MotoGP China....

[y2blade]

..wakey wakey

race starts at 08:00


should be a cracker

[bob1179]

I'm stuck in the bloody office and will miss all of it.

I'm not a happy bunny today.

[y2blade]

good win by casey yeah his bike was 17clicks faster down the straight but he still got it round the corners for all those laps..good boy

rossi couldnt do much more than he did unless he'd have ran casey wide when he outbraked himself 2/3rds race distance

hopper brilliant to se him on the rostrum.I like him, he comes across as a good lad

next round LE-MANS 2 weeks time

[Rawwr]

Another bet, another win

[StuB]

Felt really sorry for Vermeulen, Capirex and Barros today.

Good result for Casey and I think Yamaha's chassis will start paying off in the European Grand Prix. Ducati speed is simply awesome for the same CC.

One more thing. how come no team has yet run out of fuel if they're now limited?

[anonymous-user]

StuB said:

One more thing. how come no team has yet run out of fuel if they're now limited?

I reckon the Ducati fuel line is like a fire hose!

[kingb]

wow i never thought stoner would be winning like that. i didnt quite manage to wake up in time but from what i read it was a bit like the first race of the season with stoner pulling away down the straight and rossi coming back in the bends.
gotta say i didnt like it first race as i didnt think it was the way i would want to win but fair play to the guy hes rode his race and hes come home faster than anyone else. well played stoner

oh and i love the look of that duke

Edited by kingb on Sunday 6th May 13:26

[FourWheelDrift]

Just managed to watch it on Eurosport, eventually (at last) without catching the result anywhere to spoil it. Nothing to touch Stoner today. Roll on Sachsenring and Donington, they'll be great races.


I also fired 2 emails of to Eurosport, one yesterday and one today because in terms of scheduling they couldn't schedule a pi$$ up in a brewery on National Beer day. Yesterday I sat down to watch the qualifying session at 6pm on Eurosport, it wasn't on......so checked again and it was on Eurosport2 channel at 8:30, so I'm watching it, it gets down to the last 3mins of qualifying and they take a break, show about 3mins of something called Eurosport "Bonus", some crappy skateboarding and Offroad bike jumping ramps then straight into bloody beach football. I mean what the hell happened to the last 3 mins of qualifying, we didn't see Hopkins take 2nd on the grid at all. Morons. Then today it gets worse, I don't watch the race live but settle down just after lunch to watch the race replay at 1:45pm as it says on the guide.........but.........it's already on....!!!!!!!!! FFS It's already down to the last 6 laps. What the hell is going on today. Then managing to still have a Sunday left to do things I try to watch the 6pm race replay and the bloody snooker is on, it's not until just after 6:30pm that the coverage starts. If it's not the womens tennis championships from Ulan Batoor over-running and getting in the way of sports people actually want to watch is the bloody yawn-fest of the snooker. So rants sent.

[carrera911]

great race eh!! pity rossi wasnt on a faster bike on the srtaights!

( do u think he IS gay?!!)

[schmeeky]

FourWheelDrift said:

Just managed to watch it on Eurosport, eventually (at last) without catching the result anywhere to spoil it. Nothing to touch Stoner today. Roll on Sachsenring and Donington, they'll be great races.


I also fired 2 emails of to Eurosport, one yesterday and one today because in terms of scheduling they couldn't schedule a pi$$ up in a brewery on National Beer day. Yesterday I sat down to watch the qualifying session at 6pm on Eurosport, it wasn't on......so checked again and it was on Eurosport2 channel at 8:30, so I'm watching it, it gets down to the last 3mins of qualifying and they take a break, show about 3mins of something called Eurosport "Bonus", some crappy skateboarding and Offroad bike jumping ramps then straight into bloody beach football. I mean what the hell happened to the last 3 mins of qualifying, we didn't see Hopkins take 2nd on the grid at all. Morons. Then today it gets worse, I don't watch the race live but settle down just after lunch to watch the race replay at 1:45pm as it says on the guide.........but.........it's already on....!!!!!!!!! FFS It's already down to the last 6 laps. What the hell is going on today. Then managing to still have a Sunday left to do things I try to watch the 6pm race replay and the bloody snooker is on, it's not until just after 6:30pm that the coverage starts. If it's not the womens tennis championships from Ulan Batoor over-running and getting in the way of sports people actually want to watch is the bloody yawn-fest of the snooker. So rants sent.

Euro sport got an annoyed e-mail from me as well... I'd gone to get some beers in and was ready to settle down to a good race, turned it on at 1.46pm (scheduled start 1.45pm), and WTF??? 18 laps out of 22? It's like successfully keeping away from all football news so you can watch the late repeat as if it's live, only to turn the telly on to find it's 10 mins from full time.... you know the result but have been robbed of the fun of following the game...

Bang out of order, British Eurosport

[runnersp]

Quinny said:

kingb said:

wow i never thought stoner would be winning like that. i didnt quite manage to wake up in time but from what i read it was a bit like the first race of the season with stoner pulling away down the straight and rossi coming back in the bends.
gotta say i didnt like it first race as i didnt think it was the way i would want to win but fair play to the guy hes rode his race and hes come home faster than anyone else. well played stoner

Randy asked Stoner if he could get past in the corners or could he only pass on the straight??
Stoner said I may well have been able to pass in some of the corners, but there's far more risk of contact or somthing happening, therefore I used the bikes strongest feature, its outright speed.

