Assen GP Race Thread (Contains all manner of spoilers!!!)

[Keshav]

Lorenzo hasn't made himself too many new friends in Spain with those words after the Bautista .... up. Bautista is very well liked by the locals here, he is seen as a very normal friendly pleasant guy who made a huge mistake who had no ill intentions. He was gutted and apologizing as he was picking himself up. He has a huge fan club.



Bautista told Spanish press he lost his breaking markers behind Dovi and he was suddenly in the wrong place. The extra motivation from last weeks result unfortunately turned negative.



Not saying he doesn't deserve a penalty, just that Lorenzo asking for an increase is not very sporting.

That was my guess. Losing your breaking marker in a melee.... it happens. If it'd been Hector I'd be more inclined to say it was a case of recklessness.

 

[Ngads]

Gutted for lorenzo, but that .... happens. Stoner took advantage and rode well after an up and down weekend. At least its exciting for the championship!



I think bautista's penalty is more than enough

 

[Geonerd]

A slightly better view of Flossi's disintegrated rear tire. This isn't a chunk, it's a crater.



Ducati and/or B-Stone must be blitheringly incompetent.



()

13758:Chunk.jpg]

 

[Pigeon]

no body talking todays race ? ok i agree motogp's ..... said many times too.moto2-3 stonking



answer to the Question will Duc Taking there option up on Nicky



no and i'm not sure they will.

Nicky being linked with factory Ducati WSB team with Checa

Edit lets hope this weekend brings some .... to the fan for motogp and the riders speaking there mind



Hayden "I don't wanna sound like a hater cos they offered him my bike. he rides hard, this bike needs someone aggressive to ride it"



Hayden on Cal to Ducati rumours "he looked like he was battling with the Yamaha -he would be battling the Ducati a whole lot more"

 

[Pigeon]

A slightly better view of Flossi's disintegrated rear tire. This isn't a chunk, it's a crater.



Ducati and/or B-Stone must be blitheringly incompetent.



13758:Chunk.jpg]

yeah i was sure i saw that but couldn't check until i'd done rec the race

 

[dwoodhouse]

Well this race brings the championship back together but not the way it should happen. Bautista's stuff up was monumental and he was lucky he didn't snap Lorenzo's leg in two.



The tyres are a disgrace. The series is a farce at the moment.

 

[Keshav]

Well this race brings the championship back together but not the way it should happen. Bautista's stuff up was monumental and he was lucky he didn't snap Lorenzo's leg in two.



The tyres are a disgrace. The series is a farce at the moment.

In the post race interview with Spies he said he was confident of a spot on the podium and then he lost a chunk out of the tire and could not ride as well. Then he lost SECOND chunk out his tire and the bike was virtually un-rideable to the point that he actually wanted Dovi to pass him because he was counting the seconds till the tire would explode and he didn't want to go down right in front of Dovi. Spies described them as "Subway Sandwich sized chunks."

 

[Pigeon]

Stoner massively unimpressed with the new front tyre still. Both him & Dani saying it was folding left right and centre.



https://twitter.com/cormacgp



Fans bias a side these guys put it on the line every race weekend to do there stuff and hopefully entertain us mere mortals

the formats fooked jeez for 2 yrs or so on here we talked about moto2, 125, moto3, being great racing

this motogp has become a utter farce

 

[frizzle]

Lots of talk it seems among the riders about tyres.

Germany is a traditionally hard track on tyres so next weekend promises to be interesting.

Crazy riding by Bautista. Probably cost Lorenzo 25 points. I think he would probably have still won the race had he not been skittled off.

For those saying Cal should stay away from Ducati, I ask what choice does he have. His seat is being sold to someone who does not deserve it because they have good sponsor backing.

Cal will have to take what he can get. If Ducati let Nicky go they are dumber than I thought. Give him a tyre that lasts & he will have the bike a lot closer to the front. The new tyres are hurting Ducati at least as much as Honda in my opinion.

