<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Doc 79 @ Jun 25 2006, 04:46 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Costa, you're not looking at that information the right way......that 24 seconds has nothing to do with PACE....you need to look at the individual lap times of each rider per lap to determine pace......buy the mid to end of the race, Nicky and Edwards were riding 1:38s, whereas Rossi was running high 1:37s....gaining.....
The 24s is just the natural time difference from running 1st to running 8th.....total time has nothing to do with pace.....Now like I said, if you start Rossi off in 12th on the grid, with his PACE.....he might have passed 10 riders starting from 12 instead of 18..... 12 minus 10 = 2......aka Nicky.
As for Hayden, he has been very consistent.....and that alone is why he is on top...and kudos for that, but remember....he is not the most skilled....if you take away consistency with a DNF.....he'll be beaten....
Honestly, Rossi could never win that race with his injury. He had one high 37 lap then settled for medium 38s if I remember right. I think he did the 37 when he did his last overtake or just after, but with none in sight he setteled back to his race pace of the day, 38's. Also look at how he strugeled in the start to find a "comfort" zone between pain and gain, how he went off the track trying to pass Capirossi and so on. If he was pushed he might have been able to get down to high 37s at the end of the race but that was about it.
On a different fora I guessed him in the top 10 if he didn't DNF and that checked out. The reason is that for what ever race pace you usually have, dropping only a few 10th's a lap put you into what feels like slow riding. Your brain suddenly have heaps of time to get the brake points and power curves just smoth and perfect and you feel it is real easy to ride that "slow" pace and you are surpriced of how fast you went in such a relaxed pace. That was about the pace Rossi could do in that race, enableing him to soften the ride and brace himself for the pain. Any faster and he would have to take impacts on the injury that wold paralyse him in pain as I suspect some manouvers in the first laps did. He could not afford another crash and luckily found a good pace to complete a fantastic race.
The race pace of the leaders on the other hand was 37.5. they were around that number all the race trhough except for in the end where they had the takeovers and misstakes so that was no match at all.