man, i surprised lorenzo only shoved simoncelli out of his way when they went down! but ya, that broke spies and stoner up by about 2 sec. and that was all it took, he just checked out. i'm so glad for him, he earned it for real. not to mention, it was a pretty serious race for yamaha as well, so go for spies.

and hayden got 5th, which is pretty good considering who he finished in front of - and he went up 4 spots from where he started.

what a first lap, a lot of riders went down....

 

yeah no joke. I saw the guy holding up the dry race sign, then saw all the rain on lens from helicopter view. I knew there were going to be a few crashes.

yeah me too. I though for sure there would be some fists flying. But Lorenzo did stick up for him after Simocelli took out Pedrosa for some reason. He was actually pretty decent about it. Stating that he think Simiocelli takes too much risk and is a danger to all.. but not much in the way of name calling or anything. He is handling it a lot better than I would.

Simocelli's take on it. " I don't think I took too high of a risk. I simply lost the rear due to cold tires" Wouldn't that suggest that on cold tires, you don't take such an aggressive pass on only the second corner of the first lap? Wouldn't that be a high risk manevour?

It was funny to me though. The commentators were all saying the pass was fine and all. But what I saw was simocelli driving his bike into Lorenzo and pushing him wide, then sliding out because he was trying to get his bike back around after pushing so wide. I thought it was pretty bad pass, especially so early in the race. Just get through the first few corners for crying out loud!!!

Yeah, it was pretty good for him. I really can't wait for next year to see how Rossi and Hayden develop that bike.

too bad for the tech 3 team. They looked really good until they had some mechanical problems. That team has really gotten it together this year with some really impressive racing. Really strange they both had an issue with the front tire on right hand turns. They must have had similar setups that took the tire out.

 

my thoughts exactly. its not a surprise that the tires are cold, so riders ride a certain way for the first few laps til they get up to proper temp, not to mention, it wasn't a sunny and dry day either. wouldn't a sensible rider want to "feel out" the race track since the conditions are questionable? and i thought they were also wrong on calling it " a clean move". i thought it was gutsy, and i couldn't believe they would call it that way, but they did. you can't win the race in the first few laps, but you can certainly lose it.

and you know... i have respect for guys that are willing to push a bike to the limit to where they may not finish the race... but simoncelli has only finished 2 races so far.... who is that impressing as far as his ride for next year or the year after is conscerned?


i didn't realize that both of the tech3 boys had that problem, i was chucking colin's race up to the fact he had 13 pins in his colarbone, but he really dropped off in the last part of the race. i figured lorenzo would catch up to him... but i didn't think that he'd finish that far ahead of colin... it was like lorenzo was passing lap traffic as opposed to the 6th place rider.

 

Yes!!! I hope he keeps challenging for a podium & a few more wins, now he's got his 1st win.

 

anyone else headed out to cali to watch em' at laguna seca? few weeks away now and to say i am excited is defiantly an understatement!!! send me a message if anyone else will be out there and we'll have to meet up or something

 

Looking forward to the next stop for AMA. Superbike class has seemed to tighten up and the Battle is on between Hayes,young and Hayden. Also there will be a KTM in the line-up. Also Geoff May will possibly running the EBR racing RS 1190. He'll have a bike that isn't down 17hp compared to the rest of the field. Hes a great rider and may just be front runner. I seen the bike at Road America and it was quite nice.

 

damn it nicky....

 

yeah, my thoughts too. I had some pretty high hopes for him. Good deal with Rossi though. Even though he is struggling with the bike, he always seems to be able to recover a few positions throughout the race, even though it was nowhere near the top.

Honestly though. I really thought Rossi would have had a few better finishes by now. I guess it just goes to show how good Stoner really is.

 

Speed has a pretty good article on Rossi & MotoGP.
MOTO RACING - MOTOGP: Rossi Reconsidered

Here is a lil tidbit.
Winning Percentage

1. Stoner 36% (27 of 76)
2. Lorenzo 35% (15 of 43)
3. Rossi 28% (21 of 75)
4. Pedrosa 15% (11 of 72)

Pole Position Percentage

1. Stoner 34% (26 of 76)
2. Lorenzo 30% (13 of 43)
3. Rossi 19% (14 of 75)
4. Pedrosa 18% (13 of 72)

Podium Percentage

1. Lorenzo 77% (33 of 43)
2. Stoner 64% (49 of 76)
3. Rossi 64% (48 of 75)
4. Pedrosa 59% (42 of 72)

Front Row Percentage

1. Lorenzo 88% (38 of 43)
2. Stoner 72% (55 of 76)
3. Pedrosa 57% (41 of 72)
4. Rossi 51% (38 of 75)

Fastest Lap Percentage

1. Stoner 29% (22 of 76)
2. Pedrosa 28% (20 of 72)
3. Rossi 23% (17 of 75)
4. Lorenzo 21% (9 of 43)

 

wow, that is interesting