Rossi will be on a Jap bike next year, so keep Nicky & get Cal.



Only got home in time to watch Moto2. I hear Moto3 race was a ripper. Time to have a look at the replay on motogp.com

 

[digger]

U talking about smith at tech 3 friz? They said last night that smith wont be going to motogp next year, and Herve is expecting to be sued over it. I can't believe they didn't put a performance clause in his contract.

 

[frizzle]

U talking about smith at tech 3 friz? They said last night that smith wont be going to motogp next year, and Herve is expecting to be sued over it. I can't believe they didn't put a performance clause in his contract.

Yeah that's what I'm taking about mate. He wont be competitive next year because he is just not ready. Didn't know about Herve going back on the deal though. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.



Oh & back to the tyre issue that has been all the talk this weekend.

Here is the reason Vale brought the bike back into the pits & I suspect Spies had the same problem.

That is just not good enough. It's one thing for a tyre to lose some performance over race distance, but to lose chunks of rubber like that is totally unacceptable.

If I remember correctly Rossi still had somewhere around 8 to 10 laps to complete when he came in. I mean WTF?

 

[L8Braker]

Hmm...would seem Bridgestone need to work on their asymetrical tire a little more....geez, that's dangerous.

 

[povol]

Yeah that's what I'm taking about mate. He wont be competitive next year because he is just not ready. Didn't know about Herve going back on the deal though. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.



Oh & back to the tyre issue that has been all the talk this weekend.

Here is the reason Vale brought the bike back into the pits & I suspect Spies had the same problem.

That is just not good enough. It's one thing for a tyre to lose some performance over race distance, but to lose chunks of rubber like that is totally unacceptable.

If I remember correctly Rossi still had somewhere around 8 to 10 laps to complete when he came in. I mean WTF?

Agreed, totally unacceptable ! That will get a rider killed.

 

[michaelm]

Indefensible what happened to rossi's and spies' tyres. Reminiscent of that day when more widespread failure/delamination of the tyres cooked michelin's goose as someone said elsewhere.



I am going to do what jumkie has done elsewhere in regard to ducati and defend bridgestone at least a little. They didn't want a control tyre, have been inveigled into supplying it to the whole field for free( which probably saved dorna who were subsidising the satellite teams some money), and had a tyre with their long term technology last year which they have changed at the request of others. I am not even sure that the cold performance of last year's tyre was all that bad, there was a preponderance of new track surfaces and unusually cold weather, and perhaps riders with an expectation that with the current electronics, tyre technology etc there should be no need to warm tyres up, just as stoner has perhaps been riding in the expectation/belief that tyres shouldn't wear out this year.



I think the tyre situation re stoner makes sense to me now, unsurprisingly it is arrabiatta who has made sense of it for me. It has been said elsewhere as well, apparently the hrc factory riders have effectively only one tyre choice, the harder tyre chatters too badly, so they have to hope conditions suit the soft. It looks as though stoner may have ridden differently this race, he certainly did tactically, and preserved the tyre better, but if jorge had been there going faster as is his wont stoner might still have worn the softs out because of the pace necessary to stay with jorge. The rider is the difference where jorge is concerned as jumkie rightly says, but you have to wonder whether yamaha went with the wrong tyre choice anyway, given dovi's pace relative to the factory hondas.

 

[Keshav]

So maybe Stoner stating his disappointment with the discontinuance of the other compound is not just "moaning". Whaddaya know!

 

[Keshav]

Indefensible what happened to rossi's and spies' tyres. Reminiscent of that day when more widespread failure/delamination of the tyres cooked michelin's goose as someone said elsewhere.



I am going to do what jumkie has done elsewhere in regard to ducati and defend bridgestone at least a little. They didn't want a control tyre, have been inveigled into supplying it for free, and had a tyre with their long term technology last year which they have changed at the request of others. I am not even sure that the cold performance of last year's tyre was all that bad, there was a preponderance of new track surfaces and unusually cold weather, and perhaps riders with an expectation that with the current electronics, tyre technology etc there should be no need to warm tyres up, just as stoner has perhaps been riding in the expectation/belief that tyres shouldn't wear out this year.



