Moto GP 2013

Laguna Seca this weekend, Marky Mark hasn’t raced there before, bet it won’t hold him back.

‘Dr Rossi’ to decide whether Pedrosa and Lorenzo race this weekend:
http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/193635/1/dr_rossi_to_decide_lorenzo_pedrosa_fitness.html

EDIT – they’ve both been declared fit.

Marquez is just nuts, out of the seat and he’s still pinning it! He’s never been to Laguna Seca and has just topped the time sheets in FP2.

It’d be silly for tech 3 to get rid of Cal at the end of the season if he wanted to stay…just look at his results so far….

Not that simple. Cal opted for a one year contract and was adamant he’d only accept a factory ride next year.

Yamaha aren’t interested and have taken Cal at his word and signed another rider and placed him in tech 3.

not been following developments uber-closely, and missed last round (only for BBC news to spoil it monday) but I have been wondering all season why Yamaha haven’t decided to up their support of Tech 3 (specifically Cal’s bike).

Why? They have two factory riders whose job is to get podiums. The last thing they want is a satellite rider messing that up.

Bradl and Bautista to hold up the rest while Marquez rides off into the distance ❓

I suspect an angry Crutchlow may well find another ounce of speed this weekend.

I hope so even though I’d like to see Rossi get the win to poke Ducati in the eye again. Ducati need to get their game sorted – they didn’t listen to Stoner, they didn’t listen to Rossi, I’m sure Hayden has tried telling them, and they’ll probably cripple Dovisioso if nothing improves, and if Crutchlow goes there that may well be the end of him.

I’m also hoping Pedrosa and Lorenzo ride for points rather than the win. I’d hate to see this track end another career.

Marquez will do what he does best, and that will make for an “interesting” race so long as he doesn’t cripple anyone.

5Elephant….true but that was at the end of last year/start of this season ….but having the results he has had …Erv and Yamaha will be rethinking a different strategy ..if he carries on with the good results …….Espegaro isn’t definitely signed yet …..

Impressive qualifying by Bradl, though didn’t he go well there last year too? Reckon Marquez would have had him though had he stayed on the bike.

Sad news from Russia

Andrea Antonelli dies in WSS accident 😥 RIP

Oh shit ….rip Andrea

5h1t.

We just watched it and knew it would be bad, but hadn’t known it was that bad…

RIP

Truly awful news. How bad were the conditions?

Just heard about Antonelli. Awful news.

Watching the GP with Marquez dishing his own corkscrew treatment on Rossi. Deja Vu. Stoner will be laughing out loud.

Interesting race given that it’s been a borefest overtakingwise! Wonder whom will have the best tyres at the end?

Well that turned out to be pretty dull!

Shame Crutchlow didn’t do better. Nice safe measured rides from Pedrosa and Lorenzo.

Marquez’s pass on Rossi was pure class. Their underwear laundry will be a bit unpleasant tonight. 🙂

But at least rossi wasnt having a whinge at marquez ala stoner.
Great move. Amazing rider

RIP Andrea 🙁

Truly awful news. How bad were the conditions?

Basically monsoon, forget wet tyres they would have needed a powerboat. The race should never have started, so questions need to be asked in this instance.

Marquez dishing his own corkscrew treatment on Rossi

Its not too often you see someone do a Rossi on Rossi 😯
This kid is an amazing talent- i expect more records to tumble, in fact i’m putting my money on him to take the championship this year 😉

😯

Casey Moaner to test with Honda

I’d like to see what he could do with the current Ducati

Moaner is such a twunt, wah wah wah its not going my way on 4 wheels so I will go back to the sport that I walked out on saying people didnt give me enough respect. What a tit. If he thinks he got no respect wait untill he meets Marquez on the track 😆 I dont think Moaner will come back, have Honda got the budget to run 3 bikes again? Moaner will want top dollar so who would go? Repsol wont get rid of Dani and Marquez is safe as houses.

I think Laguna Seca showed that Honda have got the legs on Yamaha at the moment. Marquez was brilliant not putting a wheel wrong in the race.

Repsol wont get rid of Dani

I’m not so sure of that, it has always been obvious to most that he doesn’t have the physical or mental strength to take the championship unless it is given to him by luck and circumstance.

Casey Moaner to test with Honda

He’ll get his arse handed to him by Marquez, the Ducati is a POS, will be interesting with new rules coming in next year to see what everybody comes up with though.

