And I also thought KTM had a great showing! Can't wait for this weekend. Damn, I love Spring!

 

+1

All in all a great start to the season

 

So how about Austin? I am surprised to see how well Rossi is doing. I can't believe he's leading the championship going into Jerez. That should be another good Yamaha track.

Anyone else think the '17 Ducati looks like it's already been wrecked when seeing it on track? That tail is jacked up. I'm waiting for JLo to do something on it - but I don't see how he's supposed to if he's always on considerably softer tires. They can't finish a race...

 

Ducati, as of recently, is the killer of careers. The transition from the Japanese bikes to the Italian must be really difficult, even for the top riders in the world. They would be better off sticking with riders that only know Ducati.

Rossi is doing well. Granted he has had some help from others not finishing or performing, but it's still early. I can't believe that they're making this big of a deal of it after only the 3rd race. 50 points down and a few hundred more to go....

 

The Ducati has been the kiss of death since the Stoner era.

They're improving, but so is everyone else. The 2017 bike is still in development and now is being developed by a rider with no Ducati experience. Not a great combination when the season has already started. JLo is improving, slowly, but show him some rain, or even cold weather and he'll be at the back of the field again.

Seeing Ianone breeze past, probably gave him cause for thought

Rossi is just steadily building up points, DNF's have been a thorn in his side the last couple of seasons, he doesn't want that again, there's only so many chances a guy can get.

Vinny going down was very unlucky for him, but it's closed things up quite nicely, would really like a close season this year

 

That's going to happen when you run softs. I mean, these guys all preach the importance of finishing a race, then the pick a tire they know will go off.... I get setting up a soft tire setting to qualify, but why did he race on it?!


I think Demon's right. It's a different style of bike than JLo's used to, and it's going to be a rough relationship. Same thing happened when Rossi and Burgess threw the monocoque Ducati that Stoner developed in the garbage and made it an aluminum twin-spar frame.... It was a rough and expensive couple of years....

 

Some good points.

Qualifying with super soft tyres is a bit pointless, but I suppose they've got to sort out the grid in some way or another.

The irony of Ianoni passing Jlo, is that he may have ended up on the better bike! If Suzuki can coax some more power out of the engine, it could be really competitive.