Only seen the main race so far, but WOW, excitement from beginning to end!!

A shame JLo dropped off the pace towards the end, seemed to affect Rossi a little as well.

Never seen Dani Pedrosa ride so aggressively, I think we may all need to thank Mark for forcing everyone to up their game.

The poisoned chalice that is Ducatti continues to spoil Cal Cruchlows' season I see. He may have a factory ride, but I think he's ruing the day he signed with them. If his career is going to continue in MoTo GP, I think he needs to find a different team. One day the Ducatti might be a good competitive bike, but until they've got it sorted/completely re-designed, beware, beware, beware!

 

JLo said that his fuel management plan is what robbed him. He ran with less hp in the beginning so he'd have fuel to make it through the race, but once the power came in, his tires were done. Rossi also said that the Yamaha puts more stress on the rear tire than the Honda does, so the Honda doesn't fade as much as the Yamaha does. Ergo, Rossi faded, and JLo's plan backfired.

It's sad that Jorge is having these issues. I thought maybe Mugello would have built his confidence up a bit, no doubt that this knocked it.

As for Crutchlow - his mouth has been writing checks his *** can't cash. He qualified 13th with no tech issues, and his race wasn't getting any better before he started having problems. Part of me thinks he was sort of relieved to not have to bear the weight of it being totally his fault. He can complain about the bike not suiting his style all he wants, but we're well into the season now. He needs to change. And it is odd that there are no other Ducatis having these sort of issues.

Hayden was also given 12th, relegating Redding to 13th. Redding ran off course, "gained an advantage" and did not slow down on re-entering the track. I find it sad that Redding is upset, because he was complaining about Cal doing the exact same thing at LeMans. His excuse was that a different sector of that lap was slower, and that "should have been taken into account" before penalizing him (as if he did it on purpose). Here's the thing. What if there hadn't been tarmac there, and it instead was gravel? He would have lost that position either way. Its exactly the same as LeMans with Cal - but he thinks it should be okay for him to do it. I have to be honest - he has been a huge disappointment, not so much on the bike, but off of it. He's full of it every single time he opens his mouth.

That's not a bad ride from Hayden though, winning the RCV1000R race with a severely injured wrist recovering from surgery.

 

I was very impressed with his start, the way he rode around the outside of the first corner was fantastic and sort of set the bench-mark for the rest of the field. I don't think that shows a lack of confidence, what it boils down to in the end is the Honda is a better package, there's not much in it, but at this level, it doesn't take much and over race distance, it shows.

I would love to see Honda sign up JLo for next season, after all, they were running three bikes not so long ago, in fact they should sign up Rossi too

 

I guess confidence was the wrong word. I meant morale. It's demoralizing to jump to the lead and then because of a fuel management plan - he drops back to 4th and there's nothing he can do about it. He only has 20L of fuel and he doesn't trust the tires... (although now he says he's found something with the tires in testing yesterday)

I wish they'd strike the bike limit rule too, but as it stands, the factories can only have 4 bikes. It seems foolish to me that they want to fill the grids, but they won't allow the factories that have the money to do it, do it.

 

Rossi will run next year, then probably retire.

I'm thinking Alex Marquez could be on a third bike, or replace Pedrosa. Makes you wonder if Stoner would ever make a comeback....

 

Yeah I think Rossi is close to retiring, but as long as he's having fun he'll carry on, he has nothing to prove (unless Mr Honda offers him a ride), I'm just wondering what do these guys do to replace the adrenaline rush from racing. I know he has his Moto 3 team, but it's not gonna be the same.

If Stoner came back to Honda, he might be able to give Marquez a run for his money, but any other factory ride and I think he'd have the same problem as everyone else.

@ Conrice.

Agreed, it must be really demoralizing for JLo, it seems the Yamaha's are the limiting factor. Not to take anything away from Marquez, his talent speaks for itself and on top of everything else he seems to be such a nice kid, sometimes I forget he's only 21 and only his 2nd MoToGP season!!

 

Pretty interesting race!

I couldn't believe the start. 14 riders started from pit-lane. It really wasn't fair because ideally, everyone is supposed to start together, but if you started near the back of that free-for-all in pit-lane, you never really had a chance. It wasn't like a grid where you have room to drag race to the first corner, it was like clowns packed into a VW. It seems that a lot of guys are upset about it and think the rule needs changing.

But what will throw a wrench into Marquez's dominance of this season? Anything? He had a HUGE high-side in practice, and he started from pit lane in the race, and dominated. You know what, it's not even boring anymore. Its amazing to watch. Minus Austin and maybe Jerez, he hasn't really had it easy in any race.

 

Any news or speculation on Marquez's performance in this last round?

 

My initial thought was that something was knocked loose or something happened to the bike when he was battling with Iannone. They touched, no, slammed, into each other twice in one corner... and a few other times.

But all he said was that his set-up wasn't good, he wasn't comfortable, and that now he can breath that the pressure has been lifted.


Did anyone catch Rossi looking back at Marquez on the straight? It was almost like he was saying "Dude, what's going on with you? Let's go". I thought that was really strange.


And what about the Cal move (going to LCR)?


And has anyone else read that Cameron Beaubier has been linked to a Pramac ride next year? I've seen it a few places, but I can't imagine it's anywhere near true.

 

To me he seemed to be lagging behind right from the start, in a way I'm glad and disappointed at the same time that the M.Marquez show is over. In the interview I saw he never mentioned the battle with Ianoni, total respect for that, he dishes it out and doesn't mind taking it either, you gotta admire someone like that.


I thought there was something strange about that too, but when I watched the replay, it appears that Rossi removes a tear off visor with his left hand, but from the right hand side of his visor, so he had to turn his head right around to reach it. Which kind of makes sense, as he'd have the throttle pinned wide open with his right hand.


I think Cal will be only too glad to see the back of the Ducatti no matter what team it is. I think he totally lost confidence in the bike a while back and has been under performing since then. Is the LCR a full factory bike, or is it like the satellite Yamaha?