Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi claimed his seventh MotoGP title and ninth world championship last Sunday despite finishing only in third place in a very wet Malaysian Grand Prix. Ducati’s Casey Stoner won the race.

Stoner was able to grab the lead from the start of the race after pole-sitter Rossi made a first-corner error that dropped him to eighth position. The Italian rider played catch-up all throughout the race and eventually finished in third place behind Honda’s Dani Pedrosa.

The title race ended in Malaysia after Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo was only able to finish in fourth place making it impossible to catch up with Rossi’s championship points.

A heavy deluge forced race organizers to delay the race by almost an hour. The rain eventually eased but not enough for the riders to race on slick tires.

Lorenzo had to start from the back of the grid after failing to get out of the pit lane in time when he changed to his spare bike.

But despite starting from the very back, Lorenzo seemed to have gained ground off the line after Rossi’s first-corner error. Both Lorenzo and Kawasaki’s Marco Melandri were able to pass Rossi before the opening lap was over. It took the Italian rider several attempts before he was able to overtake Melandri.

One by one, Lorenzo slowly overtook Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi, Ducati’s Nicky Hayden and Honda’s Toni Elias. Hayden however fought back and diced with the Spaniard. As Hayden and Lorenzo were dicing it out, little did they know that Rossi was shadowing their moves until the eighth lap when the Italian rider was able to overhaul both Hayden and his teammate and moved into fourth place.

Up front, Stoner soon passed Pedrosa for the lead and sped away posting a lap time two seconds faster each lap than everyone else. The Australian cruised to another dominating victory which is his second in seven days.