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It was a good day for Valentino Rossi. He scored his 81st MotoGP victory. He became the first rider to score more than 5,000 points. He became the first rider to beat Honda in 2014. He won at Misano, his home track, in front of thousands of fans.

But perhaps more than any of these things, he was once again Valentino Rossi, fast enough to race at the front and compete man to man against the top riders. This was a dry race win where he out-rode teammate Jorge Lorenzo, out-rode long time rival Dani Pedrosa, and battled with Marc Marquez such than the championship leader made a mistake that cost him the race.

Rossi was, as we’ve seen so many times in the past years, flawless over the course of race distance. It was almost like going back in time, watching him trade places at the front before claiming it outright and riding lap after lap to secure the win.

Marc Marquez will still almost certainly claim the 2014 crown. But a confident Valentino Rossi could make the remaining races entertaining, indeed.

Photograph: ©2014 Movistar Yamaha

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