Andalusian GP 2020 - Jerez Round 2

Fabs was faultless. Rossi held his own tho Morbidelli would have got past if not for the engine. Vinales was his usual also-ran self. He needed to have some balls and get past Rossi early on, and be able to breathe. Sitting behind Rossi's exhaust in that heat for so long cooked his .... Takagami was impressive.

Keshav said:

Fabs was faultless. Rossi held his own tho Morbidelli would have got past if not for the engine. Vinales was his usual also-ran self. He needed to have some balls and get past Rossi early on, and be able to breathe. Sitting behind Rossi's exhaust in that heat for so long cooked his .... Takagami was impressive.

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You forgot someone, chief. Pecco B.

Go Fabio!

For those that were still not sure, he's the real deal!
Such a shame for Pecco, he was riding so well.

Binder is also looking like he's been riding a GP bike for a full season already, big things expected there.

What a ride/weekend from Taka as well, it was great to see him so strong.

Some interesting comments from Rossi, he said that he had to fight Yamaha HQ for 4 days to let his team change the setup of the bike to suit him more. Yamah apparently wanted to change his style to ride more like Fabio.

Jarvis confirmed this in a separate interview saying that the Japanese engineers want everyone to use a similar setup/style.

This does suprise me a little as I had assumed Yamaha would have let him try whatever he wanted, but apparently this has not been the case.

Roll on Brno!

Macca

paparazzo said:

You forgot someone, chief. Pecco B.

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He was extremely impressive, particularly on a non Ducati track with the factory riders and his team mate struggling. Very unlucky, Ducati engine failures are not common.

SlartyBartFast said:

Vinales overtakes Rossi on track and beats him. Everybody says Rossi great. Vinales bad.

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Whether Valentino should still be out there on a factory Yamaha is a topic hardly uncanvassed on here, including by me, but I doubt many riders at age 41 would have had the physical endurance to complete the race, let alone fight a multi lap battle at the end of it with a guy as fast as Vinales imo.

Perhaps MV is just unlucky that another freak of nature in FQ may have joined the grid so soon after the last one, but his starts and passing have been problematic for him despite his intrinsic pace throughout his tenure as a Yamaha factory rider, and if he has been given the keys to the kingdom including his preferences development-wise he needs to improve these things if he is to win the title, and he should be a contender. Brutal race though and once FQ got to the lead it was likely inevitable 2nd was his best result, and 2 second place finishes keep him well in it points wise.

Things are looking up for Rossi but I think we can’t put a huge amount of stock into the podium simply because if not for Morbidellis engine he probably would’ve been the last Yamaha.
Binder is looking so good, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as Marcs teammate if Pol doesn’t work out do well. Not that KTM couldn’t keep him either.
I’m beginning to wonder if Yamaha will keep Vinales around for any longer after this next contract is up. It looks like Fabio already has better race craft than him plus Vinales’ consistent inconstancy means that he will probably never be a real championship threat.

paparazzo said:

You forgot someone, chief. Pecco B.

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No need to recount the entire race. Just keeping it brief.

Macca said:

Go Fabio!

For those that were still not sure, he's the real deal!
Such a shame for Pecco, he was riding so well.

Binder is also looking like he's been riding a GP bike for a full season already, big things expected there.

What a ride/weekend from Taka as well, it was great to see him so strong.

Some interesting comments from Rossi, he said that he had to fight Yamaha HQ for 4 days to let his team change the setup of the bike to suit him more. Yamah apparently wanted to change his style to ride more like Fabio.

Jarvis confirmed this in a separate interview subbing that the Japanese engineers want everyone to use a similar setup/style.

This does suprise me a little as I had assumed Yamaha would have let him try whatever he wanted, but apparently this has not been the case.

Roll on Brno!

