Capiros-San?

Loris Capirossi must be a Japanese in his former life.

Otherwise, there is no way to explain his inexplicable and surprising victory at the Moto GP race at Motegi last Sunday.

Capirossi has been struggling mightily throughout the season, and his performance has been overshadowed by his young Australian teammate Casey Stoner (who is and looks so young that he can easily be mistaken as a high school student), who has been in dominating form this season.

Before this season, Capirossi was the only one to have ridden a Ducati in a Moto GP victory (not counting Troy Bayliss' one-off performance at Valencia last year). But this season Stoner has scored eight wins (and counting), while Capirossi has only two podium finishes before Motegi.

And in Motegi, Capirossi finally out-qualified Stoner for the first time this season.

By the way, Capirossi won in Motegi in 2006 AND 2005.

In changing weather condition, Capirossi was among the first riders to switch to dry tyres which drastically improved his lap times. And when the front runners finally pitted halfway through, voila, Capirossi was in a commanding lead at Motegi for the third year running.

Who would have thought Capirossi would win a race this season?

But in truth, Motegi is the most suitable place for him to get a win, isn't it?

And by the way, did I mention Stoner has secured his first ever World Championship by finishing sixth in the race?