| Author | Message | ||
     Jaimec |
It was also the cause of Rossi's crash last year at Mugello. He slowed down a bit to get someone off his tail and that was enough for the tires to cool down. Once he got on the throttle again, the bike spit him right off. | ||
| Gaesati |
Hayden seems to race as consistently on the Ducati as he has in past years. He is probably the truest indicator of the potential of the Ducati. From his effort and consistency it is no wonder that he continues to have no difficulty finding continued employment. | ||
| Trojan |
Another wet and windy session in FP1 this morning in Holland. Rossi seems a lot happier on the new GP11.1 Ducati than he did last week and set the 2nd fastest time (although conditions weren't exactly conducive to fast times and mean very little at this stage) to Simoncelli, who shows no sign of slowing down after his recent spate of crashes (although again it is early days!) Cal Crutchlow went well to finish FP1 in 6th spot despite his recent injury  | ||
| Jaimec |
So much for Ducati's "Frameless Design" being a joke: http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults /New-bikes/2011/June/jun2211-new-ducati-1199-stuns -bayliss-in-test/ Any other similarly silly observations for us? | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Another marketing b#llshit from Ducati ??? | ||
| Trojan |
Another marketing b#llshit from Ducati ??? Yeah you are right. Rossi didn't actually ride the bike in FP1. They had a PR guy make the times up and insert them on the timesheets while nobody was looking  I can't see what the fuss is about. ALL of the factory teams make changes throughout the season based on private testing. Ducati have made a bold move by introducing a lot of the 2012 bike early and the only difference with them is that these parts have been tested on the 2012 machine by Rossi rather than by a factory test rider as is usually the case. I'd be willing to bet that the 2011 Honda/Yamaha also contains a lot of parts used on next years bike too, particularly as the bike evolve towards the end of the season. All this stuff about Ducati 'cheating' is just nonsense by ill informed people who don't undertsand the testing rules. | ||
| Blake |
 Airbox in frame is "mould-breaking". Not so much, but it is an excellent two for one idea. Nice location of the muffler too. | ||
| Blake |
What's next, a hubless rear wheel? | ||
| Rasta_dog |
Hey, nice Buell!  | ||
| Jaimec |
Now THAT was the "Ben Spies" we Americans are USED to seeing!! | ||
| Gaesati |
Outstanding ride by Spies. | ||
| Crusty |
After the first lap, Spies looked like the Ben Spies we saw here in AMA Superbike. He opened a comfortable lead, then when Stoner set fast laps trying to catch him. he responded, and maintained his lead. It was a pleasure to watch him get his first Moto GP win. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
A great win for Spies. Well done and deserved. I guess Spies will win 1-2 more races this year..... So the GP11.1 was not very succesfull. Basicaly more than 1sec slower than the Yamahas and Hondas. They have their last chance to make their frameless design work in Muggello. Rossi's favourite track and they have tested the GP12 there too , so they have some data. Their last chance..... | ||
| Jaimec |
On the other hand, the smart rider will stay as far away from #58 as possible... | ||
| Davegess |
Simo is an idiot. He takes risks when he does not have to. Cold tires and a tough, tough pass. Wait a turn or two. You are not sinning the race in that turn that early. Back in the day one of the riders would have "explained" this to him with a fist. Probably would work today but we can't have that kind of behavior can we? | ||
| Trojan |
So the GP11.1 was not very succesfull. Basicaly more than 1sec slower than the Yamahas and Hondas. They have their last chance to make their frameless design work in Muggello. Rossi's favourite track and they have tested the GP12 there too , so they have some data. Their last chance..... First time out with a brand new bike that has NOT been tested in this form by Rossi or Hayden. They spent ALL of practice and qualifying just testing various diferent setups and trying to find one that they were confident would work for the race. In the event Rossi was quickest in warm up and raced to a credible 4th place (although he benefitted from the crash and Crutchlow's retirement as well of course). What more would you expect of a new bike that didn't have the usuall full winter test programme? Ducati are obviously working for next year with this new GP11.1 but even then putting a different crank and making it 800cc will make it a very different bike to ride than the GP12. People seem very fast to criticise what is obvioulsy a work in progress and needs testing time. As for the race itself....Congrats to Ben Spies for a faultless ride. He was guifted a 2 second lead when Simon Silly inevitably crashed on the first lap (I was praying that he could at last convert his qualifying position into a decent result but alas...) and took out Lorenzo, but he put in some fast laps and built up a good lead that nobody could touch. Shame about Cal Crutchlow getting a duff front tyre, as he looked more than comfortable in 4th place until chunks started coming off the tyre  Other than that it was probably the MOST boring MotoGP race I have have seen, and that is saying something after the procession of dull races we have had so far this year. I actually nearly fell asleep during the middle of the race! Something desperately needs to be done to liven up what is fast becoming the F1 of bike racing, and just adding 6 slow teams to the back of the grid surely isn't the answer Luckily the Moto2 and especially the 125 races were as entertaining as ever and almost made up for the monotony of the MotoGP event. | ||
