Moto GP - 2011

[Hotrodguru]

Guess it's better late than never. Guess I've been busy and forgot to start this thread. So many changes for this year and it's just crazy.

What has me pissed off right now is that I found no channel to watch the Moto GP race on today. Seems like it was a barn burner also.

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[rjrutzky]

interesting year. I don't want to spoil today's race, but I was on the edge of my seat

[artkevin]

Meh, it's been more than 12 hours since it aired so I'll post this.

Rossi 'wasn't trying to pass Stoner'
By Toby Moody, Matt Beer, Michele Lostia
Sunday, April 3rd 2011, 16:03 GMT

Valentino RossiValentino Rossi says he was not even trying to overtake Casey Stoner when he took the Honda rider out of second in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Rossi had made rapid progress from 11th on the grid on the wet track, but fell when challenging Stoner for second place and knocked the Honda over in the process. The former champion said he had simply outbraked himself and dodged to the inside hoping to miss Stoner.

"When I arrived behind Stoner, I didn't want to overtake him in the moment of braking, but I braked a bit too deep compared to him, and I arrived too fast and I didn't have enough room to go on the outside so I tried to go on the inside to make less problems for both of us but unfortunately I lost the front and I also took him out," said Rossi.

"It's completely my mistake and I have to say sorry to Casey. I know that he's very angry because he didn't make any mistakes. I went straight to say sorry."

When Rossi apologised to Stoner in the Honda pit afterwards, television cameras caught the Australian asking Rossi about the health of his injured shoulder and suggesting his 'ambition outweighed his talent'. Rossi laughed off his rival's comments.

"I don't know, maybe he doesn't know exactly who I am!" Rossi said to Italia1 television. "But it's okay, it's fair enough, he's angry and I would be too. I've made a mistake and for me it was important to apologise. I'm not so interested in what he says."

Although Rossi came back to fifth place after the incident, he was confident he could have won the race had he stayed upright.

"When it was wet I did the fastest lap, so I had a clear chance to win the race," Rossi admitted to reporters.

"At the end the fifth place is a positive result if it was in the dry, but in the wet we were more competitive. We were lucky today with the weather, and the weather gave us a great chance to have the first victory or the first podium with the Ducati. Unfortunately I threw away this chance with a mistake."

He was encouraged that his damaged shoulder - which is still recovering after winter surgery to fix an injury sustained in a motocross crash a year ago - was not an issue in the wet.

"In the wet I could ride at 100 per cent with my shoulder," Rossi said. "I could brake where my eyes said to brake, because the force on the shoulder in the wet is a lot less because the grip of the tyre is less. It's since the beginning of last year that I've not had this feeling. This made me optimistic."

I was really looking forward to seeing 3 or the 4 Americans at the top today.

[spdracerut]

Yeah... was definitely bummed at the last few laps. But Nicky is one of my favorite riders, so a great result for him. Looks like since the Ducati's can't turn, they just need rain so that none of others can turn either!

[sebtarta]

Moto2 race was 100x better than MotoGP. Even though the big bikes had a few hiccups made by the top riders that was pretty interesting.

[StuBeck]

Speed always has the MotoGP race, now usually at 8AM. Super annoyed with Rossi, and for the officials for not taking any actions.

[sebtarta]

You mean the marshalls.

The officials for MotoGP don't do anything during race, only if there is a false start or something worse.

If they take each other out it is their fault. This is not F1.

[jamesohoh7]

Originally Posted by Hotrodguru

Guess it's better late than never. Guess I've been busy and forgot to start this thread. So many changes for this year and it's just crazy.

What has me pissed off right now is that I found no channel to watch the Moto GP race on today. Seems like it was a barn burner also.

It was on Speed, my dvr snagged it... though I wasn't home at the time, so I don't know exactly when it aired.

They usually re-run the race at least once during the week, check your dvr settings and get it going, mangz!

[jamesohoh7]

Originally Posted by artkevin

Meh, it's been more than 12 hours since it aired so I'll post this.



I was really looking forward to seeing 3 or the 4 Americans at the top today.

it was like there was a freakin' curse... so close to the end too!

[Bottom Feeder]

The race is airing again tomorrow on Speed at 2pm.

Yeah, I missed it also.

[StuBeck]

Originally Posted by sebtarta

You mean the marshalls.

The officials for MotoGP don't do anything during race, only if there is a false start or something worse.

If they take each other out it is their fault. This is not F1.

Guess this is why I don't like motorcycle racing. Not being responsible for your actions doesn't make much sense.

[sebtarta]

Well I find MotoGP, Moto2 and the 125cc races much more entertaining than F1 really. Granted they are two different kinds of motorsport.

Same goes for GT1, V8 supercars, DTM, WTCC, etc.

[rjrutzky]

I don't think Rossi did anything wrong. If his front wouldn't have tucked, the pass would have been plenty clean. I'm pretty sure he wasn't trying to tuck it. Stoner usually crashes with no one in sight--at least this time he has someone to blame it on.