I think the tyre situation re stoner makes sense to me now, unsurprisingly it is arrabiatta who has made sense of it for me. It has been said elsewhere as well, apparently the hrc factory riders have effectively only one tyre choice, the harder tyre chatters too badly, so they have to hope conditions suit the soft. It looks as though stoner may have ridden differently this race, he certainly did tactically, and preserved the tyre better, but if jorge had been there going faster as is his wont stoner might still have worn the softs out because of the pace necessary to stay with jorge. The rider is the difference where jorge is concerned as jumkie rightly says, but you have to wonder whether yamaha went with the wrong tyre choice anyway, given dovi's pace relative to the factory hondas.

I suspect it's a question of luck of the draw. If Lorenzo was out there on the same tire as Spies and Rossi - his tire might have delaminated too, regardless of his smooth riding style. Spies said when the second chunk ripped away from his tire he was waiting for it to explode. Lorenzo's might have done that were he up at the front beating Stoner's times. Who knows? Bautista might have saved him from a worse fate.

 

[MdubSTYLIE]

Yeah that's what I'm taking about mate. He wont be competitive next year because he is just not ready. Didn't know about Herve going back on the deal though. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.



Oh & back to the tyre issue that has been all the talk this weekend.

Here is the reason Vale brought the bike back into the pits & I suspect Spies had the same problem.

That is just not good enough. It's one thing for a tyre to lose some performance over race distance, but to lose chunks of rubber like that is totally unacceptable.

If I remember correctly Rossi still had somewhere around 8 to 10 laps to complete when he came in. I mean WTF?

Wow, it looks to me like Stoner took a big bite out that tire!





Seriously thats not right. If you can fire riders than you can sure as .... fire tire suppliers.

 

[Talpa]

Tyres, tyres, tyres........why the hell is this reg not on the chopping block like others!

 

[michaelm]

Tyres, tyres, tyres........why the hell is this reg not on the chopping block like others!

Yes

 

[mad mick]

Poor Jorge. That sucks, he didn't deserve that - has every right to be pissed-off. He probably would've easily won that race I reckon. From my armchair, it looked like it was just Alvaro getting overly excited (and probably a bit greedy) and made an honest mis-calculation of braking. There was no malice, however, I think he deserves a race suspension for that. Anyway, I don't think he'll be doing that again for a while. Luckily no-one got hurt - the potential for a disaster was there.



The Moaner rode well. Awesome qualy and race. Rode smart behind Dani and pounced when the time was right. This is good for the championship, but a real pity it happened this way (Jorge taken out).



Dani, Dani, Dani... Geez mate, I really feel for this guy. He is a fast, smart racer. He needed to capitalize from this race. But as always lacks that extra something that Casey or Jorge have. Always the bridesmaid...



Dovi rode great. I think being dropped form Repsol last year was the best thing that could have happened to him. He is showing real fight. He deserves a factory bike.



Ben, unless you have a spectacular second half of the season, your seat is vacant for next year. Showed promise, but faded. Sure, there may have been some issues there, but this pattern is becoming too familar.



Hayden rode a solid and gutsy race. He just does his best every race with the machinery (it's a crap bike, seriously) he has. I have really warmed to him lately. I hope Ducati do the right thing by the guy for next season.



Cal rode the ride of the race in my opinion. Considering his circumstances (being hurt and going off track) he came back really strong. Like Dovi, he too deserves a factory bike. Don't go to Ducati, please!!!



Hector pushed that bloody heap of junk to the max. I dunno how many times he had major "moments", but managed to hang on. Respect.



Vale, the pictures of that rear tyre say it all. Nothing he could've done.



Bring on the next round!