AustralianGP 2017

Predictions:

1. Nobody cares
2. Nobody cares
3. Nobody cares

Nobody cares because the big story is the heroic return of Jack Miller's comeback from a broken leg which could only be described of Biblical proportions, a modern-day Lazarus story.


Quite possibly lost in the hoopla of this story is a potential championship deciding event.

If you live in a glass house don't throw rocks.

Yeah but will he finish 5th? :ninja:

Watching FP1 and you can just see the disgust on Vinales face. How I wish he was allowed to give his true feelings on the derailment job his teammate played on him. Of course ole Nick is just at a lose as to what's happened to Vinales "drop in form" .Rambles on about how Vinales has not won since LeMans and only has 3 podiums since that day. Not once did he mention the tire swap and the numerous chassis revisions as the reason, or even the possibility of it being a reason.

Marquez leads FP1 and never went to the softs. On race rubber he has 2.5/10ths
on Dovi who did set his fastest time on softs, as did everyone else in top 5

povol said:

Marquez leads FP1 and never went to the softs. On race rubber he has 2.5/10ths
on Dovi who did set his fastest time on softs, as did everyone else in top 5

Click to expand...

Miller wasn't, he was on mediums.

Jumkie said:

Quite possibly lost in the hoopla of this story is a potential championship deciding event.......

Click to expand...

But what is Rossi doing? Those other blokes are just fill-ins while we wait for champion number ..... what number are we waiting for, anyway?

Bring on the birds!




Best livery ever?

If Marc and Dovi had traded machines before the start of the season, would the championship be this close? Who would be leading?

My answer:

No
Dovi.

If you live in a glass house don't throw rocks.

povol said:

Marquez leads FP1 and never went to the softs. On race rubber he has 2.5/10ths
on Dovi who did set his fastest time on softs, as did everyone else in top 5

Click to expand...

Can't say with any certainty. Just a feeling. But I've come to think that Dovi has been sandbagging at many races so that MM will be overconfident. How many times has he ever had the pole?

Jumkie said:

If Marc and Dovi had traded machines before the start of the season, would the championship be this close? Who would be leading?

My answer:

No
Dovi.

If you live in a glass house don't throw rocks.

Click to expand...

Marquez is at the very least, as talented as Dovi. There would seem to be a much shared opinion around here that the Honda is bloody handful, whereas the Ducati has apparently better grunt in general, and even in it's newest iteration, and a more stable wheelbase, which no doubt Marquez would be able to use to his advantage as well as Dovi has, so I wouldn't bet money on Dovi on the Honda. Not at all.

Jack Miller finished 3rd in FP1, great job! I wait with berated breath Oxley's post race report describing his Lazarus style comeback of biblical proportions.

Yamaha are done for this yr at least. Looks like they have no pace wet or dry. So much for the Doctor and his development skills.

Strange how Yamaha threw their lot in with Rossi even though he screwed them by walking away before. As I recall there was a spell where Yamaha didn't even have any sponsorships. For the last two years the Yamaha brass has again been caught flat footed while Rossi torpedoed the team by making life miserable for everybody not involved directly with Rossi. How are those sponsorships going to go when they are not winning?

Bern1 said:

Strange how Yamaha threw their lot in with Rossi even though he screwed them by walking away before. As I recall there was a spell where Yamaha didn't even have any sponsorships. For the last two years the Yamaha brass has again been caught flat footed while Rossi torpedoed the team by making life miserable for everybody not involved directly with Rossi. How are those sponsorships going to go when they are not winning?

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You sort-of answer your own "throwing in lot" question. He brought money to the team, which took a lot of pressure off Yamaha from a financial standpoint. They have contributed a lot to this sport over the last 15 years, and they deserve a break. Without Honda and Yamaha, we wouldn't have squat. Yamaha even paid for the rehabilitation of Laguna Seca. And may your god/demon bless them for it. Honda and Yamaha gave a bunch of concessions to Ducati, just to keep the series alive. Those two teams actually could have told DORNA to f' off with their stupid ideas, but they are still here, and I am grateful. Without them I wouldn't have MM, AD, VR, et al, to admire.

BTW, Honda would NEVER take him back. They didn't like his insults when he went to Yamaha.

Where is the excitement for this race coming up? A fantastic championship battle on a fantastic track. I am so excited I almost rode my bike in the damp today.

I hear ya, but that also just goes to show how out of balance this whole scene is. I don't want to take anything away from Yamaha and Honda for having dominated the 2 wheel vehicle market but just the fact that it takes "concessions" from them to even have series is mind blowing.

Btw I am plenty excited about this race.

I am really curious about Dovi's newly found aggression and racecraft at this later stage in his career. Seems strange to me as well. I've always liked him and was sad to see him let go as the the third odd man out when he was running with Honda I think.
So, has Dovi really improved that much as a rider or is the Ducati really improved that much As a bike? And where does that put Lorenzo ? I really thought we would see better results by now from him.

Aleix and the Aprilia have surprised me in practice. Very interesting

I'm amazed they agreed to concessions to a manufacturer owned by the VW group and sponsored by Philip Morris International.

FP3 results (Wet)

Order is - Position / Rider / Nation / Team / Motorcycle / Time / Lap / Total laps / Gap / Top Speed
93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'38.522 9 12 314.8
2 5 Johann ZARCO FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'38.983 17 17 0.461 0.461 319.6
3 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1'39.056 16 16 0.534 0.073 317.2
4 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team DUCATI 1'39.212 17 17 0.690 0.156 314.2
5 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'39.356 4 11 0.834 0.144 326.7
6 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'39.556 15 15 1.034 0.200 296.2
7 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda HONDA 1'39.704 12 12 1.182 0.148 307.8
8 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 1'39.760 8 13 1.238 0.056 312.3
9 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Reale Avintia Racing DUCATI 1'39.802 14 14 1.280 0.042 311.8
10 43 Jack MILLER AUS EG 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA 1'39.889 11 11 1.367 0.087 298.9
11 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Ducati Team DUCATI 1'39.956 10 13 1.434 0.067 311.8
12 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1'40.009 8 13 1.487 0.053 316.5
13 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1'40.122 12 12 1.600 0.113 316.1
14 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1'40.162 7 8 1.640 0.040 308.5
15 22 Sam LOWES GBR Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 1'40.204 11 11 1.682 0.042 305.8
16 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team DUCATI 1'40.801 22 24 2.279 0.597 316.5
17 76 Loris BAZ FRA Reale Avintia Racing DUCATI 1'40.879 17 17 2.357 0.078 312.6
18 45 Scott REDDING GBR OCTO Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'41.267 13 15 2.745 0.388 293.6
19 42 Alex RINS SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 1'41.420 9 14 2.898 0.153 313.4
20 23 Broc PARKES AUS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'41.818 17 17 3.296 0.398 302.3
21 53 Tito RABAT SPA EG 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA 1'41.822 16 19 3.300 0.004 301.7
22 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 1'41.886 10 10 3.364 0.064 308.5
23 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 1'43.415 4 7 4.893 1.529 307.3

Fox need to .... Kevin McGee off. He just sucks, he's such a ....... bopper and he can't even hide his hate for Marquez and Lorenzo anymore. He clearly revels in any misfortune that they have. He picks Rossi to win sometimes no matter how bad he's been, no matter how far off the pace he is. Even the host questioned him once about it.

Keshav said:

Can't say with any certainty. Just a feeling. But I've come to think that Dovi has been sandbagging at many races so that MM will be overconfident. How many times has he ever had the pole?

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Cant say i disagree. Dovi seems to hide a major ace in the hole the entire weekend till he needs it in a race.