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What's gonna happen

when the red lights go out

at 2:
00 in the afternoon?

MotoGP race time.

In the next 45 minutes,

Wheel to wheel, side by side

at 200 miles an hour.

What's gonna happen?

On a good day, the answer doesn't

come until the very end.

The race is a battle

to the finish line.

June 15th, 2009

was a very good day.

The Catalan Grand Prix,

two laps to go.

Thirty-year-old Italian

multiple MotoGP champion

Valentino Rossi,

against his 21-year-old Spanish

teammate, Jorge Lorenzo.

"Teammate" is a

misleading term.

They are bitter rivals

in the same colors

on the same bikes.

Rossi is used to

being number one.

Lorenzo wants to be.

Lorenzo has won two of the

five races so far this season,

the champion only one.

Now, Rossi faces losing to Lorenzo in

front of the Spaniard's home crowd

and losing another five points

to him in the championship.

Victory would put

Rossi level on points.

More importantly, it would

put Lorenzo in his place,

at least for the time being.

A hundred thousand fans are watching

the battle around the track,

millions more on TV

around the world.

Here he

comes, down the straight,

Jorge Lorenzo's

gonna go through,

and he's gone through

Valentino Rossi.

Lorenzo brakes,

closes the door.

Very smart move, fairing

to fairing in the chicane.

He's trying to get past.

Jorge won't let him.

Final lap. Lorenzo in

front, Rossi behind.

Attention, attention. They've

been together all race long.

Of all those

watching, nobody knows better

than Rossi's own team where his

last chances to overtake are.

Faster, faster,

faster here!

Go, go!

More, more faster!

Rossi's best chance

is in the next few corners.

From Turn 10 onwards

it's all but impossible.

Haifa lap

to go here at Barcelona-

Jorge's beating him

hand to hand.

It's crazy, he'll be

leading the championship.

Go Valentino, go!

Head to head.

Lorenzo's carrying

a lot of speed out of Turn 9.

There's no way

through there.

Oh, mamma mia!

Mamma mia! Mamma mia!

On the inside,

Jorge's really got him.

Three corners to win

the Catalan Grand Prix.

He said

to me before this weekend,

if you go into

these corners first,

you know you're

gonna win the race.

Almost impossible. Very, very difficult.

Lorenzo ahead, Rossi behind.

There's no room here.

When Jorge

closed the door on me in Turn 9,

I say, "F***, I have to

try in the last corner."

But I don't know

if I crash.

And I hope, if I crash, we

crash together. Not alone.

And from that moment, I tried to

stay very, very, very close to him.

And I know I have a small

chance on the last corner.

It is strange

because I thought, "Okay, if

I can be the maximum fast,

"the maximum quick I can be

in the last two corners,

"he can't overtake me."

I just ride to go fast,

so some part of me thought, "Okay,

Valentino is going to try."

So, I didn't want to close

more, because Valentino is...

He's going to try the same.

So, maybe we could crash.

And another

part of me thought,

"Valentino is not

going to try,

"it's impossible

to pass there."

The surprise

was the important thing,

because also

Jorge don't expect.

When we arrived

to the last corner,

I said, "I have to brake a little bit

later than him, but not too much."

So, when he brake, I brake a bit

later, like five, six meters later,

and I try to put my bike

at 180 kilometers an hour

in 35 centimeters.

And I say,

"Maybe now I crash."

At the maximum braking,

when I go to the apex,

I feel the front go away.

And I say, "Please, don't

slide more because we crash."

But the front stayed.

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