last week’s race in Germany, the results were surprising only insofar as they arrived out of sequence. Last week, most people expected Stoner to win, Lorenzo to place, and Pedrosa to show, maybe. This week, the smart money had Pedrosa and Lorenzo duking it out, with Stoner or Ben Spies following. The reasoning went something like this:

MotoGP brings the big bikes to California again this week for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, at historic Laguna Seca. Moto2 and the 125s are staying home for this round, not wanting to mix it up with the Harleys and such that populate the track on Grand Prix weekend. As a resident of Indiana, I don’t understand why our race in August is called the Indianapolis Grand Prix. If it were up to me, this week’s race would be called the Great California Crashout, while Indy would host the U.S. Grand Prix.

During the practice and qualifying sessions leading up to the race, riders were leaving their machines with frightening frequency, mostly at the same spot on the track. Things got so bad on Saturday that I found myself humming the old 1960’s drag racing classic by Jan and Dean, with a small modification of the lyrics:

MotoGP approaches the halfway point of the season this week in eastern Germany, returning for its annual beisammensein at the Sachsenring. Premier class racing is thoroughly capitalistic, as the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. It looks like the Japanese factory teams will have things their way this weekend, while the lower echelon outfits will continue to struggle. What this series needs is a good old–fashioned upset. Paging Mr. Simoncelli. Paging Mr. Rossi.

Those exact words made it out of my mouth after just half a lap around Miller Motorsports Park’s perimeter course during my first practice session — and my first time aboard the Harley Owners Group Harley-Davidson XR1200 — for the AMA Pro Vance & Hines XR1200 race later on that weekend. The front end was anything but confidence inspiring, and the rear never seemed to be in line with the front.

Early on, it appeared to be another cakewalk for Stoner, who took the early lead and looked untouchable, doing a credible impression of Dani Pedrosa’s runaway 2010 Italian Grand Prix win. Lorenzo and Dovizioso settled in to a battle for second place, while Ben Spies and Marco Simoncelli squared off a little farther back. The top ten riders during the opening few laps included unfamiliar names like Toni Elias and Alvaro Bautista. Much the same way water obeys the laws of physics and seeks its own level, Elias and Bautista ultimately found their way to the back of the grid.

MotoGP returns to Tuscany for Round 8 of the 2011 world championship this week, and unlike most years, not everyone’s Italian. No longer does Valentino Rossi rule the world from his Fiat Yamaha throne. The region’s signature work of art, the Ducati Desmosedici, has become so difficult to ride they’ve decided to re-build the factory entry in mid-season, a task comparable to changing a tire at 70 miles per hour. And the big news hog this year, San Carlo Gresini sophomore Marco Simoncelli, is on the verge of having a skull and crossbones stitched on the back of his leathers.

The win came on Yamaha’s 50th anniversary of MotoGP competition when, in a perfect world, teammate and reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo should have tasted victory. Lorenzo, however, was unseated early in Lap 1 by Marco Simoncelli who, attempting to go through on cold tires, crashed once again and had a material, and negative, effect on the race result.

In each of the last three seasons, one premier class rider has stepped up and ruled the MotoGP championship. In 2009, it was Valentino Rossi onboard the Fiat Yamaha, eclipsing teammate Jorge Lorenzo in what may have been the last of his seven premier class titles. Last year, Lorenzo imposed his will upon the entire field, scoring more championship points than anyone in history. 2011, in turn, appears to be Casey Stoner’s year, as he has been virtually unstoppable on the Repsol Honda.

It’s been said that Britain and the United States are two countries separated by a common language. The conditions today mimicked the 2008 Indianapolis GP, in which the freakish wind blew the torrential rain horizontal. In America, they called it “Hurricane Ike”; in England, they call it “summer.” If you were to look up “recipe for disaster” in either dictionary, you might find “racing two-wheeled vehicles at 175 miles per hour in heavy rain.” What started out as a rather exotic motorsports event quickly devolved into a war of attrition.

Coming off a dominant performance last week in Barcelona, Repsol Honda stud Casey Stoner figures to be the favorite as Round Six of the 2011 MotoGP season rolls around. While defending champion Jorge Lorenzo and his Yamaha M1 will have something to say about that, the only certainty about racing in Britain is that nothing is certain. Cool, damp conditions are forecast for the weekend, which could be good news for the rest of the field.

Repsol Honda top dog Casey Stoner dominated the proceedings in Spain this weekend from FP1 onward for his third win in five rounds. Only a flukey fast lap from Marco Simoncelli late in qualifying, which resulted in the Italian’s first premier class pole, kept it from being an all-Stoner-all-the-time festival in Barcelona. Stoner, who now trails series leader Jorge Lorenzo by a mere seven points for the season, could arguably be leading the championship right now, were it not for his having been clipped by Valentino Rossi at Round Two in Jerez. That the Australian will end up winning the 2011 title appears to be all but a foregone conclusion.

