Jorge fastes today, it is going to be a fantastic season. Write Rossi off at your peril. Crutchlow flying and the second division is going to be tight as well. Cant wait 😀

HUGE JMB fan saw him on telly than by chance at a sx than even more by chance when my bike chain broke in southern france.. and guess who came out to fix it..

JMB one of the greatest, first Euro to go to the States and stuff them at their own game (Could be wrong)

First qualifying of 2012 about to get underway 😀 beer at the ready, kids banished to their room- Cal Crutchlow is on a flier, Stoner will probably end up on pole, Rossi is still slower than Nicki Hayden.

Place your bets………..

But anyway, Moto 3 goes first……. ➡

I’m guessing the dumbass swimmer in the boat race is the cause of football still hogging the red button?

Eurosport? I had wall to wall GP practice from 3pm onwards yesterday – can’t check today so far; working 😕 But I know what I’m doing this evening :D. Cal’s second yesterday was awesome – first with 2.45 to go; briliant!! Go Cal!!!!

Got it online but it is advertised as being on the red button from 15:55.

I’m guessing the dumbass swimmer in the boat race is the cause of football still hogging the red button?

Football rules the lives of those who have no life 😀

Great qualifying- spent a while yelling at the telly (Cal Crutchlow getting 3rd- shame he stayed in the pits for the final 2 minutes).
And Ben Spies falling off the side of the bike and grabbing the throttle with his left hand thinking “I can save it”- brilliant 😆

Its gonna be Lorenzo V Stoner, i reckon Cal will be spraying the fizzy stuff tommorrow…..

Crutchlow on the front row – very impressive!

Good for Lorenzo getting pole in front of the whinging glum faced Aussie gimp. Cal fantastic effort I think it will be Honda Yam Yam on the podium. Rossi last of the grown up bikes 😕 hope he can get his head around that Ducati.

Edwards to vanish in the Div B race 😀

hope he can get his head around that Ducati.

They basically need to design a Yamaha- face it, only Stoner was any good on a Duke. Nicky Hayden is showing his real talent though, he’s doing quite well riding the wheels off the thing 😀
Rossi might well be better off doing battle with Biaggi, Checa and co in WSB. Id love to see that ❗

Apparently they have done the chassis but now the engine configuration is wrong for the chassis, as you said Hayden seems to be going well on it. Bit premature to go to the diesels 😉

diesels

😆

Awesome awesome awesome 😆

That was a fantastic day’s racing – all three classes. A clean sweep for the Spaniards 😯
And a result for Cal that bodes well for the rest of the season. 😀

Yep, my wife’s not too impressed though as I haven’t moved off the sofa all day. Track champs, then Paris Roubaix and then the GP.

Gutted for Luthi; not that I’m a fan I just think that MMs move was out of order and dangerous. He had absolutely nowhere to go. I thing MM needs to be reined in a little before he takes someones’ wheel off (ignoring what he did to Willairot).

Some amazing talent coming in to Moto 2 this year, but I just can’t get used to the noise of the Moto3 bikes. I miss the 2 strokes 🙁

Great battle with Cal and Dovi, just gutted for Ellison and Rea that they have such relative sheds underneath them.

What next for Vale ? 😥

From last night….

“I had big problems at the beginning of the race: when we are on new tyres I struggle under braking,” he told Italian broadcaster Mediaset. “On top of that, I lost four or five seconds after coming together with Barbera. I then managed to improve a bit and on the last lap I even managed to set my quickest lap on worn tyres. But it’s useless, we struggle to be competitive.

“I can’t ride this bike, I can’t make the difference, I can’t even keep up with Hayden’s pace, who I used to go quick against in comparison. In theory, with new tyres I should go quicker. Nicky managed to do a good race with the other works Ducati, but he still ended up only sixth.”

Rossi fears that 2012 could end up being even harder than last year, when he took just one podium finish.

“In Jerez testing it went better, sixth with the quicker tyres,” he said. “But that’s our pace, it’s not an attractive objective to be fighting for sixth place. We are used to better objectives.

“Probably we are going worse than last year because we managed to be seventh back then… What can I say? I want to be frank. I can’t ride this bike well, even in comparison with my fellow Ducati riders.

“This Ducati has problems: I gave indications over where to intervene, but we didn’t solve our problems. Unfortunately I’m no engineer and can’t do anything about it. At least the positive aspect is that I don’t crash with this chassis. That’s something at least.”

The Italian added that he was finding it hard to be optimistic as Ducati had failed to progress from a disappointing start in 2011.

“We ran out of hope last year. More than hope we need a better bike,” Rossi said. “But I wouldn’t want to expose myself like I did last year, by thinking and hoping that the second chassis development would be an improvement.

“I tried to be a professional. When Barbera pushed me out I even considered returning to the pits, but then I stayed out in order to give our technicians some data to study so as to improve things.”

I’m hoping it’s not but I fear this could be the end of Vale, too early to tell this season but any more results like that and the Italian media will be baying for his blood, especially with Nicky finishing several places in front of him.

Not a good sign that Vale got upset about his tussle with Hector, after all he practically made rubbing Sete and Max a monthly event.

Well done Cal and Dovi and a masterclass of patience from Lorenzo.

Is Rossi just too old? Is the Ducati THAT shite ?….Not a thrilling race,but not quite the snore-fest that we generally slept through last season.
On a brighter note,well done to Cal. A fine effort!

So how/when/why did Lorenzo get past Stoner ? I have to confess I was resting my eyes, then all of a sudden it’s the final lap and Stoner is in third. Is a worth the rewind ?

Really good to see Cal Crutchlow doing so well yay somebody to cheer for !

