John wrote: ↑6 years ago
PI is not a Ducati track. The Ducati isn't a mid-corner speed bike, which PI is all about. There's a host of reason for this, namely the chassis and the engine. Redding first Ducati in P12, or if it was 11.
Absolutely brilliant race, though. Shame that the championship is damn near over now, it looked so great with a four-way battle just a few months ago.
Similar to the BSB season final one of the top contenders all of a sudden developes brake problems. Brake problems that never appeared until these contenders could mix up a set and cast 'championship'.
The racing is really good in both but the ways both get decided, stinks
Breathe, Andy...
Rossi breaking his leg wasn't scripted. Yamaha have been struggling all year long, to have Vinales fall back isn't that much of a shocker. PI has been good to Marquez over the years, he would have walked it last year if he hadn't binned it. So what are you saying?
LOL
Yamaha has been under the radar almost all year. I've not expecting them to keep the game up with this useless 2017 toy. And no you can't script practice accidents.
But what you can script is spare deployment and this is what I suspect was happening to Ducati. It worked in their favour with Pirelli tires in Superbike for years and now that they have been in close contention to mix up Dornas Honda script they went to the receiving end with foul brake spares. Neither Ducati nor Dorna will admit this though.
MotoGP, thanks to the DORNA, has turned pretty much into F1. It started to show first when Honda threatened to leave MotoGP if the rules would stick to 2-stroke racing. Another time, they threatened to leave if the Rookie would not be set off in their favour to get Marc MArquez directly into the works team, without having to spend an extra year in a farm team, like so many others. And things were topped last year, when Rossi was penalised for Marquez' foul. Yet again in Hondas favour. Who was in close contention back then again?
Don't get me wrong. The racing itself is still second to none and beats F1 week in, week out. But the style it gets promoted and advertised has F1's huge mark all over it.
"Those who risk nothing, do nothing, achieve nothing, become nothing" - David Jefferies
To be honest, seeing Dovi challenging Marquez consistently through the year and winning as many times as he has is suspicious to me. When you consider how he's performed throughout his career, this season does seem a little 'special' don't you think?
Come to think about it, at leasr one of the three behind Marquez must have high hopes to replace Pedrosa one day. And no it wasn't Rossi.
This must go into the book of tactical desasters with its own chapter. A rider who needs to be kept busy is given the good bye by a pack of three who have nothing better to do than keeping themself busy rather than the guy at top.
I have a feeling that this all was about some sort of pre-contract with Honda in aid of their championship bid
"Those who risk nothing, do nothing, achieve nothing, become nothing" - David Jefferies
Aleix Espagaro will miss the Malaysian GP due to injury. No word on his actual replacement. Although they have two WSBK riders and a test rider available.
kals wrote: ↑6 years ago
To be honest, seeing Dovi challenging Marquez consistently through the year and winning as many times as he has is suspicious to me. When you consider how he's performed throughout his career, this season does seem a little 'special' don't you think?
In the past Dovi proved being a strong rider but always was labeled lacking the grit and the personality of the champion in difficult moments. This year has been his best but probably he has somehow confirmed his history. He proved his talents and when his bike was competitive he has been able to seriously challenge shoilder to shoild the likes of Marquez, who in this moments is in a own league himself, but when the bike had issues his performance went downhill, Dovi not being able to cope with his own skills the bike lack of speed. I wouldn't blame on him the final outcome of the title challenge, as Ducati in some circuits looked undrivable. But I must reckon that this season has been determined by how the bike adapted to the tyres, and all the bikes had their good and bad circuits. It was Marquez who has been able to squueze the best from his bike also in the difficult moments. Therefore Dovizioso won't win this title, but still has the satisfaction of beating other motogp world champions and riders who were valued better than him.
So dovi wins and there are many suspicions that lorenzo let him pass. lorenzo dismissed the help theory in an interview but i m sure that lorenzo owes something to ducati given his terrible year.
Dovi has still some little possobility to beat marquez, there are 21 points difference between the two
SB83 wrote: ↑6 years ago
Anyone who saw Lorenzo's right leg shoot up trying to maintain control and still says he let him pass deliberately is clearly blind.
^^^This^^^
There's a neat replay of it even and you can see how Lorenzos kneeslider is scrubbing through, drawing a red line onto the tarmac.
Maybe Ducati had it in mind but this one move surely wasn't deliberate.
The rain helped Marquez big time today. I doubt he could have been as far up in the dry. At least there's a slim chance left that Honda messes it up in Valencia.
If not, the deliberate actions of Zarco, Vinales, Iannone and Rossi at Phillip Island helped Honda and Marquez into boots. Unbeatable in tactical dumbness what these four showed there.
"Those who risk nothing, do nothing, achieve nothing, become nothing" - David Jefferies
SB83 wrote: ↑6 years ago
Anyone who saw Lorenzo's right leg shoot up trying to maintain control and still says he let him pass deliberately is clearly blind.
^^^This^^^
There's a neat replay of it even and you can see how Lorenzos kneeslider is scrubbing through, drawing a red line onto the tarmac.
Maybe Ducati had it in mind but this one move surely wasn't deliberate.
The rain helped Marquez big time today. I doubt he could have been as far up in the dry. At least there's a slim chance left that Honda messes it up in Valencia.
If not, the deliberate actions of Zarco, Vinales, Iannone and Rossi at Phillip Island helped Honda and Marquez into boots. Unbeatable in tactical dumbness what these four showed there.
Re lorenzo: ducati showed a "swtich map 8" sign to lorenzo. The spainsh said he didn t look it maintaining that the pass was legitimate, and he simply did not made a risky move to attack dovi. Dovi said that he has no idea what is the map 8 but said he asked no help to the team or lorenzo, and tere was no meeting to discuss about it prior to the race. The impression is that ducati would have done anything to help dovi won the race.
Regarding philip island i had your same impression that some were driving without real strategy....except for marquez, but i m not sure if any of them really had the speed to beat him