Can Petronas and FQ Win the Title LonGene Leonard

misfit said:

Absolutely... why not?

I think he will need the head start that he currently has but it was his speed that led to Marquez's off's so his lead is legit and if he wins, he will deserve it... hands down. He's the real deal, though not ruthless about it. Kind of a gentleman like Stoner was on track.

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michaelm said:

I agree. MM’s not stupid and knows this guy is coming, and both his recent off and the one late last year were imo due to him trying to demonstrate something to FQ (EDIT which probably was stupid come to think of it).

I also agree about needing the lead, MM will quite possibly come back from the fracture better than if he had re-injured his shoulder, and has shown the ability to ride in races mistake free if it is required. FQ looks like he has a good bike under him as well, not so sure about the Honda although Nakagami looked fairly impressive on one last race, but I am not quite ready to anoint FQ as an equal to MM just yet, just as you are not I gather. A 50 point lead after the first 2 races of a 13 race season is handy though.

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Keshav said:

In large part - it'll be a question of whether MM can squelch the impulse to take every turn maniac style for the purpose of intimidating and breaking the spirit of his competitors. If he can dial it back for the sake of simply winning as opposed to devastating the competition, he may still take the championship.

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michaelm said:

As per the preceding post, it is much more likely that a somewhat fit MM can put riders between him and FQ on some tracks than that FQ can do this to him on almost any track. If Vinales has a really good weekend he might beat them both but I can't see him finishing behind FQ and ahead of MM too often.

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Keshav said:

In large part - it'll be a question of whether MM can squelch the impulse to take every turn maniac style for the purpose of intimidating and breaking the spirit of his competitors. If he can dial it back for the sake of simply winning as opposed to devastating the competition, he may still take the championship.

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Keshav said:

I'm a tad dyslexic. I had to take a minute to decipher that last sentence. Gave me a bit of a headache.

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michaelm said:

I am not at all, but from personal experience know dyslexic people are not infrequently smarter than people in general, certainly including me.

I guess you got the gist of it in the end, basically a re-statement of p4p1's post which was why it was brief. On tracks not suited to the Honda MM might be beaten by someone else on a really good day but usually finishes second or at worst third. Whether FQ can do that at this stage in his career and whether the Yamaha is now more versatile/not disadvantaged by such a number of tracks are the questions, for me and p4p1.

My point was that MV might not be much help to him whether or not there are team orders from Yamaha at some stage, he usually gets out on his own and gaps the field when he wins on a strong week-end, and I don't see him finishing between FQ and MM much, either by design or in the course of racing. When Dovi was winning races against MM on a Ducati which looked stronger than the then current Honda it was mostly by getting him on a corner quite late in races, sometimes the last corner, not getting ahead and using the straight line performance of the Ducati to stay there for multiple laps. I can't see MV keeping MM behind him with any sort of blocking strategy.

Early to judge the Ducati, not a Ducati track. To wear my Jorge fanboy hat maybe he did contribute to the Ducati being so competitive even against MM, with Yamaha and their young riders now apparently pretty much deciding his way was the right path for Yamaha as well. Bagnaia looked rather better than alright on one though, maybe he is just faster than Dovi and Jack Miller, unless the factory team just went the wrong way with the set-up.

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Keshav said:

Yes. Great post. Much as I like to champion Dovi, I think his glory days, such as they were, may be behind him. Very disappointed over Bag’s mechanical DNF. Definitely don’t want to see Fabio run away with the championship the way Marc has in the past. Waiting w baited breath to see how the Ducatis fare at other tracks.

Re: those Hail Mary passes that Dovi managed to pull off to beat Marquez are for me some of the most memorable moments of the last 20 years. Especially in that they were done on the Ducati that “doesn’t turn” and MOST especially the ones in the rain. Totally engraved in my memory (what’s left of it).

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