| Jaimec |
Well... I was on the edge of MY seat... kept praying Ben would be able to bring it home safe... and he DID!! How many people can say they beat Stoner by over seven and a half seconds?? And the way Lorenzo was tearing through the pack, I'd say the Yamaha is again on equal footing with the Hondas. If only Lorenzo can avoid the rolling accident with hair, he might be able to start reeling Stoner back in. | ||
| Crusty |
Simoncelli should dye his hair. This is all I can think of whenever I see him without a helmet on:  | ||
| Vagelis46 |
I like that Ducati is trying something different with the chassis , but when will they say "That's enought we give up" ???? After Muggelo , if they have another fiasco ??? What happened to Rossi's development magic ??? | ||
| Trojan |
And the way Lorenzo was tearing through the pack, I'd say the Yamaha is again on equal footing with the Hondas. I think Assen may have been just a blip on Hondas relentless march to the title this year unfortunately, and was very much down to the vagaries of Bridgestone tyres rather than machine performance. Most teams wanted a softer rear tyre after first practice, and Bridgestone wanted to bring a tyre from Germany overnight in time for the race that had a softer left side. Unfortunately they needed a unanimous vote fro all teams in order to introduce this tyre change, and at least one team (rumoured to be Gresini) voted against it so they couldn't use it. This meant that a lot of teams knew before the race that they would almost certainly run into tyre trouble if the race remianed dry throughout. Stoner stated on the start line that he had no confidence in the tyres and wasn't going to push hard. There also seems to have been differences between 'identical' front tyres too. Both Tech 3 Yamahas suffered badly from destroyed front tyres yet Ben Spies front (same compound) was as good as new at the end. Colin Edwards said that setup was almost the same so it can only be a bad batch of tyres | ||
| Gaesati |
OR it could have been what looked like faultless throttle and brake control as well as smoooooth riding by Spies which didn't stress the tyres. Not being involved in any scrapping for position probably helped preserve his tyres too. | ||
| Trojan |
OR it could have been what looked like faultless throttle and brake control as well as smoooooth riding by Spies which didn't stress the tyres. Maybe, but others who didn't battle too hard for position suffered too (Dovi and Stoner both had abnormal tyre wear on the left side) yet others had pristine tyres at the end of the race. Dovi dropped 20 seconds on Stoner and almost into the grasp of Rossi by the end of the race due to tyre problems. Lorenzo probably rode harder than anyone all race, but his front tyre was good at race end too. Don't get me wrong, Spies rode a brilliant race and dominated from the front. I just don't think that Yamaha have caught up with Honda technically yet and I think that the status quo will probably be restored at Mugello unfortunately. | ||
| Svh |
I was glad to see Ben win his first GP... BUT I think it was a fluke because of tires and Stoner possibly being a bit apprehensive still after his off. I hope I am wrong but like Trojan I expect to see a Repsol back on top this weekend. I will gladly be wrong. How are they going to ever get good racing in GP? Run away wins seem to be the norm and are quite boring even when it is your guy winning. | ||
| Ebear |
HELP!!!! Does anyone have a recording of the Race?I was shooting the Pikes Peak Hillclimbs and didnt have access on the mountain.I would be willing to talk restitution for a copy....perhaps some Shots of the Hillclinb? or whatever.I really want to see that race!Thanks | ||
| Dennis_c |
To much duck tape to hold the bike together for me to ride  | ||
| Davegess |
I think it was a combo of his qualifying run so he was right at the front AND he got away clean. He always seems to struggle a bit when he gets in a small pack in that first lap. I wonder if he is struggling a bit with how many risks the riders a willing to take on cold tires, with a bunch of bike about in the first few turns. You have to be almost crazy aggressive to stay in the first three if get back in the scrum that is 3 to 10 in the first 3-5 corners. | ||
| Trojan |
I think it was a combo of his qualifying run so he was right at the front AND he got away clean. Absolutely. He had a great practice and qualifying and was only a few thousands slower than Simon Silly in Qualifying, so was at the sharp end all weekend. He certainly gained around 2 seconds from the melee on the forst lap though, which gave him a clean getaway and an uneventful race, but of course he had to keep the pace up to stay ahead of the Hondas even though they had problems of their own. Mugello will certainly be a lot warmer so the tyre problems shouldn't occur there, and then we'll be back to normal service unfortunately I think | ||
| Jaimec |
Dovi and Stoner were dicing with each other at the beginning of the race. Ben had no such issues once the rolling accident with hair took out the only two capable of running his pace this past Sunday. Lorenzo is an incredibly smooth rider, and probably didn't stress his tires as much either. Stoner, no matter what he rides, always looks on the ragged edge of control. | ||
| Jaimec |
Nice, three-part analysis of what is wrong with MotoGP, and some possible solutions: http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-noye s-notebook-the-missing-ingredient-pt-i/ http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-noye s-notebook-the-missing-ingredient-pt-ii/ http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-noye s-notebook-the-missing-ingredient-pt-iii/ | ||
| Imonabuss |
Boy, is Dennis ever right on the money. |