Makes sense to me Why make it hard for yourself when you can just blast past on the straights

Exactly...
Slightly off topic but interesting nonetheless: You should have heard the Italian press yesterday... Everybody ranting about some possible infringment of rules that allowed Stoner to beat Valentino golden boy prodigal son best thing since sliced bread Rossi... Ridiculous!!! Instead of offering congratulations to Stoner and Ducati (which happens to be Italian) for stuffing the far larger Japanese constructors, they poo-poo them beacause Valentino isn't winning... Don't get me wrong I support Valentino, but this level of subservience makes James Allen look like a Hamilton-basher!!!

[Rawwr]

I think Rossi, personally, enjoys the competition. There is no evident bad will between him and Stoner or him and Ducati (not like there is between him and Elias, anyway). If Rossi/Yamaha were that much better in the corners, Rossi would've taken Stoner at the first hairpin and stayed infront until the main straight on every lap - that didn't happen.

[kingb]

runnersp said:

Quinny said:

kingb said:

wow i never thought stoner would be winning like that. i didnt quite manage to wake up in time but from what i read it was a bit like the first race of the season with stoner pulling away down the straight and rossi coming back in the bends.
gotta say i didnt like it first race as i didnt think it was the way i would want to win but fair play to the guy hes rode his race and hes come home faster than anyone else. well played stoner

Randy asked Stoner if he could get past in the corners or could he only pass on the straight??
Stoner said I may well have been able to pass in some of the corners, but there's far more risk of contact or somthing happening, therefore I used the bikes strongest feature, its outright speed.

Makes sense to me Why make it hard for yourself when you can just blast past on the straights

Exactly...
Slightly off topic but interesting nonetheless: You should have heard the Italian press yesterday... Everybody ranting about some possible infringment of rules that allowed Stoner to beat Valentino golden boy prodigal son best thing since sliced bread Rossi... Ridiculous!!! Instead of offering congratulations to Stoner and Ducati (which happens to be Italian) for stuffing the far larger Japanese constructors, they poo-poo them beacause Valentino isn't winning... Don't get me wrong I support Valentino, but this level of subservience makes James Allen look like a Hamilton-basher!!!

dont get me wrong i think it was an excellent ride by stoner

[runnersp]

Quinny said:

I know exactly where you were coming from mate

The funny thing is, its the otherway around in WSB Ducati complaining that the Jap bikes are to fast.

Personally I just love the fact that a non Italian/Spannish rider is doing so well on a European bike.

Nothing against the other riders (they're all brilliant) It's just refreshing to see a young Aussy going so well.

I just hope someone like young Bradley can follow in his footsteps

Not such a good race for him yesterday, but to qualify 5th was a hell of a step up. Good lad keep it up

I completely agree... I also happen to be an ardent Stoner supporter because in our younger days we raced minicross down under... When I say raced what I actually mean is a big bunch of us would start together and he would bugger off into the distance... I remember all the old heads nodding sagely and saying "that kid's good" and being so bloody jealous!!! But you could see, even as a nipper, that there was bags of talent there...

[Rawwr]

Quinny said:

I'd just like to say I told you so to all those who slagged him off for having a bad season last year

I'll echo that

At one point, Stoner was expected to move to Yamaha to replace Edwards but the move was blocked by Rossi. Hmm

[macdeb]

So, how do you think Rossi would perform on a Ducati? Aint' knockin' Stoner, think he's 'uckin' brilliant. But, before we start knockin' Rossi, look at the history;125,250,500,4 stroke,went from Honda [whom I despise with a passion over their dirty tricks campaign on parallel imports some time back] to Yamaha [who were getting nowhere] and retained title. Add to this a bloody nice bloke with a sense of humour. The blokes a freak and is in my mind still the one all others would like to beat. The season aint over yet, lets get to the twisties where it counts more than just opening a throttle. I'm chuffed for Ducati/Stoner, in my mind anyone for the championship but Honda. But, Rossi aint finished yet and remember what good press he has brought to the top class. Big up the doctor!!!!!!

Edited by macdeb on Monday 7th May 18:46

[Rawwr]

Love this photo:

[StuB]

How much influence has Jeremy Burgess had on Rossi's success do you think?

For me it's like Schumi with no Brawn, they're a team and one without the other wouldn't work as well. Quite a few examples of bikers losing their engineer and not getting results.

Stoner is in his ascendancy and racing against Rossi will make him a better rider and at his age, provided no nasty off's, how good could he be? Rossi racing the rest get's a lot out of him when he's on an inferior race package, but any improvement can surely only be small, so I think this season is stacking up nicely.

[Rawwr]

I haven't placed my bet on Stoner for the championship yet, though the odds are narrowing all the time. I'll decide after LM. If Stoner finishes in the top five at Le Mans, I'll take a championship bet.

[wassy]

Hopper had an offer to ride the Ducati last year.