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Sunday is MotoGP's swansong at Donington, the last time that the world's premier racing series will ever visit the classic Leicestershire track. You would think that the circuit owners would want to make an extra effort, to make the final MotoGP meeting here go with a bang.

This is not the impression the riders got. Grip levels were low, according to several riders, with Valentino Rossi complaining the track was as slippery as it has ever been. "Usually when you go to a track, on the kerbs you have the paint, the asphalt is green, it is ready for the start," he told reporters. "Here it looks like they clean a little bit, say it's OK, go for the last time and on Monday, they start the work for the Formula 1."

The weather was also a factor, but the condition of the track made riding very difficult. "Also rain-sun-rain-sun, this year the grip is very bad." Rossi said. "Also in the wet, compared to the Sachsenring, at the Sachsenring it is possible to touch the knee, ride, make good angle, here is very very tricky to ride the bike." The condition of the track had Rossi concerned about lasting the distance on Sunday: "If I have to make 30 laps under this condition, in the wet, is very difficult. So we have to stay calm and concentrate for 30 laps, take the rhythm and go."

When asked about Rossi's comments, Nicky Hayden agreed, saying "Especially in the left handers, yeah, it feels really slippery to me, from mid-corner to exit." In reply to questions about the amount of preparation which had gone into the track, Hayden was candid: "You know, when I went around the track on Thursday, I couldn't believe how dirty it was, especially up into Turn 7. You could see where the water had been sitting, it was just filthy." Hayden was also none too complimentary about the state of the kerbs, adding "When they were painting the kerbs, they were painting right over mud. They were painting dirt, instead of I guess cleaning those and then painting them."

Casey Stoner even put this morning's crash down to the slipperiness of the track. "This morning's [crash] was ridiculous," Stoner said. "I was off the front brake, everything showed on the telemetry I had no front brake on and it just, whoosh, down it went. The front tire was already scrubbed in, there was no reason for it."

Construction work has been going on at the track, building a new tunnel for access to the infield in preparation for the new paddock to be built for the Formula 1 series. Whether this construction work has anything to do with the apparently poor state of the track is unknown.

Words are tricky things. Immediately after the announcement of the so-called rookie rule, debate immediately broke out over the meaning of the words "rookie" and "factory team." The response of Dorna and the FIM has been a little too akin to that of Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's Through The Looking Glass, insisting that when they use a word, it means exactly what they choose it to mean, neither more nor less.

Of course, this was not going to be a tenable situation for long. Speculation was rife in the press that factory teams could consider signing promising young stars such as Marco Simoncelli, Alvaro Bautista or Ben Spies for the last few races once they'd secured (or failed to secure) their current championships, then claim that because they'd been under contract in 2009, they should no longer be regarded as "rookies" and could go straight to factory teams for 2010.

So MotoGP's rule-making body, the Grand Prix Commission, has acted to prevent this and issued a definition of the term "rookie." The definition basically means that any rider who hasn't taken part in 9 races in the previous season must be considered a rookie, and will therefore not be eligible to race for a factory team. The definition is clearly designed to preempt any attempt at getting around the ban on rookies, as riders will basically have to compete for half a season before they are no longer rookies.

The definition issued by the FIM follows below:

Definition of a "contracted rider" and a "Rookie" rider.

A contracted rider is a rider who has participated in nine or more events during one season.

A "Rookie" is a rider nominated by a participating team for participation in the entire season, who has not been a contracted rider as defined above in the same class in any previous season.

For the purpose of this clause, the 500cc class and the MotoGP class are considered to be the same, as are the 250cc class and the Moto2 class. 

The press release containing the rule changes, as well as other alterations to the rules limiting engine life, can be found on the FIM website (PDF format).

Captain Scarlet

So, you want to race motorcycles, hey?

Sting in the tail

Julian Simon, coming in out of the rain

It did

Rossi's puppies

Hiroshi Aoyama - Japanese superstar

Badge of honor

Now that's what I call a wildcard

No need to tell Alvaro Bautista

Alex de Angelis knows all about moody

Earlier today, we posted a bunch of photos that Scott Jones took at Donington. There's plenty more where those came from.

Alvaro Bautista, against a stunning backdrop

Rain or shine, Valentino Rossi is always fast

Thomas Luthi likes his coffee cold

Now that's what I call intense

Bradley's bike ...

And Bradley on his way towards it

Honda - Japanese for Engineering

Tech 3: Home of Shiny Things

There are those that assert that the 2 looks more like an S than an E