Donington, Great Britain

After two previous chapters, we come to an end of Scott Jones' beautiful photos from Donington Park. Despite the rain, it was a fantastic weekend, which threw up a fair number of surprises. Tragically, and as a result of gross incompetence, Donington Park has been vandalized in a desperate and ultimately failed attempt to attract Formula 1, and now the track is all but unusable. Next year, we go to Silverstone, and with your help, Scott and I will be there to try and capture the moment in words and pictures.

Unlike his teammate, Jorge Lorenzo's luck ran out at the British Grand Prix

Waiting

Donington Park still provides a stunning setting for motorcycle racing

After yesterday's trip down the pit lane at Donington, today we turn our attention to the track. Scott Jones captured some of the crucial moments from July's British Grand Prix at Donington, including the protagonists from the race and the highlights from practice. The final set of photos go up on Sunday, and they are well worth the wait.

In the doghouse

Forza Marco!

Captain Scarlet

The fourth part of our trip down memory lane brings us to one of the most memorable parts of the season: The last ever trip MotoGP would make to Donington Park. Scott Jones' wonderful images bring a tear to the eye of anyone who loves the sweep of Craner Curves or the glory of Schwantz and McLeans. So rich is the bounty that we have had to split the photos over three sessions, all of them worth poring over and savoring. And remember, if you see anything that you like, you can contact Scott and get a poster-sized image for your wall.

Casey Stoner found his Waterloo at Donington

Thomas Luthi was pencilled in for MotoGP, but his very mediocre 2009 torpedoed that option

And did the Countenance Divine shine forth upon our clouded hills?

Donington Ventures Leisure Limited - the company that holds the lease to operate Donington Park - entered administration, it was announced on the Donington Park website today. The announcement came as the latest in the long saga of financial woes which started after DVLL was awarded a 17 year contract to host the British Formula One Grand Prix last year. That plan required raising a staggering 135 million pounds sterling, an ambitious prospect at the best of times, but nigh on impossible in the financial crisis which has engulfed the world since the contract was awarded. The failure of the debenture plan announced some three weeks ago, and the company's future has been in doubt since them.

The statement on the company website makes no mention of the events - such as the World Superbike round due to be held there on August 1st, 2010 - but yesterday, before the announcement was made, a company spokesperson told MotoMatters.com that the World Superbike event was still on the calendar and that it should go on as scheduled. Paolo Flammini, who runs the World Superbike series, also told GPOne.com that they were monitoring the situation and had no reason to believe the race would need to be moved or cancelled.

Putting together the calendar for any motorcycle racing series is always a puzzle, depending on a huge number of factors such as circuit availability, travel distance, expense and a host of others. Alongside all of these more obvious factors, the MotoGP calendar also takes into account the scheduling of Formula One. An informal agreement exists between the bosses of Formula One and MotoGP to avoid direct calendar clashes wherever possible, in order to ensure the highest possible TV audiences for both series.

During the last round of changes to the Formula One calendar, the FIA appear to have forgotten about this gentlemen's agreement, as the revised dates have caused three clashes with the provisional 2010 MotoGP calendar announced earlier this summer. The three events that will fall on the same weekend are the Le Mans MotoGP round and the Monaco F1 Grand Prix; the Mugello MotoGP round and the Turkish F1 race; and perhaps most worrying of all, the Misano MotoGP race and the F1 race at Monza, just a few hundred kilometers up the A14 highway in Milan.

The Silly Season log jam is getting close to being breached. Reports from two of the most respected sources in the MotoGP paddock - MCN's Matthew Birt and GPWeek's Michael Scott - are suggesting that Jorge Lorenzo has decided to bite the bullet and accepted Yamaha's offer. Lorenzo had been openly flirting with a switch to the Honda team - a move which would have seen Dani Pedrosa instantly departing from the Repsol squad - and had insinuated that Yamaha were not offering what he felt he was worth.

However, Lorenzo's results at the Sachsenring and Donington undermined the Spaniard's bargaining position sufficiently that he is believed to have caved in and signed back on with Yamaha again. After the race in Germany, where Rossi beat Lorenzo by just 0.099 seconds, Lorenzo was brutally frank about his prospects: "I have to beat him [Rossi]" Lorenzo replied in a tangential answer to a question about his contract negotiations. Lorenzo was in position to do just that at Donington, but his eagerness to win saw him brake on the white line and lose the front, crashing out of the race, hurting his negotiating position even further.

Just how serious Lorenzo's approaches to Honda were are open to question. There is no doubt that the Yamaha is the best bike on the grid at the moment - the Fiat Yamaha duo lead the riders championship, the team leads the team championship, Yamaha lead the constructors championship and the Tech 3 Yamaha team is the first satellite team and ahead of the factory Suzuki team in the team standings - and Honda has struggled to produce a truly competitive bike since the switch to the 800cc formula. The RC212V has clearly improved recently, but it is still lacking in both corner entry and engine response in comparison to the Yamaha M1. Lorenzo will have been all too aware of these facts, and if his ambition is to beat Valentino Rossi and become world champion - which it surely is, despite his denials earlier this year - then having the best machinery at his disposal is his best chance of success.

Valentino Rossi walked away from Donington Park smiling

Donington Park, first lap madness

Gabor Talmacsi's Honda wastes fuel in an aesthetically pleasing way

The men in orange hand Elias his trashed bike back

The Ducatis gambled and lost

DT: Damn Tires

Sting in the tail

Toni Elias, running fast until he went down

Last time down Craner

Ducati riders Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner spoke to the press after the race at Donington, explaining their decision to use wet tires for the race. Below is a transcript of what they told the press:

Nicky Hayden: I hadn't won a race in three years, I thought, you know what, I've got nothing to lose, why not roll the dice. I knew the chances were probably a little bit against me, but this track can get slick quick. And I mean, it was spitting rain. On the first lap, second lap, all I needed is what we have now [it's raining more heavily by now, Ed.]. It was a gamble that I took, we took, it was my choice, though. I'll take the responsibility.

Livio Suppo: As I said before, there's no blaming. We share the good, we share the bad, right. Sometimes we do mistakes, sometimes the rider makes mistakes, but I underline, if there's a safety issue, I will never oblige a rider [to make a decision].

Q: When did you realize it wasn't go to go your way?

The Repsol Posse

The Red Bull Rookies produced great racing, as ever

Bradley Smith, flying the flag

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