I must be more of a rossi fan than I had previously thought because I don't see much to criticise him for in this race. He didn't achieve a good set-up in practice which has seemed to be a problem for him more often than jorge this year, perhaps related to his injuries, not liking the current tyres etc, or even to jorge being really good at setting up the current yamaha on the current tyres.
valentino again showed he is peerless in one on one battles, definitely related to skill, probably also to intestinal fortitude and ruthlessness; I think nicky left a gap for the second pass and I didn't see the early pass. One thing is that valentino seems to choose very carefully whom he takes on in such battles, picking only the skilled riders who are not likely to take him and them out; they don't all necessarily seem to take this as a compliment
although nicky appeared more concerned about losing the podium rather than the hardness of the pass in this instance.
I don't think he has sent any message to stoner or lorenzo this week-end as both were faster, but this doesn't necessarily have any implications for next year or even next race; jorge, rossi and spies all seemed to think I would assume correctly that conditions were dangerous at times during practice which may have affected their achieving a good set-up.
I don't now know what to make of casey's year; I think one definite factor was that he lost the confidence to push as hard as he usually does after the 2 early dnfs. Otherwise whether he was annoyed by ducati earlier in the year, whether the bike is still on a knife edge and the recent tracks have suited him and the bike better, ducati have upped the power in the late season or bridgestone have changed the tyres I don't know. i would be interested to know what the anti-stoner brigade think was the reason for him and to a lesser extent hayden being so fast here is as the bike doesn't seem to have much if any straight line advantage now; i am willing to concede that valentino and jorge may not have chosen to go flat-out for the whole race at this stage in the season.
valentino again showed he is peerless in one on one battles, definitely related to skill, probably also to intestinal fortitude and ruthlessness; I think nicky left a gap for the second pass and I didn't see the early pass. One thing is that valentino seems to choose very carefully whom he takes on in such battles, picking only the skilled riders who are not likely to take him and them out; they don't all necessarily seem to take this as a compliment
I don't think he has sent any message to stoner or lorenzo this week-end as both were faster, but this doesn't necessarily have any implications for next year or even next race; jorge, rossi and spies all seemed to think I would assume correctly that conditions were dangerous at times during practice which may have affected their achieving a good set-up.
I don't now know what to make of casey's year; I think one definite factor was that he lost the confidence to push as hard as he usually does after the 2 early dnfs. Otherwise whether he was annoyed by ducati earlier in the year, whether the bike is still on a knife edge and the recent tracks have suited him and the bike better, ducati have upped the power in the late season or bridgestone have changed the tyres I don't know. i would be interested to know what the anti-stoner brigade think was the reason for him and to a lesser extent hayden being so fast here is as the bike doesn't seem to have much if any straight line advantage now; i am willing to concede that valentino and jorge may not have chosen to go flat-out for the whole race at this stage in the season.
