I think Ramon Forcada summed it up perfectly when describing the difference between the two most talented current riders. Casey is an animal while Jlo just bust his ... and pushes himself to keep getting better. The Yam is not the clear cut better bike as BS demonstrated this weekend when he used up his rear tire, the difference is Jlo and his riding style that he had to change when he went to Yam, he's been working hard at it while Casey has just been going fast. Five of the six factory bikes had tire issues... When Nicky was asked about the tires he said they have to figure out how to get the bike and him to work better with the tires, it's something that Jlo already has figured out and it's obviously a big part of racing especially with the changing weather conditions of this season. Jlo and his crew know what to do when they need to use the soft tire because they've put the time in, while CS has no clue and blames the same tire that was good enough to bring him home second. No one else claimed to have a defective tire and they dropped like stones when their tires fell off. It seems just going out and throwing in some fast laps has come back to bite CS right on the ... and he's just about always had problems with the soft tire option so he has no one to blame but himself for not working through that all these years.
Jlo and the rear tires
http://www.crash.net...or_lorenzo.html
You know, I'll be honest, I hadn't thought about this idea of race simulation possibly hampering Stoner. I didn't much consider it because when its mentioned, I have dismissed it as a Stoner hating tactic to say he's just lazy, chalk it up to my prejudice. But you have made a good point, in that running a race simulation can be fruitful given the new tire characteristics. There is a post practice interview, I can't remember where and when, its one of those on motogp.com vid package; but a reporter asks Stoner about his short run. Stoner shakes his head and says, he doesn't understand why these guys stay out there so long, and explains, if you don't have the right set up, what good is it to stay out there, etc. I only remember it because of the incredulous look he gave the report, which made me laugh. And I thought, yeah, that makes sense what Stoner said. But now I'm thinking, can some of his competitors (not all) be thinking about something other than just getting the right set up? Are they taking mental notes about tire wear perhaps?
I don't think Stoner is lazy, but I do think he has a special and unique way about going about a race weekend event. All the riders have some unique quirk, Stoner for example likes to let all the riders pass and he is the last to grid up. Why? I don't know, perhaps he thinks there is an advantage to doing it. He seems convinced there is an advantage to taking short stints in practice. he has his reasons. But just maybe, not sure myself, but perhaps there may be wisdom in taking longer stints. He has certainly been caught out on tire choice, as he didn't use the same ones as Lorenzo this last weekend.
Again, I think the difference between Jlo and Stoner is the mindset they came into the season and the evolution of that mindset. Casey came in confident, then he's become more and more disenchanted with GP, so much so that he took the unthinkable step of announcing his retirement, that is a huge thing to internalize. Lorenzo came in thinking he has to stay that extra minute at the gym, eat that special wonder fruit promising better health, staying that extra moment rewinding and viewing video footage, putting in that extra lap, sitting down with the engineers and burning the midnight oil, being perfect in mind body and soul during the race, no mistakes for 45 mins or so, all this to beat the fastest guy on a HRC built, engineered, and developed weapon. He has risen to this challenge, and now this somehow has convinced people to conclude the Yamaha is the superior machine. No, I think Lorenzo is the better prepared racer.