Heading into the 2011 season, hopes were running high for a number of premier class riders. Jorge Lorenzo was coming off his first MotoGP world championship. Teammate Ben Spies, last year’s ROY, earned a promotion to the Yamaha factory team and the high expectations that came along with it. The factory Honda team of Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso spent the offseason blowing the competition away.

Early in the race, the Hondas announced their intentions, as Pedrosa and Stoner became their own little first group, while Simoncelli, Dovizioso and Lorenzo quickly formed a second group. Pedrosa attempted to keep Stoner within reach, but the Australian, who had been fast and smooth all weekend, was not having it. At some point in the middle of the race, it became clear that the competition would be for second place, with Pedrosa and Simoncelli the first pair up.

The run-up to this week’s French Grand Prix (since about last November) has been all about the drama surrounding the Repsol Honda and Factory Ducati teams. It started with a round of multinational musical chairs in which Australian Casey Stoner left his Italian team to join the Spaniard and Italian on the Honda team, and Valentino Rossi ditched his Japanese partners to form the All-Italian Dream Team at Ducati. Six months of Honda vs. Ducati angst, and it’s Yamaha’s Lorenzo quietly leading the pack, on the road to one of his favorite venues.

Whatever momentum the 2011 MotoGP season was enjoying at Jerez has now thoroughly dissipated. Thanks to the tectonic crisis in Japan, it’s been most of a month since our last adrenaline boost. The feeling here is that the season is starting over, with the various riders having been spotted some random championship points. Thus, Round Three, the bwin Grand Premio de Portugal, finds Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner occupying the top three spots in the standings, seemingly in a carryover from 2010.

If you’re looking for a single word to capture the essence of the young 2011 season, that word would not be “parity.” Last year at Qatar, the top six finishers included three Yamahas, two Hondas and a Ducati. This year, Yamaha still managed two of the top six spots, but Honda grabbed four of the top five. Alas, the top Ducati finisher, the illustrious Valentino Rossi, struggled to an exhausting seventh place finish, some 16 seconds off the pace. For each forward step Honda has taken this offseason, Team Ducati seems to have taken a step backward.

As 2010 showed us, it is unwise to draw too many conclusions from one race, especially if that race is the season opener, run at night in some feudal middle east sheikdom, on a track that is similar to only two or three others on the entire circuit. (before I forget, what were the brolly girls shielding the riders from at 9:00 at night?) The MotoGP winter testing program had been pointing toward a successful campaign for Honda in 2011, and tonight’s race did nothing to dispel that notion.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Having been planned since 2006, and overcoming funding setbacks along the way, the rumored World Moto Clash, we were told yesterday, will indeed take place in 2011.

The premier class title having been decided weeks ago, the main drama today centered on whether Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi could overtake Repsol Honda celeb Dani Pedrosa for second place. Doing so would have necessitated Rossi winning the race and Pedrosa finishing tenth or below. Early in Lap One, it became apparent that neither outcome was likely, as Pedrosa moved up from eighth place on the grid into second while Rossi was busy slipping from fourth place to as low as ninth. Over the course of 30 laps, Rossi recovered nicely on his way to finishing third, while Pedrosa gradually faded, ultimately finishing seventh.

The 2010 MotoGP season comes to a grinding halt this weekend at the gorgeous Circuit Ricardo Tormo in eastern Spain. With perhaps one exception, all of our questions heading into the year have been answered. Can Fiat Yamaha legend Valentino Rossi overtake a gutsy Dani Pedrosa on the last day of the season and deprive him of his coveted second place finish? Probably not. However, as the season has shown us, few things are certain at 200 miles per hour on two wheels.

In case I forget to mention – Jorge Lorenzo won today’s race going away, enjoying his seventh pole and eighth win of the season, and his third straight at Estoril. This was perhaps Lorenzo’s most enjoyable race of the season, as he finally managed to repay teammate Valentino Rossi for Rossi’s reckless behavior at Motegi in early October. Today, Rossi had taken the early lead from Lorenzo on Lap Four and held it until Lap 16, after which Lorenzo put his head down and was gone, eventually winning by over eight seconds. Lorenzo was thus able to re-assert his claim as the top dog in the fractured Fiat Yamaha garage, with his first win since Brno in August, and depriving Rossi of five additional points the Italian would dearly love to have as he chases Pedrosa for second place overall.

