2018 Shell Malaysia GP Sepang

Marquez deserved the penalty. You can't dawdle on the racing line. As usual, he got a fantastic start and was up the front almost immediately.

This is really why Rossi crashed. That pit board had some stark news on it.

michaelm said:

Sure, he didn’t do anything stupid, both riders were really pushing hard, and despite it looking as though MM was the more likely to make a mistake it was Rossi who did. A problem when you are racing a 25 year old MM at age 39, he has ridiculous reflexes and is perhaps as good at saving a bike from a semi-lose, or on occasion a near complete lose, as anyone has ever been.

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Rossi more or less said MM forced him into a mistake, which is obviously what happened. He said he tried to push a little harder when he saw the gap had come down to 6/10 . Marc did hint that 15 was a motivation to forget the team and constructor titles to go for the win on tires that were shot.

povol said:

Rossi more or less said MM forced him into a mistake, which is obviously what happened. He said he tried to push a little harder when he saw the gap had come down to 6/10 . Marc did hint that 15 was a motivation to forget the team and constructor titles to go for the win on tires that were shot.

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Word!

Anyone seen Jorge throwing his handbag at Dovi this weekend?
He lost his .... on tiwtter...

RCV600RR said:

Marquez deserved the penalty. You can't dawdle on the racing line. As usual, he got a fantastic start and was up the front almost immediately.

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I wouldn’t call it a fantastic start, solid, didn’t lose any places but didn’t really gain anything either. It took him a few laps to make it to third and by the time he got by Zarco, Rossi had a decent little buffer. Marc said he had to cool his tires after abusing them a bit getting to second and that is when Rossi stretched it to 1.3 seconds. Obviously the Yamaha has improved since they brought in the MM electronic specialist, it’s almost like he showed them how to piggy back the IMU to the ECM but about 15 races to late. That knowledge will be useless in 2 weeks time .

povol said:

Rossi more or less said MM forced him into a mistake, which is obviously what happened. He said he tried to push a little harder when he saw the gap had come down to 6/10 . Marc did hint that 15 was a motivation to forget the team and constructor titles to go for the win on tires that were shot.

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That’s the thing. Passing Rossi might have been a different matter, but in retrospect MM was very likely to make the ground up to him, even a second lead is not safe from an MM banzai last lap, cf Assen 2015 and PI 2015, let alone half a second. If Rossi is to win a race again it will likely have to be in a race MM has a mishap, I am fairly sure MM will do his utmost to prevent a Rossi win, a la Rossi and Gibernau in days of future past.

Macca said:

Word!

Anyone seen Jorge throwing his handbag at Dovi this weekend?
He lost his .... on tiwtter...

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NO don't follow media like twatter, but I cann imagine what he said the old woman.

JPSLotus said:

This is really why Rossi crashed. That pit board had some stark news on it.

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Hahahaha love it "Satan" has you in the gun sights.

Theo said:

Hahahaha love it "Satan" has you in the gun sights.

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One thing is certain, when that board has the #93 on it , it is different than any number you can put on it. These guys know that if Marquez is just half a tenth faster , he WILL get by. That is not true with many of the other riders who have to have a decided advantage to make a move and most are predictable where they will make that move. Marquez will make a move anywhere when you are least expecting it and that ..... with your head. Knowing #93 is closing on you gives you a sense of hopelessness just like in the early 2000’s where Gibernau or Biaggi would piss down their leg when they saw #46 -6/10ths. #46 4/10ths
mistake , Rossi leads. History is repeating itself but this time it’s happening with the tightest field in history. I think it was Krop who called it domination that’s not domination. Marc said this year is so different than 14 because he knew he could play with the competition and pull away pretty much at will then. Now every move has to be calculated and every attempt to pull the pin has to be done at the exact right time. To me, this year has been the most impressive to date, really hope he closes it out to get double digits in the win column.

So apparently the front tyre at Sepang was the hardest front of the season. This could explain why Rossi and Marquez were so strong and Dovi was so weak. Dovi said the front tyre was locking for him during braking.