Rossi-Stoner battle live on Ten Sports

MUMBAI: Valentino Rossi proved he emains the ultimate fighter in the high-speed world of MotoGP when he won the Portugal Grand Prix to take his title battle with the runaway leader Casey Stoner for yet another week.

And as they take their tooth-and-nail battle to the famous Twin Ring Motegi circuit near Tokyo for the Japanese Grand Prix this week, Ten Sports, the most watched sports channel of the sub-continent, will be present to bring all the action live.

It will be an early morning start for racing enthusiasts in the subcontinent, with the live telecast starting at 7:15 am IST on Sunday, September 23.

In Portugal, Stoner needed to score 15 points more than Rossi to secure the crown with four races in hand, but the Ducati rider faced clutch problems and had to settle for third place behind Rossi and Spain’s Dani Pedrosa.

Stoner now has 287 points, 76 more than Rossi. The Italian former champion has his work cut out and will need to win at least three of the last four races to have any chance of pulling off a miraculous victory over his Australian rival.

The Twin Ring Motegi circuit will always be remembered for the sportsmanship of Rossi. In 2005, he only needed to finish fourth here to wrap up the championship, when his bike clipped the Honda of good friend Marco Melandri. Rossi was reducing the distance on the leader Capirossi, and could have continued. Instead, he stopped and did not finish the race as he helped an injured Melandri.

Motegi was built by Honda and is set in the Hakko mountain chain. The picturesque 2.98mile circuit is surrounded by forest, with the Nakagawa river flowing by. The name itself indicates two racing courses: the Super Speedway – an American NASCAR-style oval course – and a European-style road course.

The track has a comparatively long back straight, but a series of slow corners and also two tunnels which allows the oval to run round the outside. It is a stop-and-go circuit with some hard braking and accelerating areas.

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