| Author | Message | ||
     Trojan |
Low top speed did not hurt the Yamahas at Qatar............... Silverstone is not Qatar, and like Jaimec says, it took Rossi and Lorenzo to make the Yamaha look competitive at Qatar. Yamaha have beentold in no uncertain terms by Rossi that they need more speed and I'm pretty sure that they will have it before Silverstone, otherwise they will be in for a hard time there. | ||
| Jaimec |
Very interesting reading regarding the "slowest bike on the grid" winning the race: http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-noye s-notebook-why-rossi-was-slowest/ | ||
| Vagelis46 |
I am afraid to say that we are back in 2004............Rossi will win very single race this season. The rest are either not fast enough (Pedrosa) or "over-nervous" (Stoner) or having to ride a bike that was built around Rossi (Lorenzo). So the real and only question left for unbiased racing fans (me ??) is......... Can Spies take the fight to Rossi ??? Come on Ben , you are the only real man left in motoGP that have the balls to do it!! | ||
| Jaimec |
Ummmm... you do know that Ben is on a YZF-M1, just like Lorenzo, right? And Lorenzo is getting factory equipment... Ben and Colin are likely third and fourth in line for new parts. On the other hand, "Gorgeous George" is a SERIOUS competitor to Valentino. I wouldn't write him off so quickly if I were you. | ||
| Amafan |
Ben Spies has to beat Nicky Hayden first before ,he can worry about Rossi ,since Hayden has finished in front of Spies in all 5 MotoGP races Spies has participated in . | ||
| Davegess |
This weekend will be telling as to how the season will go. | ||
| Jaimec |
Well, in all fairness, in the first three MotoGP races Ben was in, he was on that miserable Suzuki. He did at least finish in front of the factory regulars, though. Nicky's had a whole year on the Ducati. This was only the second time Ben was on the M1. Give him time. But Vagelis is a little over-optimistic thinking Ben will be challenging Valentino any time soon. | ||
| Trojan |
The rest are either not fast enough (Pedrosa) or "over-nervous" (Stoner) or having to ride a bike that was built around Rossi (Lorenzo). If the M1 has been built specifically for Rossi, how come everyone else seems to go pretty well on it (except Toseland)? At Ducati the bike is built for Stoner and at Honda they built their bike specifically for Pedrosa (although he seems to be adapting to it far worse than everyone else). There is nothing wrong or particularly unusual about a team building their bike to suit their top rider you know and it has been done for many many years in all levels of racing. However Yamaha have managed to build a bike that is easy to ride for lots of riders rather than just one man, so should be congratulated for making the series more competitive. Spies and Edwards will have pretty much the same spec bike as Rossi and Lorenzo at this stage of the season (in fact Rossi had the slowest bike of all at Qatar) and it will only be as the season progresses that teh factory boys will get upgrades ahead of the Tech 3 team. Yamaha have already hinted this week that if Lorenzo and Rossi stay at Fiat Yamaha next year they are happy to provide Spies with the same factory equipment, and I think that may happen sooner than next year if not already. I still think that this year will be a 3 horse race between Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner, although Spies, Dovi and Pedrosa may get an occasional podium if one of the aliens has a bad day. I would be surprised if Colin gets better than 4th or 5th this season. To be honest, I have kind of switched off to the MotoGP class and am more interested in Moto2 now  41 bikes with identical engines was a much more exciting specactle at the first round and I think Jerez will be even better | ||
| Aeholton |
To be honest, I have kind of switched off to the MotoGP class and am more interested in Moto2 now 41 bikes with identical engines was a much more exciting specactle at the first round and I think Jerez will be even better That is the reason so many of us find the Daytona Sportbike class in the AMA to be so exciting. While not racing on identical engines, the competition is close and fierce. It is awesome seeing 8-10 riders mixing and dicing up front as opposed to 1 or 2 checking out early with everyone else racing for scraps. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
""This weekend will be telling as to how the season will go."" I think that this will be round #5. | ||
| Jaimec |
Stoner's starting out strong. Ben is just off the Top 10, but then again he's never seen this track before. He'll move up as the practices continue. Lorenzo is second fastest, and NICKY HAYDEN third. Looks like Ducati has finally figured out how to build a bike someone besides Casey can ride. Either that, or all of Nicky's hard work is finally starting to pay off. | ||
| Crusty |
What an incredible race! I just saw it on Speed and If you didn't see it this morning, I highly recommend you watch it this afternoon when they show it again. | ||
| Aeholton |
Yes it was a great race. Too bad Spies had mechanical issues. Looked like he would be able to pull out a top 10. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Great race !!!! Hayden managed to beat Stoner. That is big news. It never happened in the last 2 years. | ||
| Blake |
Had no idea it was aired earlier today. Rain-delayed truck race aired instead of afternoon showing. Will have to wait until Tuesday. | ||
| Jaimec |
I told you not to count out Lorenzo! | ||
| Crusty |
At least that little rat weasel didn't win. | ||
| Jaimec |
Even better, he had almost certain victory snatched from him in the last lap! | ||