Stoner claims he got arm pump according to crash.net, it’s on page 4, paragraph 7 of the big book of excuses……….. 😆

Is Casey Moaner back then ? He was claiming “chatter” yesterday and blaming the mechanics, 27b in the Getting Excuses in First Book.

Casey went out hard and paid the price by cooking his tyres.

Chatter and arm pump… did he mention that one of the decals wasn’t on straight and they had to use a blue nut on the rear axle instead of the usual red one…

Class ride by Cal, can’t wait to see him on the European circuits that he knows well 😀

Been watching since the 500cc days when doohan was the man
But doent think he could have won since not with all the different formats 990,800 and now back too 1000

Rossi has done well in that respect.
Rossi was the master of the mind games
But with ducati im not so sure never heard him slag the bike as much..

Too be honest thought he would have retired after simoncellis crash
But regardless this seasons going too be interesting
Goc crutchlow

What next for Vale ?

Ducati need to design a Yamaha………
Maybe they should scrap the current GP bike and design a new one starting with Carlos Checa’s WSB. Mind you, it didn’t look that bad with Nicky riding it 😕
The incident with Marco Simoncelli must have messed with his mind a bit, he dosent look himself on track. He looks like he’s given up, and that’s not the Rossi we know 🙁

Stoner claims he got arm pump according to crash.net, it’s on page 4, paragraph 7 of the big book of excuses………..

😆

Great race from Cal- a British winner this year???

Loved Moto 3- that new Italian kid is awesome and i was well impressed with Maverick last year. Let battle commence!

Interesting insight into the Rossi situation from Kenny Roberts Jnr. on :superbikeplanet

He compares the current Ducati situation with his own position at Suzuki in 2001 when the bike wasn’t competitive so you could ride at 100% and come 10th or 110% and come 5th – if you didn’t crash.

Kenny chose option 1 whereas his young teammate, John Hopkins, chose option 2.

“I can remember telling John Hopkins, ‘Dude you’re gonna hurt yourself pushing past the limit that much.’ John would push past the limit of the bike for a lap or two to try and get a good time, but a lot of times when he did that he didn’t come back to the garage. He was in an ambulance. And sometimes when he did eventually come back, he’d have broken bones and have crashed so hard that his teeth were chipped or loose from the impact. I saw that and said to myself, ‘Look, I want to play sports when I’m done here. I want everything on my body to work. I want to be able to play with my kids when I am older. If Suzuki could get me a bike that was capable of winning races, then I’d worry about beating John. Until then …”

Wow Alex Rins is a bit special it seems, 16yrs old 2nd GP and takes pole at his home race.

Looking forward to tomorrows race in all classes.

Alex Rins

Sure is!

Gonna be shouting at the telly for Cal again 😀

What about this kid Romano Fenati?
What a rider……

Fenati is very impressive…

Redding is a joy to watch, still not sure he’s a championship winner unless he can get more out of his rubber.. but he’s certainly FUN.

Cal looking good again

Two fourth places for the Brits 😀
Cal can get on the podium next week i reckon, Scott needs to peg it back a bit at the start of the race and then go balls out 😆
He’ll have Marquez before long.

Save of the day has to be Mika Kallio, sideways through the gravel, giving it some throttle and he stayed on 😆 -geezer!

Kallio’s almost crash was superb… exceptional control

Crutchlow is bloody great. I loved him when in the R6 cup and i was sponsoring one of his main rivals and we were using my Sprinter to get his caravan to the meetings.. i saw a fair bit of BSB that year 🙂
Cal is/was very very down to earth and a cracking lad… Also as seen… has balls made of titanium 🙂 he’s GOT to be looking for the factory Yamaha next year surely !!!!

he’s GOT to be looking for the factory Yamaha next year surely !!!!

I reckon Ben Spies might just get the boot you know 😉 , word has it that Mr Yamaha is disappointed with Peas/Pies in Moto GP thus far…

Fenati amazing performance 😯 over 30 seconds!!!!

Dovi and Spies to swap unless Spies gets his act together.

Shame that scumbag won 😥

I lurve Mika Kalio a national hero in Finland much more than Raikonen.

What was up with Edwards been off the pace all weekend.

Pigface – Member

Shame that scumbag won

Do you mean Stoner? He rode a perfect race – hats off to him.

Whilst kallio’s Ice racing flashback was pretty impressive, the save of the day was in Moto3

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-yLpmPFlvs[/video]

Full on Mamola style run with the bike through the gravel only to then bin it immediately as the rear hit the paint on the kerb. He was in second or third at the time IIRC. Danny Webb was doing amazingly well until the Mahindra packed up close to the finish. That would have been a solid points performance for them and it won’t come quite so easy on a dry track.

Crutchlow did amazingly well but I was convinced he was going to either bin it or drop someone on the first two laps. Spies in in a low place at the moment. HE’s a great rider so I can’t see Yam ditching him just yet; though if Cal and Dovi carry on ahead of him you never know.

Gutted for Ellison, he was doing OK ’till the retirement. It would be great to see him get a point and De Puniet who was doing a great job ’till he ran out of fuel.

Whilst kallio’s Ice racing flashback was pretty impressive, the save of the day was in Moto3

😆 I did chuckle at that one- i was applauding the lad right up until he dumped it. Good effort though 😆

Spies in in a low place at the moment

It is one of this years mysteries, i was convinced he would be right there at the front dicing with the other aliens when he went to the factory squad. He’s one hell of a rider, maybe he’s binned it one too many times (a bit like James Toseland- scared the hell out of himself).

He rode a perfect race – hats off to him.

Never underestimate Stoner, coming from 5th on the grid is pretty impressive. I can see another Doohan esque period of domination coming up…….

Cals Mrs is quite easy on the eye too!