Macca

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Interesting. I had a years long debate on another forum against a duo of Rossi fans who claimed that Jorge had led Yamaha up the wrong path developmentally. Perhaps not given current technology and rules, and tyres in particular. Not necessarily a criticism of Valentino, hardly surprising that a guy who started in gp bike racing nearly 25 years ago, never saw a spec bike in the other classes and was weaned on 500 2- strokes has different preferences than FQ. At this stage in proceedings they have to go with the young guys, particularly given FQ looks quite like being the next great one.

MV haunted by full gas tank again?

We are indeed set to have an interesting season. Probably not for the top spot but the top6/8 in the championship this year may fixture many new faces.

Miller is going to factory Ducati, but i wouldn't be surprised if Bagnaia takes the better of him. He certainly stays more frequently on the bike than Miller.

Their's a big buzz that this is the most talented pack, etc etc but in reality is the same old situation of only having 2 to 3 riders that can fight for the championship.

Honda, top bike with only 1 capable rider championship wise.
Suzuki rider's don't look that promising to me sadly.
Ducati, Dovi is good but not great and the bikes always has problems.
Bagnaia would be my best bet as best rider for them next year.
Vinales is setting himself to live on Fabio's shadow.
Franco is always 2 steps behind.
KTM, youth is the right work. They went from what should be their best weekend ever to disaster.
Several times we've had the factory bikes taking the satellite ones out of the race. But KTM looks to be much more competitive this year and with some luck they can target suziki as competition.
Aprilia, it's nice to have them but they seem far behind the other brands.


All and all, if Fabio doesn't make a huge mistake this year is a Marquez like story with Fabio's face in it.

Hopefully he rises to be trully MM rival so we can have fun watching 2 riders head to head all the way until Valencia.

Cheers

Yamaha's are like a fine wine. They are .... when first produced, it takes at least a year before its something you might desire. Smart move from Rossbag to move there next year. Marc will win this championship by more than 50 points. Any race now Fabio's bike will start getting the ben spies treatment. What in the absolute .... is bradley smith doing on track still? Calvin retired team forced him back on track for points and almost caught his ginger .... Isn't there still a minimum pace that must be met?

Shittiest race I have ever witnessed.

michaelm said:

Interesting. I had a years long debate on another forum against a duo of Rossi fans who claimed that Jorge had led Yamaha up the wrong path developmentally. Perhaps not given current technology and rules, and tyres in particular. Not necessarily a criticism of Valentino, hardly surprising that a guy who started in gp bike racing nearly 25 years ago, never saw a spec bike in the other classes and was weaned on 500 2- strokes has different preferences than FQ. At this stage in proceedings they have to go with the young guys, particularly given FQ looks quite like being the next great one.

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He goes on to say that this weekend was the first time in forever that he felt like the bike was his/suited his style.

From my observations over the last 3 years, I would concur.
I think I can only count a couple of occasions in that time period where he looked like Rossi on track i.e. riding on a super planted front end where he could pick various lines into a corner and not look like he was ill at ease with the bike.

I had just assumed that the tyres wouldn't work that way with the Yamaha, but it would appear that Mr Yamaha was happy that Mavrick and Fabio were quick with development direction they were following (essentially a continuation of Jorge's preferences) and that he needed to ride more like them.

That I would have expected from Ducati a few years back, but not so much of Yamaha.

It will be interesting to see how his fortunes fair over the coming period and if he starts to look more at home on the bike week in week out.

He's going to need to feel more than just comfortable to deal with Fabio though!

Macca

Macca said:

He goes on to say that this weekend was the first time in forever that he felt like the bike was his/suited his style.

From my observations over the last 3 years, I would concur.
I think I can only count a couple of occasions in that time period where he looked like Rossi on track i.e. riding on a super planted front end where he could pick various lines into a corner and not look like he was ill at ease with the bike.

I had just assumed that the tyres wouldn't work that way with the Yamaha, but it would appear that Mr Yamaha was happy that Mavrick and Fabio were quick with development direction they were following (essentially a continuation of Jorge's preferences) and that he needed to ride more like them.


