Two rounds in and it's more of the same with MotoGP - however there is one shining light. Cal Crutchlow is proving the MotoGP sensation of 2012 and, after another strong qualifying performance, Cal secured his second fourth of the year in the race. If it wasn't for a few wild first laps, Cal might very well have overtaken Pedrosa and snapped up his first podium in the premier class. Great riding Cal, Dovizioso must be getting concerned about 2013 and Ben Spies doesn't look all that safe...
Crutchlow chased Pedrosa and got fourth
At the front it was horribly familiar - Stoner makes the break and Lorenzo tags in behind, although this time arm pump failed to rob Stoner of victory. A great ride on totally screwed tyres and digging deep for the final few laps to overcome a bit of arm pump was enough to secure the Aussie a win at one of his least favorite tracks. Describing it as "his best race ever", Stoner was unusually elated to take the win.
Rossi's dismal season continued, with Haydon showing good in the first few laps (sticky tyres helped) the finger of suspicion is starting to point at the Italian rider rather than the Ducati...
Moto2 qualifying was a disaster for the Brits with Scott Redding 12th, Bradley Smith 19th and Gino Rea 23rd on the grid - luckily Brits have sharp elbows and great starts saw all three running in the top 16 with Scott in the top five! Great riding (mainly sideways!) saw Scott make it up to second and then first with 19 laps to go. Only one issue - Marc Marquez and Thomas Luthi. Four laps later the Spaniard slipped past only to be seriously duffed up by Redding a lap later before Luthi hit the lead. Then, just as it was looking exciting, the rain started to fall. Pol Espargaro and Marquez battled for the lead but Scott dropped back to fourth before the red flag came out, giving the win to Pol. Smith finished 11th and Rea 15th.
Stoner and teammate Pedrosa celebrate
After a damp and then dry qualifying, Moto3's grid was a bit topsy turvy and the race also threw up a few surprises due to the conditions. Brit Danny Kent and had a torrid time in tricky conditions, crashing out on the first lap, while Webb retired mid-race after being involved in a seven-bike battle for sixth place. Save of the weekend (almost) went to Jakub Kornfeil, who fired himself off his bike and surfed alongside only to remount and then fall off! The race was won by emerging Italian star Romano Fenati. A win and a second in your first two GPs - the kid looks class. Vinales finished sixth, not bad considering he fell off and remounted - points make prizes and the season has a long way to go...
I think fingers can probably still be pointed at the Ducati, given that Hayden finished only one place in front of Valentino despite starting a few rows further up the grid. Nicky obviously had to cane the bike at the start to keep pace and murdered the tyres, not good. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the Moto3 season pans out though, it should be a proper scrap between Fenati and Maverick!
"More of the same" and "horribly familiar" . .. Do you dislike watching it or something?
More of the same - so the fastest guys in the world were at the front, horribly familiar in that the fastest guys on the fastest bikes were at the front. I agree we need some satellite bikes at the front mixing it up, see Cal comments, but the reality is there hasn't been a factory win since Elias at Estoril by 2 thousands of a sec from Rossi, there wasn't one during the 800 era and this season is the best chance we'll have as the machinery is closer between factory and Satellite teams than it has been since the 990's introduction.
Cal's ride was exeptional, given his lap times were faster than his qualifying and he's only ridden at Jerez in the last 2 yrs against competition brought up in 125/250/MGP at Jerez year after year, to be 2.5secs from the win is an exceptional result for any satellite rider, even better it was Cal.
4th in his last 3 GP's, it was without doubt his greatest ride in MGP so far.
Fenati's win was just mad, never raced in the rain before and as mentioned perhaps youngsters don't have the imanigantion to understand what can actually go wrong, but regardless, how different must the bike have felt and therefore to win by over 30secs from a number of GP winners is an astonishing ride.
Moto 3 needs a bike + rider minimum weight rule. Not just because Redding is penalised by his weight, but because these are completely std engines and when you do stand Marquez against Redding it's no wonder the Spaniard has more tyres left under him later in a race and how easy is it for him to overtake, even on the short Jerez straights.
Cal just couldn't get Dani, just watch what happened out of the last turn, once on the throttle Dani pulled out 5-10m every time and then Cal's having to make ground up all the lap, I'm sure it was incredibly frustrating for him. But having one of the 'aliens' admit you pushed him hard all race long is a real compliment. The top 3 have all made comments relating to how fast they think Cal is this year and they recognised from the first Sepang test, i just hope he stays on board and continues to develop this speed during the season. He is beating his vastly more experienced team mate, but only by a single place at each GP, so if thats the first benchmark he's doing well, but needs to keep going.
3 great races though, Moto3 continues to get better and better and the mix of different machinery with differing performance characteristics in making for good racing. Moto 2 is hampered by the rules for me a little, but the racing is spectacular.
MGP, I suppose to passing spectator it is a little processional after the first 6-8 laps, but for me watching how Stoner manages that bikes after 20 of the 20 odd laps is astonishing, he is an artist and so is Lorenzo.
Interestingly for all those of the rose tinted spectacles and comments often made that the racing was closer in the 2 stroke 500 days and it was so much better with Rainey, Swantz, Gardner, Lawson, Doohan et al. Statictics prove you wrong I'm afraid, the winning margin in 800's was smaller than in the 500 days.
