P112
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
S
un, moon and… well, what
else? (Apart from galax-
ies, black holes, planets,
meteors, empty space...)
The night and day motifs on
superstar Rossi's helmet—they've
been there since the 1990s—re-
flect, he has often explained, the
two sides of his personality.
Never has the great man's
persona been quite as schizo-
phrenic as right now, in a 25th
season of giddy highs and plum-
meting lows for the old man of
the grid.
I'm sorry, I won't apologize for
writing about Rossi for a second
successive column.
Oh, it seems I just did apolo-
gize, but here goes anyway. For
the great man has continued to
seize the headlines, after con-
firming not just his new Petronas
SRT contract for next year, but
that he doesn't rule out carrying
on (and on and on) for 2022, as
well.
The news was not unexpect-
ed. The peculiar circumstances
of the 2020 season had got in
the way of his plan of seeing
how he went in the early rounds,
with still time to make a deci-
sion before the summer break.
Instead Covid rewrote the cal-
endar and rendered the timing
impossible.
But it is not so much the news
but the combination of contra-
dictions that keeps Valentino
fascinating.
The Catalan GP weekend
where he made the announce-
ment was typical: a scintillating
start and an ending deep in the
dumps.
He arrived carrying the ac-
colades as the savior of Italian
racing: his VR46 ranch-academy
turning out a whole generation
of race-winning talent, proteges
Morbidelli winning Misano 1, and
Bagnaia close to winning Misano
2, and his brand name straddling
the sport.
Then came formal confirma-
tion at a cheery press confer-
ence that his seemingly never-
ending career is not about to
end. This was hand in hand with
a fine front-row qualification.
Next day he was running strong-
ly, placed a threatening second
It's Night And Day
For MotoGP's Eternal
Miss Havisham
