Hayden, Stoner and Rossi were the lead three in the grid and I was rooting for Hayden (the American). However, it was Stoner and Rossi who took off early and left most of the pack behind.

Turn after turn, those two were trading places as there were some spectacular overtakes. Rossi was even and smooth. Stoner was clearly muscling his Ducati arround the turns and there were a number of places it looked like he was going to lose control (where his rear tire slipped a bit or wobbled… particularly I think around turn two).

In the end, after a number of very close calls, Stoner seemed to succumb after he overtook Rossi going just a little too fast and couldn’t make the turn, going into the gravel and bailing (at low speed thankfully). I think there were around six laps left when this happened so Rossi pretty much safely took home the race from that point.

Stoner, despite the wipeout, finished second (those guys were waaay ahead of the rest of the pack) and Vermeulen finished third. He always seems to do well at Laguna and that’s a solid finish given that he was 8th on the grid.

Before the race, I did have a few other meetings with prospective partners, so that too was productive. Celebs present included Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Brad Pitt and some other folks. 

Anyway, I’ve posted somewhere around 100 pictures from around the event this weekend. If you’ve never seen a race like this, or if you’re a fan, check some of them out. It was a great event and I’m really looking forward to the race at Indy in a couple months. Capcom will have a sizable presence there. 🙂

Also, for those who missed it, we showed the first playable Xbox 360 build of MotoGP 2008 at E3 earlier last week and the reception from the media seemed rather positive. I’m sure we’ll have more news on the game and assets surfacing in the coming weeks.

capcom-unity.com/sven