Call me naive but how the hell can’t Ducati make a bike that can at least run with the likes of Bautista? My head just can’t work that shit out, it’s obviously the bike and I’d say Rossi/Haydon/Dovi have different enough riding styles that something must be stupidly wacky about it. Not sure you can count Stoner in any kind of equation as he just seemed to pin the throttle and muscle the bike around the track, maybe they were frightened of his moaning?

Would like to see Stoner back just to watch him get his arse handed to him by Marquez, that boy loves a scrap, Stoner not so much….

Different years of bikes aren’t really comparable, Stoner is very good but that year Ducati with him onboard was just good enough.

The issue is apparantly the lack of front end feel, possibly due to the carbon frame, but it’s how the bike as a whole works dynamically which just isn’t right, they seem to get it ‘dialled in’ very occasionally.

Call me naive but how the hell can’t Ducati make a bike that can at least run with the likes of Bautista?

Control tyres. Without tyres built to suit their design they’re screwed.

Lack of cash and resources (they’re 2 guys in a shed compared to Honda) means they haven’t been in a position to build a bike from scratch to suit the tyres.

Maybe Audi can change that next year. Other than $5M/year I imagine that’s what’s prompted Crutchlow to sign with them for next season.

Also, I was told Hayden refused to ride the new proto saying it was to dangerous (??), is that why he got malleted?

Has Crutchlow def signed? 🙁

Ya, it still doesn’t make sense in my head, especially when you consider the CRT Espargaro running with ’em. They changed the chassis to an Alu twin spar thing at one point aswell.

Has Crutchlow def signed?

That’s what one of the trackside journos is saying.

Ya, it still doesn’t make sense in my head, especially when you consider the CRT Espargaro running with ’em.

Nobody else will give him a factory ride, with a factory salary. What would you do? He’s not exactly young.

They changed the chassis to an Alu twin spar thing at one point aswell.

They’re running an L-4 engine which gives them a lot less flexibility with packaging. A new engine layout doesn’t come cheap.

Control tyres. Without tyres built to suit their design they’re screwed.

That’s a garbage statement as we’ve had control tyres now for 4 years, so it’s a fixed part of the design. In reality you could say it makes it easier (sic) as you’ve taken out a variable.

All manufacturers/teams lose there way at some point, going up a cul-de-sac. They just need to change their culture and/or team to get back on top, or at least near the front.

At some point they’ll realise that, or just carry on at the back hoping for luck.

That’s a garbage statement as we’ve had control tyres now for 4 years, so it’s a fixed part of the design. In reality you could say it makes it easier (sic) as you’ve taken out a variable.

And they still have the same layout and the same problem. They managed a couple of new chassis designs for Rossi in two years. Honda will bring a new chassis every meeting if they have to. They rolled out the 2013 bike mid-2012 to cope with the new tyre construction. The 2014 bike was offered to the factory team last month.

All manufacturers/teams lose there way at some point, going up a cul-de-sac. They just need to change their culture and/or team to get back on top, or at least near the front.

That’s exactly what Audi are doing with them.

Was referring to the CRT running with Ducati and their inability to build a working chassis opposed to Cal flying the Yamaha nest.

how the hell can’t Ducati make a bike that can at least run with the likes of Bautista?

A theory: A) They are so stubborn that they will not change their ideas even for someone like Rossi or Hayden.
B) The rules wont let them build a twin like in Superbikes- Ducati build the worlds best twins (In My Opinion).

So maybe they should persuade a certain Mr Stoner to come out of retirement and ride the red rooster once more 😉

Stoner won’t like being elbowed out of the way by Marquez- i’d love to see it though!

😀

Don’t forget Ducati also ended Melandris GP career and broke his mind.

Muke- nice video, thanks for posting 8)

This is why Rossi will carry on racing until he physically can’t- because he loves it! It’s one of the reasons why he has so many fans, because he is really just having the time of his life. Guy Martin aswell 😉

Stoner won’t like being elbowed out of the way by Marquez- i’d love to see it though!

You might be right 🙂

^ 😀 ^

This is why Rossi will carry on racing until he physically can’t- because he loves it!

I said before on this thread that Rossi will end up on a CRT 😆

You can say the same for Hayden, Edwards, Marco S, and more, even when not racing they are mucking about on bikes of all kinds. Marquez and Cal seem mad for it as well

The main reason I dislike Stoner so much is that he didn’t seem to enjoy racing, it always looked like a chore. Even little Danni looks like he enjoys it, .

The main reason I dislike Stoner so much is that he didn’t seem to enjoy racing, it always looked like a chore

He’s just Australian. Have a look a Doohan. He was the same.

Ah but so was Gobert and he was having all kinds of fun, mostly in his head 😆

Gobert in the rain on that Bimota 8)