First day (night) at Qatar

 

Headlings:
 - Rossi fastest
 - Yamahas dominant
 - Spies continues to impress
 - Lorenzo struggling with injured hand
 - Hondas in trouble
 - Rookies (apart from Spies) struggling

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2010/final+update+first+day+rossi

http://www.motogp.com/en/TestResults/MotoGP+Losail+Test+2010
--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

 

On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:04:53 GMT, Champ wrote:


That's awesome stuff from Spies.


Maybe.  de Puniet is right behind Edwards and Dovi not far back.  Pedrose
1.6 off Rossi is not good though.

- Hayden back to middle ground.  I was hoping that he'd continue the form
that he found at Sepang.
- Simoncelli could probably go faster just by getting that stupid hair cut
off.

On the one hand, it's only the first day, on the other hand, there is only
1 day left.  No time for messing about.

 

wrote:


Maybe indeed.  I based my comment on the lead Honda being from a
satellite team, and behind 3 Yamahas.  And I'm pretty confident it'd
be 4 Yamahas if Lorenzo was fit.
--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

 

Switters wrote:

Which he's been in every session this winter. Not a good sign for the
season, but with this little testing who knows.


Impressive to cut the margin to Rossi to just over a half second. That's
probably getting down into the zone of the difference in the bikes. Just
testing, but it will be interesting to see if Rossi tries to push that
back up toward a second tonight...


But not bad considering, at least he's out there riding.


Not much for Honda to lean on there, it's been a tough winter. And it
just keeps getting worse for Dani. Right now one wouldn't predict the
Dance of the Four Aliens right out of the box...


It looked like he was on the lead pace earlier in the session then got
bogged down. He said he couldn't get the soft tire to work again, so if
his time is on the hard tire and most of the others on the soft, it's
actually not that bad. But they have to figure that one out.


He'd go faster just by getting back on a 250. Funny how close all the
250 rookies were at the back yesterday - looks like we'll have some
awsome fights for last this season...


It's the consistent margins at the front that are most troubling. Right
now it's kind of hard to predict anything but Rossi wins and Stoner
runnerups with any fight being for third, at least until Lorenzo heals.
One wonders how much the tires might have to do with this, given that
the two riders with a reputation for a hard/stiff construction
preference, Rossi and Stoner, are always at the front. That was always
going to be the potential problem with a spec tire in MotoGP. And as was
the case all year in WSB in 2009, the one wildcard in the mix, the one
thing between us and a real yawner of a year, appears to be Spies...

 


And after the 2nd night:

- Stoner goes fastest, but only 5/100ths faster than Rossi
- Dovi finds a second to vault into 3rd place
- Spies doesn't go any faster (in fact, a fair bit slower), but hangs
on to 4th.  Colin went a bit slower too (slipping to 9th), so maybe
Tech 3 were doing different stuff
- Hayden finds 3/4 second to jump to 5th
- Capirex finds a second to jump to 6th
- Lorenzo was on a similar pace, coping with his damaged hand

Other things to note:
- Pedrosa is all at sea
- the rookies from 250 are all still all struggling, although Buatista
managed to get himself up to 12th
- Melandri stays down in 14th; much slower than I expected
- The Pramac Ducatis are doing much better than recent years
--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk