Motegi race SPOILER!!!!!

What a race, I really didn't think the Ducati would hold the distance
but it did easily, great ride by Capirossi, a great race by Max too,
easily the 2nd fastest bike and through luck gained 20 points on Rossi
and pulled away more points in 2nd place in the championship.

One thing is obvious though, this really is a Bridgestone track, nothing
wrong with that maybe the other tracks are Michelin tracks but it
highlights how important tyres are in a race, over setup, manufacturer etc..

Gib's, what can you say, his season isn't only over it's getting
embarrassing for him, he's turning into "Mr Crash".

Rossi and Melandri, never really got to see the incident, seems Rossi
was a bit hot and they both paid the price, hard luck for Mel but
probably about time Rossi had a bit of bad luck as he seems to be the
"good luck" wizard.

The REAL surprise not of the race but of the standings is Edwards, now
3rd!!! Good on him, I guess consistency pays off, plus a bit of luck.

All I can say is I hope Philip Is is a great race coz I'm going there
WOOO HOOO, and I have a grandstand seat!!

Paul

 

Rossi fallible, Shock Horror! Judging by the onboard shots, he just
plain screwed up. He went for the out-braking manoeuvre from to back was
never going to make it and then ran out of room to get stopped to avoid
crashing into Melandri. Doubtless the anti-euro, anti-Rossi brigade will
have a field day.

 

One thing is for siure: Rossi's talking crap with his claims about him and
Melandri having "radically different lines", it is very clear from the
footage Rossi simply charged into the back of Melandri's bike. With over 100
point buffer, a penalty probably will have far less of a teaching effect on
Rossi than the experience of hurting someone who he supposedly likes and is
his friend.

Melandri seemed to be losing pace at the time, his tires might have been
giving way. And then Rossi takes him out, looks like he hurt a leg. Very
tough break.

Excellent race by Capirossi and Biaggi. They rode behind Melandri, made some
mistakes and made adjustments. It was going to be between the 2 of them
anyway, I thought Melandri was fading out of a podium finish.

Tamada finally showing something this year. But one third place is not going
to redeem his season, either.

Checa probably wishing he'd done better given the fact Capirossi showed the
Ducati was a winning bike in Motegi, then again, he had local Tamada
(hotehead himself, but I was glad someone administered Rossi some of his own
medicine, that front tire touching Rossi's leg was a Mastercard moment)
ahead of him, so probably it's a good thing there wasn't a fight for 3rd.
Edwards certainly wishing he'd done better. And Hayden solemnly swearing
that he should have done better.

I am happy for Hopkins, excellent result all things considered.

As to the rest, the Gibernau debacle is in full effect. At this pace he
better sign a good deal soon, because he is not looking like a solid
professional, but increasingly like someone who's lost it and can't get it
together. If he keeps this up he'll eventually have a bad fall. Perhaps he
should start eyeing other career options.

....pablo

 

He certainly is, but I think as long as the formula results in him winning 3
out of 4 races or more the pitfalls of the approach will not become quite
evident to anyone applying it. It's only when you bin more and it affects
your ability to win titles that you make adjustments.

....pablo

 

Ram raider Rossi strikes again!

I'm not anti Rossi though, the guy has tremendous talent.

Colin

 

The "hurt someone else" just happened. Perhaps the fact it's supposedly a
friend of his will make him pause some. I get the feeling he has become more
reckless this year, and if he doesn't internalize some sort of lesson
eventually he'll wind up on the receiving side. The Gods of the Pavement
ultimately always demand their tribute in broken bones when someone starts
testing boundaries too recklessly... Rossi is very talented, but infallible
he is not, nor is he unbreakable. He better be a bit more careful.

....pablo

 

I don't know, correct me if I am wrong, but 2 out of the 3 guys in the
podium were riding Michelins? I don't think it's quite as conclusive.

I am sure tire choice plays a huge role, and then the riders are dependent
on getting a "good pair". The latter part seems to be indeed weird.

I think the only news is that Biaggi has built a tad bit of a lead. But that
lead still seems very vulnerable. The battle for second is far from over,
but it seems to be carried out with some passion. I think Biaggi probably
was thinking about points and thus may have not tried as hard against
Capirossi, who probably would have fought for the win with abandon. Then
again, Capirossi may have made inroads into having a shot at 2nd overall,
which for him and Ducati would be huge. Biaggi seems best positioned, plus
he's a wily old fox. I am not even sure whether he was after anything else
all year.

....pablo

 

Pay attention, Sete!