[Draken]

You're on crack. Rossi dive-bombed Casey. If he didn't tuck the front, he wouldn't have made the corner without going way wide and off the racing line, i.e. taking Casey with him. Rossi fully admits he completely screwed it up.

And yes, Casey had plenty of wrecks on the Ducati in races. Looks like Rossi is getting to enjoy the Ducati's front-end this year.

[artkevin]

In the article above Rossi says he just screwed up and wasn't even trying to pass Stoner. I give him credit for saying that.

[rjrutzky]

I'm just not a Stoner fan and actually like it when he gets duffed up. Laguna Seca brought me great joy

YouTube - Rossi-Stoner Laguna Seca 2008 battle

YouTube - Rossi-Stoner Laguna Seca 2008 battle

I was really bummed about Colin and Ben. What a race. I wish Speed still had the post race interviews. Curious what Nicky had to say about ending up with a podium

[John__Gotti]

Just watched the Jerez race, a few comments.

1. The marshalls should all be shot, seriously, lets only help Rossi and F everyone else. They didn't even try and help Stoner but the ten out there couldn't fall over themselves quick enough to help Rossi.

2. Really sad to see Simoncelli crash out from the lead would have been monstrous on that bike (is a mid pack bike at best) and being only his second MotoGP race.

3. Also very sad to see Spies crash out with two laps left. Would have been a well deserved podium for him.

Over all a good race, the weather always seems to make racing better, and the Spaniards are still stupid fast.

[Br.swans]

Damn could Nicky try any harder to give the podium away?! Really bumming me out watchin him the last couple years. Just have to get through this year and he'll win the championship next year on the bigger bike again.

[Draken]

Originally Posted by John__Gotti

2. Really sad to see Simoncelli crash out from the lead would have been monstrous on that bike (is a mid pack bike at best) and being only his second MotoGP race.

Simoncelli ran all last year on the Gresini Honda. And this year, he's riding fully fledged factory Honda equipment. Hence why they keep referring to the "four factory Honda riders."

[spdracerut]

Originally Posted by Br.swans

Damn could Nicky try any harder to give the podium away?! Really bumming me out watchin him the last couple years. Just have to get through this year and he'll win the championship next year on the bigger bike again.

To be fair, his rear tire was absolutely toast. You could see that it was coming apart at the edges. And he actually kept the bike up unlike Spies and Edwards.

Spies had started to slow down after he got into second, and the datalogs showed that he WAS going slower in the corner that he laid it down as compared to the lap before. So even though he slowed down, it wasn't enough with the worn tires and randomly wet conditions.

[sebtarta]

Now to make Stu happy

FIM reviewing Rossi-Stoner incident aftermath

6 April 2011

MotoGP governing body the FIM has confirmed that it will be reviewing the actions of race marshals following the collision between Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. However, race results will not be modified.

Since the race, Ducati’s Rossi has taken full blame for the Turn 1 coming together, which resulted in the Honda rider and erstwhile championship leader failing to finish the race. However, Jerez marshals then appeared to assist only the Italian, as Stoner struggled to rejoin the race.

The official FIM statement reads as follows:

‘Following the collision between Rossi and Stoner during the MotoGP race of the Spanish Grand Prix on 3 April in Jerez, the Race Direction has decided to organise a hearing with the Clerk of the Course and the Chief Marshal in order to review the incident and to hear the explanation of the officials in charge.

Due to the fact that the final decision of the Race Direction will not affect the result of the race, the hearing will be organized on Thursday 28 April in Estoril, Portugal.’

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/motogp-ne...ent-aftermath/


But as I mentioned before, once the race is over those are the standings.




Autosport has a very good article about the race on sunday. They also have this...

This image shows just how worn out the Tech 3 Yamaha rears of Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow were, while Andrea Dovizioso wore his out completely by the halfway point having not had the use of enough anti-spin. He put two new Bridgestones in and started again, not that anyone knew from the television pictures because it wasn't shown.

Full article here

[StuBeck]

Yay

[DMP RUN]

I enjoyed Stoner's comments to Rossi when he went and apologised

[Bottom Feeder]

That Rossi/Stoner incident was dumb. Kudos to Rossi for taking full responsibilty (which he should have), but the cornerworkers' actions were moronic. He had what, eight people helping him to Stoner's one? And that one guy gave up pretty quickly to go get his share of Rossi-touching in so he wouldn't be left out.

Where do they get these people?

[John__Gotti]

Originally Posted by Draken

Simoncelli ran all last year on the Gresini Honda. And this year, he's riding fully fledged factory Honda equipment. Hence why they keep referring to the "four factory Honda riders."

Thought this was his first full year. My bad. Then makes sense for him to be at the front.

Edit:
That image of the tires, after the race they were showing the winning bikes and all the tires looked exactly the same. No pictures were shown of the the fronts to see what they looked like though, would be interesting to see.