| Davegess |
How about Noyes in that Moto2 race! 31 years old against those kids. he did great. the announcers were making out like he has no RR experience but he has been racing in spain for 6 years so they are were over doing the deal. He does have a ton of dirt track racing experience so trading paint in corners is something is very used to. Not a lot of clean passing on the short tracks! | ||
| Gaesati |
"rat weasel"??? Get real. Maybe when you are capable of mixing it with him on a race track you will be qualified to pass judgement! You don't even know him and obviously haven't followed his career. | ||
| Jaimec |
Sorry... he'll ALWAYS be a "Rat Weasel" to most American fans. Him and his bastard of a manager Alberto Puig. Deal with it. | ||
| Spatten1 |
Strap 20 pounds to that rat weasel's back and he might not be in the top 10 anymore. One more of the 250 guys that ride on rails. Hopefully Rossi will have his way, traction control will be dumped, and it will take some upper body strength and some ability to ride fast with the wheels crossed up to win in GP again. Hayden's career was wrecked by Pedrosa when the bike built for the midget showed up a couple of years ago. Hayden could hardly fit on the damn thing to ride it. They say Puig pushed for it, to make Danny the real "lead rider." | ||
| Crusty |
Gaesati; Quite the contrary, I have followed Pedrosa's career with a high level of interest ever since he took out his own team mate who was in contention for the World Championship. I must say that I enormously enjoyed being at Indianapolis last year when he was leading, then crashed out. The T-shirt I most wanted to buy said PEDROSA SUCKS in bold letters, but they were sold out. I don't believe that I need to be at his skill level to despise him and his ethics; I can't play golf like Tiger Woods, yet I don't care for his ethics either. (Message edited by Crusty on May 03, 2010) | ||
| Spatten1 |
Have you guys seen how skinny Hayden and Spies are now? The look like high school wrestlers cutting weight. I'd rather see the traction control gone, fuel quantity limits gone, and more cc's so that that the rider's skill is more important and they don't have to starve themselves to this degree. When the wheels are in-line all the time, weight is super important. When throttle control comes back into play, different body shapes and sizes can ride with different strategies. | ||
| Jaimec |
Why do we hate Pedrosa? Note that after taking his team mate out, he just stormed off the track. Never once went over to see if Nicky was okay. If that's not a "Rat Weasel" I don't know what is. Want to see how a SPORTSMAN handles an incident like that?? | ||
| Fresnobuell |
What an incredible race! I just saw it on Speed and If you didn't see it this morning, I highly recommend you watch it this afternoon when they show it again. Great race? The only excitement to the race was in the last couple laps when Lorenzo reeled in Pedrosa. Other than that it was a first class snoozer. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
How about Noyes in that Moto2 race! Now that was a good race! +1 | ||
| Jaimec |
It was only a snoozer if you weren't paying attention to Lorenzo during the whole race. He got a bad start, but he was tearing through the ranks in the second half of the race like a man possessed. | ||
| Gaesati |
You surely don't assume that Pedrosa took himself and Hayden out on purpose? I don't know how many times you have been down on the racetrack but from my own experience of it nobody would put themselves down the road on purpose. I note also that later in the season at the Valencia event Pedrosa sacrificed his lead over Hayden to let him through and then covered him for the remainder of the race to ensure Hayden's champonship. Perhaps judgements about ethics require a more intense scrutiny of character and the events neither of which we are fitted to do based on a TV replay. Post race Pedrosa, who is particularly shy, was distraught and tried to apologise to Hayden. His own distress was becuse he had never been involved in an error which resulted in another rider crashing. As for the bike being built for Pedrosa that could be his manager or more likely a decision taken by Honda for which Pedrosa is not to blame. Surely Pedrosa's managers job is to push the interests of his man. What was Hayden's manager doing? You might find the book "Ring of Fire", a history of Moto GP written by a correspondent for "The Times" who knew all the participants instructive. If Pedrosa has a size related issue then his ability to control the bikes he rides, including the 990's is to be applauded. In addition, Hayden has been taken out by quite a few other riders in his time, including Lorenzo, yet I don't see the same level of opprobrium heaped on them. I would have thought a more interesting and productive use for this thread would have been to applaud the increasing strength of Hayden on the Ducati or the demise of Edward's and Spies bikes in the race which was a real disappointment. There is a lot to appreciate in MotoGP without having to be so vindictive as to rejoice in the misfortunes of people who put it on the line week in and week out for our entertainment. | ||
| Jaimec |
Fine. You like the rat weasel. We get it. Imagine Repsol's reaction at the first Indy MotoGP when Pedrosa's name was met by a LOUD chorus of booing from the crowd. Must've been a bit disconcerting since they were trying to get themselves established in the States. You can also search back through the archives of this very thread to see what kind of a jerk Alberto Puig is, too. The two of them deserve one another. |
