China Spoiler

 Well lookee here. 100,000 Catalans go wild as they watch the GP on
screens round the F1 GP circuit. I guess Pedrosa just didn't make a
single mistake today. Hayden on the podium again. Edwards fast, but not
fast enough. Horrible weekend for Rossi. Sete goes backwards. And
backwards. And a great race for Hopkins. Suzuki are so nearly there now.
And Stoner? Runs off the track and still finishes 5th. Tamada racing
well but Melandri and Elias all over the place. Checa wins the Dunlop
race, but the Dunlop runners were in the last 4 places.

Hayden to Rossi is now 30 points. When's Rossi's season going to start
turning around? And F1 is looking as fickle as ever. Now he's winning
again, there's rumours of Schumacher not retiring and signing another
contract. Which then leaves no place for Rossi and with Rossi not
winning everything his stock with Ferrari is going down. "Yes we have a
place for you but it's over there in this sub-team or testing". So look
on the bright side, every race that Rossi doesn't win makes it more
likely he'll stay with us next year.

--
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 Julian Bond wrote:

Blistering pace set by Pedrosa and Hayden, even with poor starts by both
- Pedrosa in 5th and Hayden down farther, Rossi right on his rear wheel
  in the first turn. A look at the lap times shows they set fast lap
nine times between them after Edwards' fast one on lap 5. The difference
might have been that start, as Hayden's was worse and he had to work
through more guys and behind Pedrosa, but we don't know if Dani had a
bit in reserve. A great race for Dani, winning his first premier class
race even earlier than Rossi - Vale took his first podium in his 4th 500
race, and win in his 9th.

For Hayden it's a solid points lead, 13 over Capirossi, 15 over Pedrosa,
18 over Melandri, 20 over Stoner, 32 over Rossi. And eight straight
podiums, which isn't insignificant; looking back, Rossi's best was 23
including the entire 2003 season, he also did 13 in 01-02, Doohan did 17
including the entire 1994 season, Criville did 10 straight in 1996
(while Doohan was on a concurrent run of 11), Schwantz started 1993 with
9 straight, Rainey did 9 in '91 and 15 in 89-90, Doohan had 10 in 90-91,
and Lawson closed '89 with 10 straight. So that's starting to become the
company. During that run the other podiums have been 5 for Rossi, 4 for
Melandri, 2 for Capirossi and Pedrosa, 1 each for Edwards, Stoner, Checa.

Probably a major relief for Edwards and Hopkins, finally getting some
results this weekend, even if the bikes aren't exactly perfect yet. For
Colin a front row start, leading the race and a podium his great,
considering the continuing chatter problems, and for Suzuki to take 4th
in a dry race is incredible, considering where they were in Qatar. And
not on a Bridgestone track, not trailing the Ducatis - 2nd-best was
Capirossi in 8th, although only 5 seconds back at the end. Great stuff.

Tamada also had a comeback weekend, showing signs in practice and 6th in
the race, running as high as 5th - but still 24 seconds back. Stoner's
5th was amazing, I don't know how he got there after running off - he
did an 07 on that lap, and then 00s the rest of the way. But he never
quite showed the speed he did on Saturday before his crash. Melandri
completed a rather dismal weekend behind them in 7th, apparently his
issues not behind him yet. But not as dismal as teammate Elias, down in
11th. Nakano in 10th had to be a real disappointment after good speed on
Saturday and in the warmup. And it would have been nice to see more of
that fight for 5th, which looked wild.


I thought it was funny that the announcers on the broadcast were talking
about all of the Yamaha problems and how Rossi would be back once they
solve them, and all the while Colin was leading the race on one!
Typical. And we're seeing bad luck and breakdowns we've never seen
before, like swapping the rear tire when it's the front that's shot. I
used to think I wanted Rossi to stay, so the newer guys could get a full
shot at him and really road test that inevitable legend. Now I'm not so
sure, I think he's becoming something of a distraction, and MotoGP might
well be better off without him unless he's totally committed to bikes.

Of course that all might change once he's back in the fight, which
almost certainly will happen. I still pick him for the championship, but
it looks like it'll be an interesting fight, at least for a while. In
some ways it appears the fight right now is between Yamaha solving their
problems, Honda developing Hayden's bike and Bridgestone developing
their tires to give an edge Capirossi. Then there's the psychology - is
Rossi's head really in it? Is Hayden's confidence sky-high, or is the
lack of wins eating away at him now? Can Pedrosa and Stoner hold up to a
championship fight first time out?