This weekend’s Grande Premio de Portugal, brought to you by the same delightful online bookies that sponsored Round Two at Jerez in May, has significant implications for several of The Aliens. Jorge Lorenzo, with nothing on the line, has won the last two races here, and figures to be at or near the top of the chart again this week, if only for the pure hell of it. Teammate Valentino Rossi and lame duck Ducati ace Casey Stoner, on the other hand, have plenty to race for. And Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa will need a superhuman effort to maintain his tenuous grip on second place.

More than any other sport I know, MotoGP renders the term “teammate” meaningless, with some of the closest racing each year taking place between guys wearing the same colors. A notable exception to this rule has been on Team Ducati the past two seasons, as Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden have never, to my recollection, gone at one another. Generally, this has been because they are rarely within 10 seconds of each other on the track. The fact that neither has the stereotypical hot-blooded Spanish or Italian heritage is probably another factor.

With Fiat Yamaha idol Jorge Lorenzo having clinched the 2010 MotoGP world championship, our attention now turns to the race for second and third place. Wounded Repsol Honda attack rat Dani Pedrosa currently sits in second by himself with 248 points. A mere two points separate third-place Valentino Rossi and fifth-place Andrea Dovizioso, with Casey Stoner sandwiched in between the two. Unlike most years, we head into the final three rounds with four of the top riders determined to do well. As they say at Southwest Airlines, “It’s ON!”

Heading into Round 15, Ducati lame duck Casey Stoner was considered the favorite, coming off consecutive wins in Aragon and Motegi, and having won here last year. Starting from the five hole, his challenge lasted all of one lap, as he lost the front in the last turn and was unable to return to the fray thereafter. His start was only slightly worse than Rossi’s, who had qualified sixth but fell all the way back to 11th early on. Finding himself surrounded by the likes of Hector Barbera, Alvaro Bautista and Aleix Espargaro, Rossi all but sprouted wings and, by the end of Lap Three was back in fourth position. After devouring countryman Marco Simoncelli on Lap Four, he turned his attention to Lorenzo and Dovizioso, who had appeared to be running away with the race. At this point, Rossi was undoubtedly thinking, “Not so fast, guys,” which translates loosely as “Non così in fretta, ragazzi!”

As the 2010 MotoGP season approaches its anticlimax, the primary plot lines are all but settled. Repsol Honda’s wounded warrior Dani Pedrosa will not take part in the Sepang race and barring an unlikely collapse by Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, Lorenzo will be crowned king of the premier class this weekend. The same goes for Toni Elias, perched on the cusp of his first ever world championship in the Moto2 class. He leads fellow countryman Julian Simon by an even greater 81 point margin, and should lock up his title easily on Sunday. The jury, however, is still out, and hopelessly deadlocked, in the 125 class, where only one thing is certain: the 2010 champion will be from Spain.

Stoner, who had waited until Round 13 for his own first win, waited only until Turn 2 of Lap One to take the lead for good from Dovizioso, who had qualified on the pole for the first time in his premier class career. Two weeks ago in Aragon, Stoner had frustrated Pedrosa, narrowly leading him all day until breaking his will late in the race. Today’s race was a carbon copy of Aragon, with Dovizioso playing Pedrosa’s part. Fortunately for the Italian, it was not a carbon copy of Catalunya, in which Dovizioso chased Lorenzo hard all day until finally crashing out on the last lap, surrendering 20 certain championship points in the process.

Repsol Honda pilot Dani Pedrosa is having arguably the finest season of his career. After 13 rounds, he has garnered 228 points; at this stage last year he had managed 157, an increase in production in the neighborhood of 50%. At the same time, he is seeing his chances of winning the 2010 title fade from slim to none, as series leader Jorge Lorenzo begins his approach to a magic number, and thence to the crown. What’s a fiery young Spanish racing luminary with a pronounced “little man” complex to do?

Aragon now joins Losail and Phillip Island in the “ Ducati-friendly” family of circuits, not necessarily a compliment in MotoGP circles. The Japanese giants Yamaha and Honda might prefer to take their chances elsewhere next season. Yamaha failed to put a rider on the podium for the first time since forever, while Honda could manage only two bikes in the top eight. And Spain, one of whose homeboys had won every race since Qatar, is reportedly considering ceding the entire region to France, so thorough is its disgust with today’s outcome.

With Fiat Yamaha lead dog Jorge Lorenzo ahead of the pack by 63 points, and only six rounds remaining in the 2010 championship chase, relatively few questions remain to be answered this year. Is there any realistic scenario in which Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa can catch countryman Lorenzo? Is Valentino Rossi, winless since Qatar, fit enough yet to win again this season? And does Casey Stoner, himself winless since Sepang last year, have a win in him, or has he thrown in the towel on 2010?