Well, they decided to shorten the race further - 19 laps. Stop reading if you haven't seen it.



Wow, that was a crazy race. I'm not sure why it was decided that staying out for an extra lap was a black-flag - but nonetheless, that's what happened to Marquez. The team put out a statement saying that it was in fact not Marquez's fault. They thought they could complete lap 10, which meant that you don't pit until you're almost done with lap 11. The pit board was one lap late, and Marquez stayed out.

Had Pedrosa been in front of Marquez when Dani pitted, I'm sure Marquez would have realized that the pit window (which with the reduced race distance - 19 laps) was only those 2 laps. But I think because Marc was in P2, he thought JLo was going to pit on the first available lap... and well... the rest is now history.

It's still an 18pt. gap for JLo, it's possible, but unlikely with Motegi. DP and MM have a good chance to be P1 and P2 there.

I haven't seen Moto2 yet or Moto3 (they won't be on TV until tmr night). That was one interesting race! No engine drama, but the teams might still have an issue later on. Nicky hasn't taken a 6th yet, so we'll see if he makes it to the end on those 4 other engines...

 

It's kind of a shame that the race rules caused such confusion. It'd be interesting to read the actual rules they gave to all the teams to see if they were clear or what..

Some of those guys, coming to the final stop on the bike change...they were almost doing handstands on their bars...Har har! They need a little practice at that I guess. Last minute rules changes, they make it tough and dangerous for the teams and reflect badly on Moto GP as an organization.

Early on in this race you could see each time around in the slo-mo shots, the rubber being left on the track, and MM had an interesting bobble at the end of his run on the first tire. Also the pics of that worn out practice or qualifying tire from someone's run....that was certainly a good reason to mess with the race for tire reasons.

Dave DeSpain? Like his enthusiasm for motos but I think he was better as host of Speed...

 

They were doing it because they had to slow down to pit speed by that white line. Braking on a motorcycle is a lot different then in a car. You can't carry the brakes in that turn on pit lane on a motorcycle like you could in a car.

 

No, I meant as they swung off the bikes with it just coming to a complete stop...some had their feet come way up....

I think it was a bit dicey for the team guys out there in the hot pit lane, too. I noticed a few 'bike holders' crossing the pit lane..I think....As I said, last minute rules changes make it more dangerous for all involved....There was no pit out lane either, as shown by Marquez colliding as he 'merged' rather sharply into the racing line when exiting the pit..That could have been avoided with some thought by the course and officials and a line or two on the track..

Still, a good race and that track is excellent...Sea Gulls? Wouldn't wanna hit one at 200mph.

 

I'd say they had a pretty good reason to limit the tires to 10 laps...

 

Even still, I'm not with making pit stops mandatory. If teams want to run an extra lap or two on that tire, let them risk it.

The points race is better this way anyway. Now JLo can't say "if I didn't get hurt..." or " I would have beat him if...." when MM locks it up. Rossi at least looked like he was having fun when he was winning year after year.

 

I don't think they should make them mandatory either.


Bridgestone did actually bring a super hard tire to the race. But apparently, the riders weren't able to get heat into it, and the carcass actually blistered on the inside. But this was totally avoidable as I've researched a little bit more.

They repaved in December.

Phillip Island was the first race of WSBK and WSS in February. The WSS race was cut short because of tires too. Pirelli had found out the hard way.

But there was no reason that Bridgestone almost 8 mo. later couldn't figure it out. And they went to Argentina to test tires for next year. But they didn't think to test at Phillip Island? They should have seen the problems with the tires in the world Super Sport race. At least Dunlop should have been smart enough to test there considering Moto2 and WSS are the same engines essentially... They really need to bring back multiple tire manufacturers. All the spec tire does is help one team and hurt others since the bikes run different ways. Last year Honda complained that the tires suited Yamaha too well. This year, Yamaha claims Bridgestone changed the tires to suit Honda. Ducati complained, but never got on the receiving end of any updates really...

Oh well. The moto3 race was great. Not shortened. Great action, there was a huge battle for the lead that lasted the whole race.

 

This is just keeps getting better and better.......


Japanese MotoGP: New Motegi MotoGP schedule announced | Page 1 | MotoGP News | Oct 2013 | Crash.Net



Let's hope we get a good race in this weekend. They HAVE to be able to have helicopters there, and that's perfectly understandable (plus the riders have to be able to see where they're going). But I'm not sure about cramming a practice session, Q1, Q2 , and the race on Sunday. They'd have to that with all classes. I don't see how they can do it.

But I feel bad for the fans planning to attend if they move the race to Monday. I'd be pissed. Kids have school, parents have work.

 

Yeah, my first thought was about anyone that turned up on Friday to watch, that would have sucked. If they try and cram everything into Sunday, that could be amusing to watch. No doubt there will be a little chaos....another chance for Lorenzo to catch up if things go wrong elsewhere.

The same kind of delay happened at the Belgian F1 race years ago. I was there and I remember hanging out in the rain listening for updates on the tannoy system. It cleared up enough for the helipcopter to fly at about lunch time so it wasn't a total bust. Was pretty boring standing around at the time but it's become an amusing memory.

 

So they're going straight into qualifying as of the latest schedule mid day.


No free practices for any class. The first session for any class is going to be qualifying.

Then there will be one FP session tomorrow morning instead of WUP. But it will be longer. GP gets 50 min. Moto2 and Moto3 get 40 min. before the race tomorrow.