But it all could change next week...

 Mark N wrote:

race and I passed a lot of riders but I had a battle with Marco
Melandri that cost me some time. Some of his moves were quite strong,
which I could understand if we were fighting for the win on the last
lap but not for eighth place at that stage of the race."

In Japan last year, Rossi had the championship won in fourth place, and
tried to pull a sketchy passing move / "Yates Maneuver" on Marco for
third, taking them both out, and giving Marco a huge hole in his foot.
When Melandri, who was (barely) leading Rossi in the championship,
declines to let him through, he complains about "strong moves?"

Granted, they didn't show what the moves in question were, so it's
possible that Rossi has grounds for complaint, but they both stayed on
the track and upright, so how bad could they really have been?

And of course, where the hell did Stoner come from (had he not run off
the track, he'd have given Edwards problems at the end), what the hell
happened to Suzuki (did the horsepower fairy bring them 30 more in the
middle of the night?), and when was the last time we saw three
Americans in the top four?

I was prepared to write off MotoGP this year in favor of WSBK, but I'm
having to reconsider.

-jake

 

Things like this show Rossi's lost this season. Probably trying to
comprehend what's happening to him, how from one year to the next he's all
of a sudden just one more in a pack that can finish any race from podium to
tenth position. Good. But in his current form, replacable. And in racing,
somehow, once you lose your aura of invincibility, you never quite regain
it. It's going to be a more vulnerable Rossi going forward - that slight
edge of hunger he may have lost, that looking past motorcycles and now being
in the pack will be tough to overcome. It may well be a premature statement,
but this may mark the end of an era. Going forward, we'll see what Rossi is
made of: whether he recovers from the first major setback of hsi career, or
not. Other great racers have come back before from events that derailed a
season for them. No doubt Rossi has the ability, but let's see if he still
has the desire.


Yeah. It's ironic coming from him, after the stuff he's pulled on occasion
against Biaggi, Gibernau, Melandri or Hayden. Somehow I hope the others keep
on making him swallow the humility pill for a little while. The change is
invigorating for the championship.

But finally we're seing the type of season that some of us had expected the
last 2 seasons to look like: Rossi with whatever issues are plaguing him,
and the results overal being a lottery with a different guy basically
winning every other race based on form of the day.

And Hayden showing how his methodical, smart and calculated approach pays
off in a season like this. Regularity wins championships, Hayden knows it,
and I think he's riding for now to not make mistakes and stay in the race
for the title, and ready to kick it up a notch when it really, really
matters or when an opportunity to really distance a main rival presents
himself. I think he has the reserve, he looks very controlled in there.
Other riders beware, I think Hayden has great cards, and he hasn't had to
show his full hand yet.


Good race by Stoner, but also a very smart race by that fox Edwards, who
also knows only too well what may matter the most this season, and made the
most of his opportunity with what he was riding. And he has not forgotten
how to ride, that bike did not look that rideable towards the end...


Hope it stays like this, Hopkins deserves it. I'd really like to eventually
see what Hopkins can do on another bike. At some point in time, riding that
bike will affect Hopkins's desire.

On a final note, as smart as Hayden is riding, beware of Pedrosa, who's
known to have a racing brain that clicks like a Swiss watch himself. If
Pedrosa keeps progressing and adapting as well (and that remains a big "if"
despite his impressive progtression thus far), he may be right there with
Hayden fighting for the lead in the championship in the end. But for now
Hayden can ride behind Pedrosa simply waiting for a mistake, which Pedrosa
is still more likely to make.

I must say the races are not the most exciting around, however overall the
novelty in the race for the championship certainly is.

By the way, the 125cc race was *mad*. That last turn, five guys on the
brakes for the lead... now *that* is fun to watch every turn of the race,
really. Bradley Smith not progressing as fast as I thought he might, then
again, he's got plenty of time.

...pablo

 

I don't know what all the fuss about Rossi's ability and desire etc atm is
about, he was taken out by Melandri on the first corner of the first lap in
race 1 but recovered to gain a few points, hardly his fault, he wins race 2
no problems there, comes through the pack to finish 4th after a poor
qualifying in race 3 and was in a position to get a podium today when his
tyre gave out, again not his fault so I fail to see any lack of motivation
or ability on his part, he's had bad luck this year and couple that with
bike development issues and he not done too bad, all that needs to happen is
Hayden to DNF, Rossi to win and there we go game on!!! (and hell I'm not
really a Rossi fan)

Paul