Moto GP 2011

andy46

The new season starts this weekend in Qatar, i can't wait

I just hope it's going to be more competitive this year, being a Rossi fan i'll obviously be hoping he can make it world title number 10. But my head says Stoner may do it this year.

it'll be interesting to see how Ben Spies performs, i think he'll be a dark horse.

anyone have any thoughts on the upcoming season?

lostboysaint

Couldn't give a stuff about Rossi now that he's gone to the most over-rated team in MotoGP.

Stoner is looking formidable on the Honda already and having pedalled that pile of sh1t around very quickly for the last few seasons it's difficult to see beyond "Tiny Tears" for the title this season.

Jorge will do a good job of defending his title.

Simoncelli and Spies will do a great job of winding up everyone as they (and Dovi) scrap for the lower podium spots.

Pedrosa will continue to be really f**king dull and rely on getting the hole shot rather than being able to race anyone.

Cal will get better as the year goes on.

.blitz

Stoner and Lorenzo will duke it out all through the season. Pedrosa will take each race as it comes - either win it or bin it.

Colin Edwards to finish 7th overall.

Rossi to win in spectacular style at Mugello, Misano and Philip Island.

montevideoguy

Stoner for me. It'll take Rossi and his folk a season to sort out Ducati (though perhaps we are at the point when he should walk away without any damage to his reputation)

cat_with_no_tail

If Stoner can hold on to that beast of a Honda I reckon he'll take it.

tlw1

Cat With No Tail wrote:

If Stoner can hold on to that beast of a Honda I reckon he'll take it.

he will crash & cry

andy46

lostboysaint wrote:

Couldn't give a stuff about Rossi now that he's gone to the most over-rated team in MotoGP.

what makes you say they are over-rated?

i know they've not done much in the last couple of seasons, but they were a breath of fresh air when they first entered the championship in 2003. plus there was no stopping Stoner in '07.

it'd be nice if they were up there just to break up the hondas and yamahas, i'd like to see the suzuki there too but don't think that will happen.

lostboysaint

andy46 wrote:

lostboysaint wrote:

Couldn't give a stuff about Rossi now that he's gone to the most over-rated team in MotoGP.

what makes you say they are over-rated?

i know they've not done much in the last couple of seasons, but they were a breath of fresh air when they first entered the championship in 2003. plus there was no stopping Stoner in '07.

They've had one WC season and the good fortune to have Stoner riding for them to keep them in the public eye, otherwise they'd have been been properly caned for their complete inability to create/evolve a bike that anyone else can ride. If they'd been a Jap manufacturer with their record they'd have been laughed off the grid, instead because they are Italian and they have everyone lining up to say how it's a "character" thing rather than suggesting, quite rightly, that they build crap bikes.*

* yes I know you can argue about the volume of cash that the big four could (and two of them do) throw at their works teams but it doesn't get away from the fact that they are rated WAY beyond their results. Hayden, Melandri and a number of other very, very good riders were told that they were underachieving and yet only one rider could make it work and even he said "you never know whether the bike will fancy it or not, from day to day it's different".

EDIT: for the avoidance of doubt

03 - Capirossi 4th, Bayliss 6th
04 - Capirossi 9th Bayliss 14th (1 podium)
05 - Capirossi 6th Checa 9th
06 - Capirossi 3rd Checa and Bayliss nowhere
07 - Stoner 1st Capirossi 7th (Hurrah!)
08 - Stoner 2nd Elias 12th Guintoli 13th Melandri 17th
09 - Stoner 4th Hayden 13th
10 - Stoner 4th Hayden 7th
11 - ? but qualifying hasn't been promising.

As I said, good job they got Stoner in, but when you're running that many World Champions on your bikes and you're getting feedback from privateer teams as well you really should be seeing better results.

andy46

yes i see what your saying, it seems in the past that maybe they were unwilling to listen to their riders, but i think that may be changing now.

Hayden had some promising results towards the end of last season.

lostboysaint

andy46 wrote:

yes i see what your saying, it seems in the past that maybe they were unwilling to listen to their riders, but i think that may be changing now.

Hayden had some promising results towards the end of last season.

You are absolutely right.

Prezziozi got his palm read after the "Melandri needs his head examined comment" and the factory realised that they couldn't keep blaming various World Champions for underacheiving when the results were so consistently crap. If Stoner hadn't joined them and lucked out with a bike that created, in Rossi's words, "the perfect fit" then they'd either be back concentrating solely on WSB or be a laughing stock of the MotoGP grid.

cat_with_no_tail

matthew h wrote:

Cat With No Tail wrote:

If Stoner can hold on to that beast of a Honda I reckon he'll take it.

he will crash & cry

Maybe, but it makes for good telly :P

andy46

first practice session has just ended and Stoner is 1st so no suprises there.

Rossi has made improvments on the Ducati and is 5th quickest, it could be interesting on sunday night

RevellRider

lostboysaint wrote:

06 - Capirossi 3rd Checa and Bayliss nowhere

Bayliss only rode one Moto GP race for Ducati in 2006. He led the whole race and it was a Ducati 1-2 if I remember..

My prediction for the weekend is Stoner, Dani, Spies on the podium Stoner for the Championship with Lorenzo 2nd and Rossi coming stronger later in the year.

I'd like to see a Suzuki on the podium this year

stubs

Give me Moto 2 any day proper head banging racing

weeksy59

NEver seen such a ridiculous write up on the Ducati MotoGP team. The fact they can put into their budget the ability to get 1 rider onto the top end of the overall title is ASTOUNDING... to get 2 of them is nothing short of a miracle.