So to return to the familiarity and horribly predictable nature of MGP. That'll be the same as much other forms of motorsport where the best kit goes to the best exponents of their art to be at the front of their given race . ..
Short version: It's when the muscles nip the blood vessels in your forearms leaving you with numb forearms.
The medical term is 'compartment syndrome' and for racers is normally relieved, though rarely cured completely by surgery which essentially slices open the bags that surround your muscles in the forearm to allow them greater capacity and movement to prevent the 'nip' as described above and allow the blood to flow corectly. For some in can means return surgery but I think there are essentially 3 times you can be operated on before there's nothing left, for some it's about style and diet.
For some reason Belgium seems to be the centre of this surgical sphere from where I read and see riders going for surgery, but that may be one particular doctor whose reputation spreads about the BSB paddock. It's a problem for Motocross riders as well in particular.
800's just changed the racing, statistically they actually made the racing closer, but I don' think it felt like that. The 990 era was dominated by Rossi, because he is/was so popular people don't seem to mind that so much, but people forget the Doohan domination when we were stood at Donington with 15,999 other people, compare that to know. Anything against the brutality of the largely uncontrolled excesses of the 990 bikes would look a bit shocking. Add in the fact that the most successful rider during the period for race wins was a certain Aussi who is a marmite rider and the publics view is of a disaterous period for GP racing.
The riders didn't like the 800's either, but like every other pilot in a race they wanted more power, for me though the power is great as long as it gives flexibility to the racing which I think jerez started to show a little of. The danger is that the electronics will rein in the excesses and we'll see a return to 800 style racing. We're not far from that now and given the manufacturers biggest development area is electronics, then I can not see a significant change any time soon.
What is definitely different for me watching Sundays race was the variety of lines being taken by the Top 4. The 1000's are definitely giving the riders more flexibility in the lines that they are taking, the comparative might be the 'U' shaped corner line versus the 'V' shaped corner line as an extreme. If you watch how the riders are changing the lines subtlely to take advantage of the huge power they now have I think this is healthy for the racing compared to the 800's which really punished a rider if they went off line or wide as they lacked the torque to pull you back in line, but there was defintiely a difference for me in the riders ability to pick and choose differing lines and mistakes were not punished as hard as they would have been IMO during the 800 era. This was what the 990's great to watch, you could square off a corner or choose a different line and still stay with the pack, in 800's you had less flexibility and therefore once you lost touch it was much harder to close the gap.
I think fingers can probably still be pointed at the Ducati, given that Hayden finished only one place in front of Valentino despite starting a few rows further up the grid.
But Rossi should be well in front of Hayden all the time, not 'only' one place behind. It's like doing the London Marathon and saying you only finished one place behind Stephen Hawking.
But Rossi should be well in front of Hayden all the time, not 'only' one place behind. It's like doing the London Marathon and saying you only finished one place behind Stephen Hawking.
I think fingers can probably still be pointed at the Ducati, given that Hayden finished only one place in front of Valentino despite starting a few rows further up the grid.
But Rossi should be well in front of Hayden all the time, not 'only' one place behind. It's like doing the London Marathon and saying you only finished one place behind Stephen Hawking.
I don't know why everyone gets so animated about Hayden, he's an ex-world champion. Yes a great ride in '06, but he's only ever won 3 GP's, twice at Laguna in the first 2yrs they went there before anyone else knew it and at Assen when Edwards decided to go mad at the chicane and throw away his best chance of winning a GP, handing it to Hayden.
Other than that he hasn't won another one, podiums yeah and a World Championship, but if consitency is the measure, there hasn't been a GP in the last 12mths where Stoner hasn't finished on the Pödium
Johno - top posts. Balanced, articulate and well reasoned.
To add my own view/s: F1 remains the most 'boring' top class racing, although I would admit this year is better than past seasons - but then I am biased and really only jump at the chance to watch bikes - in whichever class/ formula.
Rossi does like to moan, more perhaps than Stoner. He was, after all, the rider that took an under powered Yam and kicked some Honda bootie in 2004 - perhaps the fight has gone out of him - or he's started to succumb to the mental pressure that he so often used to dish out?
I understand Marquez has a huge advantage in terms of weight when compared to Redding, but given how much redding slides his bike I don't think the difference in tyres can be put down to weight. Don't get me wrong, I love him sliding the bike and hope he keeps doing it, but it's no wonder his tyres go off towards the end of the race.
Johno - top posts. Balanced, articulate and well reasoned.
To add my own view/s: F1 remains the most 'boring' top class racing, although I would admit this year is better than past seasons - but then I am biased and really only jump at the chance to watch bikes - in whichever class/ formula.
Rossi does like to moan, more perhaps than Stoner. He was, after all, the rider that took an under powered Yam and kicked some Honda bootie in 2004 - perhaps the fight has gone out of him - or he's started to succumb to the mental pressure that he so often used to dish out?
I think it's too easy to say that F1 is boring compared to Moto GP because for a long time it has been. I find a lot of people who don't actually watch F1 say it's boring too. However, in the last couple of years I'd say F1 has been better.
I know it's not really part of this argument but if you want real 'edge of your seat' stuff then it's got to be the TT. Road racing is ridiculously exciting! I must make the effort to get there one year.
kers cramp?