That I would have expected from Ducati a few years back, but not so much of Yamaha.

It will be interesting to see how his fortunes fair over the coming period and if he starts to look more at home on the bike week in week out.

He's going to need to feel more than just comfortable to deal with Fabio though!

Macca

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A bit of Too little too late for MV. The French kid has the goods. He knows how to get off the line, go fast from the first lap and he doesn't get rattled when he has to pass. If Vinales hasn't attained those skills by now, he's unlikely to do so any time soon.

Macca said:

He goes on to say that this weekend was the first time in forever that he felt like the bike was his/suited his style.

From my observations over the last 3 years, I would concur.
I think I can only count a couple of occasions in that time period where he looked like Rossi on track i.e. riding on a super planted front end where he could pick various lines into a corner and not look like he was ill at ease with the bike.

I had just assumed that the tyres wouldn't work that way with the Yamaha, but it would appear that Mr Yamaha was happy that Mavrick and Fabio were quick with development direction they were following (essentially a continuation of Jorge's preferences) and that he needed to ride more like them.

That I would have expected from Ducati a few years back, but not so much of Yamaha.

It will be interesting to see how his fortunes fair over the coming period and if he starts to look more at home on the bike week in week out.

He's going to need to feel more than just comfortable to deal with Fabio though!

Macca

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My argument was always that Jorge, of whom I am admittedly a fan, was following the development direction that gave him a chance with his riding style against the other bikes which probably had power advantages. As you say FQ and MV seem to agree with his path, as did Zarco when he was with Tech 3.

Perhaps they were straddling 2 horses, and now can accommodate 2 different development directions along with an improvement in the power of the bike, the latter perhaps at some cost to reliability on evidence thus far. My observations btw over the years in regard to Yamaha have been more that they usually came up with a bike and particularly a chassis for a given year which although tweaked didn’t change substantially, with Valentino obviously in control of the development direction for many years as was appropriate at the time.

I can definitely see him being more competitive with the other bikes this year, but perhaps not so much with the other Yamahas, he was still the slowest Yamaha in the recent race, creditable although his endurance and racecraft may have been, and Morbidelli went out with a mechanical issue rather than because of a riding error or poor racecraft. FQ on current form looks like someone who would likely be competitive with a fully fit MM or a 25 year old Rossi and is tough competition indeed for a 41 year old Rossi as you say. I guess Valentino is winning anyway given how the products of his riding academy are looking

BarryMachine said:

Is rossi italian for roadblock? Lol

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Do you feel silly now?

MdubSTYLIE said:

Yamaha's are like a fine wine. They are .... when first produced, it takes at least a year before its something you might desire. Smart move from Rossbag to move there next year. Marc will win this championship by more than 50 points. Any race now Fabio's bike will start getting the ben spies treatment. What in the absolute .... is bradley smith doing on track still? Calvin retired team forced him back on track for points and almost caught his ginger .... Isn't there still a minimum pace that must be met?

Shittiest race I have ever witnessed.

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You mean like the first year that Rossi rode for them and won the championship?:ninja:

Blackie Black said:

You mean like the first year that Rossi rode for them and won the championship?:ninja:

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Not Rossi nor Yamahas first year. Stay current here dude. Lets take a look at what it took for his old ... to get on the box. It took Marc being out. Rins and Crutchlow riding with a broken pedrosa bone. Both 46 academy riders engines map 88'ing. Ducati's laying an egg. Miller going Miller. One more lap and the token asian would have had him. Thats a solid 11th in my book. Possibly 12th.

Blackie Black said:

Do you feel silly now?

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No .... I stand by what I said at the time.

Rossi's "racecraft" consisted entirely of blocking faster riders from passing. Toward the 3/4 mark in the race two riders were doing laps that were as fast as Fabs, and all Rossi could do was wave his ... back and forth to block the faster riders.