Compared to the Japanese teams they have the budget of about a Halfords £89.99 special compared to a £5000 Fuel ex9 LOL.

Whilst i'm not keen on Stoner, i'd love to see him win it just to shut the people up who said "he only won it because the Ducati was amazing that year"

RevellRider

weeksy59 wrote:

Whilst i'm not keen on Stoner, i'd love to see him win it just to shut the people up who said "he only won it because the Ducati was amazing that year"

Stoner has the personality of a house brick, but he sure knows how to ride a bike fast. Six tenths faster than everyone else in FP1 last night.

Of course, if he wins this year, those who claimed he only won his first Championship because of the Ducati will claim that he only won because the Honda was the better machine.

birchy

Stoner to win 8)
Ducati and Rossi to fail i want this to happen purely because ducati pulled the works world super bike out this year giving the reason the v twin was not quick enough to race the other bikes, a couple of weeks later they annouced Rossi would be racing for them, since then the 'non' works Ducati's have won races in the WSB including the first race this year.
So why didnt they just admit there blowing all there budget on one (gay) man to try and save there arses :x

lostboysaint

weeksy59 wrote:

NEver seen such a ridiculous write up on the Ducati MotoGP team. The fact they can put into their budget the ability to get 1 rider onto the top end of the overall title is ASTOUNDING... to get 2 of them is nothing short of a miracle.

Compared to the Japanese teams they have the budget of about a Halfords £89.99 special compared to a £5000 Fuel ex9 LOL.

Whilst i'm not keen on Stoner, i'd love to see him win it just to shut the people up who said "he only won it because the Ducati was amazing that year"

But that's just it isn't it, they got lucky with Stoner, and I bet I dislike him more than you, and got a WC and to run at the front of the field. If there was no Stoner then they'd look like exactly what you described them as, an £89.99 Halfords Special.

Just because you love your wife's Duke and you miss your 916 doesn't make them a good GP team

.blitz

Sorry but that was one dull race.

Stoner - Pedrosa - Lorenzo
*fast forward*
Pedrosa - Stoner - Lorenzo
*fast forward*
Stoner - Pedrosa - Lorenzo
*fast forward a lot*
Stoner - Lorenzo - Pedrosa

yawn zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

lostboysaint

.blitz wrote:

Sorry but that was one dull race.

Stoner - Pedrosa - Lorenzo
*fast forward*
Pedrosa - Stoner - Lorenzo
*fast forward*
Stoner - Pedrosa - Lorenzo
*fast forward a lot*
Stoner - Lorenzo - Pedrosa

yawn zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The most interesting bit of the whole coverage was when they put the "throttle/brake" graphics up for both Stoner and Pedrosa and you saw just how much smoother Stoner was everywhere and how little effort he was putting into both his braking (rolling faster into corners) and then MUCH cleaner use of the throttle mid-bend through to the exit. The whole "point and squirt" philosophy of Pedrosa didn't work at all well in comparison.

Very, very impressed with Stoner and could instantly understand how he was the only rider to tame the very wayward Ducati for all those years and also why he had so many front end issues!! So much clearer when you're watching even basic data like that against someone on an identical bike.

.blitz

lostboysaint wrote:

The most interesting bit of the whole coverage was when they put the "throttle/brake" graphics up for both Stoner and Pedrosa

lol I missed that. note to self: go easy on the FF button

Not sure what the answer is to liven things up it seems as though rider B spends half the race lning up rider A for a pass then he overcooks it so rider C comes past.

It's close racing but very processional.

andy46

should be good this weekend, back in Europe

looks like Rossi may be a bit more competitive, should be a good race

tlw1

Looking forward to it!

andy46

well that was certainly better than round 1

It was a shame Rossi and Stoner went down, that would have been a good race with them both up there. I must say I am dissapointed in the way Stoner spoke to Rossi, it was a racing incident. It's not as if he took him out on purpose, and Rossi was in front of him when he went down.

It's not that long ago Stoner did a simular thing on Sete Gibernau at Sepang that ended the spanish riders career, and that was in the dry!
It seems Mr Stoner has ashort memory

The Moto 2 race was good, and it was good to see 2 brits up there.

Looks good for the rest of the year.

Anonymous

I don't think Stoner's put down was intended to be as much of a put down as the commentators made out. "Running out of talent" is just a tongue in cheek remark for cocking up, after all.
It was unfortunate, but it became apparent during the rest of the race that chaos was abound anyway, and that it was just unlucky, really.

Rossi's a great rider, and he knows the speeds he can get round corners, I think it's more likely that he couldn't scrub off the speed in time because he mis-judged traction.
Whatever, it was good to see him apologising, and that Stoner had chilled out by the end of the race.

.blitz

Stoner is such a knob in these situations no wonder nobody likes him - even his mother.

Hilarious how the marshals all ran to help Rossi

Anonymous

.blitz wrote:

Hilarious how the marshals all ran to help Rossi

Not really, he was under the bike, top priority is to get him from under it.

.blitz

Ever though about getting a job with Ducati?

Anonymous

.blitz wrote:

Ever though about getting a job with Ducati?

I'd love a job with Ducatti!
Why do you ask?

.blitz

yeehaamcgee wrote:

...he was under the bike, top priority is to get him from under it.

You could be their spin doctor

Anonymous

.blitz wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

...he was under the bike, top priority is to get him from under it.

You could be their spin doctor

:?
You're a prat if you think that's not something to be concerned about. There was an accident, one guy was walking back to the bikes, the other appeared to be trapped under, and had been dragged for some time. Do you really think the guy who's walking deserves more attention from the marshals?
Pillock.