 

There's a bit of Senna about Rossi.

As for the occasional mistakes, perhaps we should look at this in the
context of his ability to pass and make passes stick. He's very rarely
first into the first corner, but almost every race he makes very rapid
progress through the field in the first 3 laps. Over time that's a lot
of passes on some very fast riders.

 

One should point out this was the first time this year Rossi didn't finish,
and you label him crash-prone. Biaggi has DNFd once this year, just like VR,
but with him you highlight consistency...

....pablo

 

Could also be that the heat play a role. Overheating the front on the way in
could dramatically reduse the braking ability.

/MBE

 

Well, yes, the evolving story is the battle for second. I have a feeling
that has been Biaggi's focus all along - without his on eDNF he'd be solidly
entrenched in that position. But with the stakes getting more desperate, I
think he will clinch it by being consistently in the top 5 for the rest of
the year.

....pablo

 

Consider the difference between two top Aussies: Honda likely to tap
Vermulen to ride in place of Bayliss, Suzuki (presumably) not selecting
Mladin as a wild card for the Motegi race?

Mladin said that he'd entertained some MGP offers this yeaar, but
apparently none legitimate enough to pursue. Would he refuse an
opportunity to race as a wild card if the offer was presented to him?

 

It is. But gutfeel-wise, doesn't it look to you like he's more reckless this
season? I just can't recall him sticking his front tire in such tight spots.
Even when I think of his PI charge through the field some years ago, it was
all clean sweeping passes, and not bullying moves. I can't quite put my
finger in it, but I think something in Rossi's style has changed. That
playful, easy way of doing things seems to have faded. It's like early last
year he rode the wheels off an inferior Yamaha. Playing armchair
psychologist, I think *that* is when he realized he was really as good as
his press. And it seems that now he's feeling personally insulted when he
doesn't have an iron grip on the race, as in "how dare they?" and he tries
to bully the other riders into conceding he's the better rider even on
occasions when the bike-rider package equation isn't quite right.

I don't even remotely question he's the best by a mile. He is. But I don't
quite understand why he now feels he has to risk so much to win *every* damn
race. Is it because he feels he needs to establish some surreal record of
dominance for eternity...? It just doesn't look like playful "I don't take
this *that* seriously and I am still champion" fun anymore. It doesn't look
"Valentino Rossi Vintage".

....pablo

 

No. It looks like Doohan.

 

He he, I think you are wrong. My guess is that, as Mark says, he has never
been hurt (badly) and that give him the feeling he can get away with almost
anything. And the way his career has gone, who can blame him? Add to that a
fantastc feeling for how hard he can push, and even when missing he save the
bike and loose only a few meters. What we see this year is more of a
setup/bike problem. He has allways been able to trust the front, now it
slipps away under him quite so often and that is his major problem. Not that
a better front would have changed the outcome at Jerez but still. In his
honda days it was easier. Superior rider on superior bike make it look very
easy. Last year he carshed twice but that was ok, didnt hurt anyone, and he
could go on. His competetivness is more than enough to make him feel he has
to win every race. What else could motivate the guy now? Hi's got nothing
more to prove, but winning more races.

In one way his atittitude give us some fantastic racing when he slalom
through the field after a bad start, like no one else, on the other hand it
had to end and it did last weekend. Hopefully his able to keep some of that
playfull passing ability but my guess is that for him it's just as bad to
hurt somebody else as it is to get hurt him self. He isn't dumb and I feel
quite sure this was a turning point. Less fun, more safety will be his
recipe in the future.

Time will show.

/MBE

 

Again, there really isn't that much pro-Rossi sentiment being expressed
here on Motegi, but there was a lot of that after Jerez,[/QUOTE]

Well. a couple of things:
- no one screems "Murder" this time.
- He did make a misstake, there are no way around that.

so there is really very little to discuss. Your so called EuroGod made a
mistake and that happens with humans form time to time. Nothing surpricing
about that really.

I think you put way to much into way to little material. Nobody else are
viewing these epiodes like you do (most people have forgotten all about
them), and his ability to pass others are of cource an inmportant factor for
the number of his fans. Regrettably I think there will be less of those in
the future, but also less "episodes" that you can scream about

/MBE

/MBE

 

I haven't seen many voices defending Rossi in this forum, so I wonder what
this "Rossi fans do X" stuff is about. Everybody in here has clearly stated
Rossi screwed up. Whatever some groupies do elsewhere, clearly we're in a
better quality forum here.

....pablo