MotoGP SPOILER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought Marco Melandri got his seat already?

 

I believe Nicky has already been signed with Honda for 2008, and Pedrosa just signed a 2 year deal with them. Capirossi is out of Ducati, going to Suzuki, and last I heard being replaced by Marco Melandri.

 

good race.

 

I think Capirossi is past his "due date". He should retire.

Nicky has come on strong at the end of the year, finally came to grips with the designed-for-Pedrosa Honda. I heard rumors that Nicky has been seen at the Duc factory............take that however you want. I, too, would love to see him on a Duc. Even more, I'd like to see Rossi on a Duc.

I was happy to see Hopper start to show his true colors............that guy will win a WC eventually.

 

Big Congrats to Ben Spies! Beautiful win.......it was only a matter of time.

Rossi did well to finish 4th. Wonder what the outcome would have been if Lorenzo and Simoncelli didn't get tangled up. They made incredible comebacks to finish 6th and 9th.

 

What a race yesterday! Amazing battle between the top 3 all race long. That's what racing is all about.

Also, nice run by Rossi to get from 16th on the grid to finish 9th. I wonder if we'll see a win out of Rossi this year.

 

The race this week in Laguna Seca looks to be a close one, finally we have more than two riders that can win a race. Ben should go well here, lots of track knowledge and confidence from his recent win. Pedrosa rode great last week, will be even healthier this week, and the Honda is the machine to have this year. Stoner and Lorenzo are in a close race for the championship lead and eventually Simoncelli will turn his qualifying speed into a win. Predictions?

 

I'm looking forward to Laguna. Nicky knows the track, does well there, let's keep our fingers crossed, Ducati fans!

Greg

 

Ducati will continue to struggle but hayden wil finish ahead of Rossi.

Spies will look promising in practice and qualifying but ultimately will find it difficult to get on the podium.

Lorenzo continues to ride hard and smart and takes the win over Stoner.

Pedrosa completes the podium in front of Spies in fourth and Edwards in fifth.

Simocelli highsides going into turn 1.

Elias finishes behind Bostrom.

 

Bostrom? No Bostrom brother in MotoGP this season, afaik..
G

 

Ben Bostrom is doing a one-off ride for LCR Honda alongside Toni Elias.

 

yep, 4 Americans in the field this weekend....Hayden, Edwards, Spies and Bostrom.

Spies has a legitimate chance at the win; I don't think the rest of them do, at least not without some luck.

 

Yep, just saw the press conference online. Sure hope Bostrom does well at home!

Greg

 

For those that haven't watched the qualifying:

1. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m21.202s
2. Casey Stoner Honda 1m21.274s + 0.072s
3. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m21.385s + 0.183s
4. Ben Spies Yamaha 1m21.578s + 0.376s

I think Casey will find it difficult to challenge Lorenzo in the race. He only improved his time on the very last lap, until then he was around 4th place. Ducati has shown good form (compared to the previous races this year), Rossi only a second down on Lorenzo.

 

Stoner is complaining about no front end feel and not enough grip in the rear.


Is he riding a duc. again?

 

Very nice race! Good battle in the front. Too bad Pedroza faded back, as it was a great 3-way battle for a while. Spies did well to get up to 4th.

 

If this is Stoner when he is uncomfortable...I hate to see him when he gets the bike working to his liking.

 

Decent race this past weekend. Man, Stoner is on fire! He is certainly making his move to Honda seem like a genius move. I have to wonder how Pedrosa would do against him if he was 100%.

Although Rossi moves up the field on a regular basis, it certainly seems like this is more like a test year for him to get next year's bike ready. Strange that there are rumours of him leaving Ducati.

Bautista was making a very nice run until he went off.

What's going on with Lorenzo? Is bike development starting to lag without Rossi there, and now starting to show?

 

There may be something to that...

I guess we'll see in the next year or two if Burgess/Rossi can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse with that Ducati.

 

Ducati have small budget compared to the big japaneses...

 

That may be true, but they do have some talent over there. They were quite the dominant bike only a few tears ago, and adding Burgess and Rossi to the development of the bike can only help.

 

A big congrats to Casey Stoner for clinching the Championship this past weekend. Nice for it to happen at his home race, and on his birthday too. Very dominant season for him. The kid is proving to be something quite special.

 

Rossi brought substantial assets to that team. They have a more than adequate budget for next year. Look for them to be competitive next year. they finally realized that their idea of a carbon bike wasn't going to work, and their adaptation of the twin spar chassis will work well. Their motor still has a slight advantage in that the desmo system uses less power to run the valves, so that means that they should have a HP advantage.

Honda went all out this year. I have heard that they spent over 100M to win this championship this year, which is well in excess of any other team, even in good times. They literally threw the entire resources of HRC at this, and they got the results. They also bought Stoner at a huge price, I'm told. I suspect that they aren't going to put that level of money into next year, and their canning Dovi for next year shows exactly that.

I'm going over to Valencia for the season ending race, will ask around about what Ducati intends to do, and will report back.

Art

 

This year has turned into a disaster for Ducati and Rossi. At least Rossi remains positive in public. Who would have thought Hayden would outqualify Rossi by over a second on one of the Doctor's favorite tracks? By now I think everyone expected to see progress from Rossi-Burgess. But they seem stuck in that seventh place no-mans land depsite all their efforts.

Watching the race, it is quite obvious that the HRC Hondas have a big power advantage this year. You could see Hayden slip from second...from third.. and down the order. Simocelli, Dovi, and Pedrosa could just power out of the turn and past Hayden's Ducati. How times have changed since 2007 when Ducati was easily the fastest engine.

Bautista was also having a great race and making the Suzuki look better than it should. Hopefully Suzuki decides to stay in the series, we should find out in the next couple of weeks. If Bautista signs with a satellite team before any announcement, that probably means Suzuki is done.

Lorenzo might miss the last two races, I wonder if they will have a replacement rider? Melandri or Laverty would be obvious choices, but with both riders leaving for BMW and Aprilia, respectively, maybe they wouldn't care to have them riding more Yamahas. It certainly looks like Yamaha has chosen to forfeit a very competitive WSBK program to pour even more money into MotoGP trying to beat Stoner-Honda. Ducati as well is not racing WSBK officially, sad to see one series suffer for the other.

As for Stoner, barring injury or an unreliable RC213V next year, I don't see anyone beating him. He could easily have a Doohan-esque run of several championships. Rossi isn't the rider he once was and Lorenzo's machinery will likely be a bit inferior to the best HRC can build. Stoner has made the Repsol Honda squad his team over Pedrosa and Dovizioso. Dovi is already going to Tech 3, I would expect Pedrosa to explore greener pastures for 2013, Marquez will likely be Stoner's teammate in 2013.