Le Mans...

what an eventful race that was! lots of action today.

de Puniet again though.. is this guy gonna get a break? and Hopper did a great ride until he lost the front end but dont think the Suzuki could keep the pace as the big boys up front for a whole race.

Dani great ride again but did his tyre selection let him down? shame he couldnt hold of Capirossi at the end there, would have scored me a few more points in the league!

but you all know what the talking point is... just what happened to Rossi's bike? the guy was on fire today. carved his way to the front with ease then pulled away from Pedrosa. looked like he was back to his best and just when you thought Yamaha might has solved their bike problems off he goes. must have been gutted.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Best Man @ May 21 2006, 08:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>just what happened to Rossi's bike?
kills me in the league. was lookin real good there for a while. damn yamaha junk!!!!!!!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Best Man @ May 21 2006, 02:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>what an eventful race that was! lots of action today.

de Puniet again though.. is this guy gonna get a break? and Hopper did a great ride until he lost the front end but dont think the Suzuki could keep the pace as the big boys up front for a whole race.

Dani great ride again but did his tyre selection let him down? shame he couldnt hold of Capirossi at the end there, would have scored me a few more points in the league!

but you all know what the talking point is... just what happened to Rossi's bike? the guy was on fire today. carved his way to the front with ease then pulled away from Pedrosa. looked like he was back to his best and just when you thought Yamaha might has solved their bike problems off he goes. must have been gutted.


i agree there.rossi is avin a crap season hope he manages to put the past behind by the time the gp reaches donington.as im a huge rossi fan an got the tickets for donington i hope this year i get my monies worth lol as i got soaked last year..
great race in france but im a bit gutted for vale an the pictures show that he,s not to happy.i bet theres some words being said in the de brief ?????

thats 2 races he hasn't finnished now but i wasn't exspecting his bike to just go of like that

and Dani what was wrong with his tyres? not griping gd...? he laped slow

btw what actually happend in the first time going into the corner were the crash was? and Rossi did get a tap in there so could that of made the bike brake? but damn it must of been bad after leading and looking stronge enought to win it

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gary @ May 21 2006, 02:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>great race in france but im a bit gutted for vale an the pictures show that he,s not to happy.i bet theres some words being said in the de brief ?????

yeah i'm gutted for the guy. he's taken a bit of grief these past few weeks but he showed today he's still the best. like you say frosty.. damn yamaha!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Spacedeck @ May 21 2006, 02:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>and Dani what was wrong with his tyres? not griping gd...? he laped slow

btw what actually happend in the first time going into the corner were the crash was? and Rossi did get a tap in there so could that of made the bike brake? but damn it must of been bad after leading and looking stronge enought to win it

dani picked a soft rear tyre where the other guys seemed to have medium. just didnt last the race the pace they were going at i think. rossi seemed to clip pedrosa then he went across the track when de puniet crashed by the looks of it. i dont know if that contributed to it but they seemed to think it was an electrics or fuel problem.

Cracking race! Rossi had his most aggressive, impressive ride for a while and didn't deserve the bike to seize like that, but that's racing eh?

Was very impressed with Marco, just rode steady and took his chance, deserved win. Geez, Capirossi is such a demon, gotta love that guy. Shame Nakano got a jump start, would have been good to see how he would have competed up there. would have liked to have seen Edwards at the thick end with the kids too.

Good points gain by Hayden given he was sick.

I'd put me money on Rossi winning at Mugello..... (well, in theory!)

Rossi, what a hypocrite. Wasn't happy when Elias clipped him into the first corner at Jerez (right?) and then goes and does the exact same thing to De Puniet, who then gets sandwiched between Rossi and Gibernau and falls? Gibernau hits Edwards who both took the scenic route. So in one fell swoop, Rossi takes out a rookie on his big break (and home race) and his team mate. Not nice. I think he owes Elias an apology

i actually felt sorry for Rossi ... he was really deserving of a win today. And at the worst possible moment the Yam let him down ... was good to see he kept a sense of humour about it ... did anyone else see him tuck his head down to 'slipstream'? haha

Good job by Hopkins in the first couple of laps ... shame he lost the front end.

I WANTED IT TO RAIN!

oy, oh yer... what happened with Nakano and the ride through? ... i didnt understand what happened there? ... i missed the first two laps.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (IsraeliRacer @ May 22 2006, 05:13 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Rossi, what a hypocrite. Wasn't happy when Elias clipped him into the first corner at Jerez (right?) and then goes and does the exact same thing to De Puniet, who then gets sandwiched between Rossi and Gibernau and falls? Gibernau hits Edwards who both took the scenic route. So in one fell swoop, Rossi takes out a rookie on his big break (and home race) and his team mate. Not nice. I think he owes Elias an apology

Rossi wasn`t mad at Elais after Jerez. Elais apologised and Rossi took it really well. He had a "It can`t be helped, that`s racing." style attitude

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Katt @ May 22 2006, 12:47 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>oy, oh yer... what happened with Nakano and the ride through? ... i didnt understand what happened there? ... i missed the first two laps.
Nakano had a jump start,and as for rossi's punt which took out his own team mate in the process,these seem to get called racing incidents where rossi is involved,but it does seem rossi's bike packing up on him was a bit of poetic justice,as you could see from the way he was pulling clear of the field he was on a mission,taking no prisioners ?

Really a shame for Rossi, do I feel bad for him? No, he's had luck on his side since he's been in the premier class while others have gone through their fair share of tough luck. Rossi just has to deal with it, he will be back to his usual self by Italy so I see no reason to be concerned or feel bad for the guy. Very good ride from MM, he rode a steady pace and took advantage of a slipping Pedrosa. Same goes for Capirossi. Dani made a bit of a set up mistake by going soft soft but that's to be expected from a rookie. He will learn and will only get better. Good ride from Stoner, at the end of the race he was throwing down times similar to the leaders as did the flu strickened Hayden. Brave ride and a good point gathering race for being so under the weather. A real shame for Hopkins and Edwards. Hopkins looked as though he may have had a podium performance in him and Edwards' pace was tremendous throughout the race, it's too bad he had to go through the gravel in turn 1. On to Mugello.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Ooost @ May 22 2006, 06:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Dani made a bit of a set up mistake by going soft soft but that's to be expected from a rookie. He will learn and will only get better.

does anyone know why a rider would choose soft tires?

I can't remember a rider with that soft soft combination ever doing good and not getting problems with their tires. it seems that they have a bit advantage in the beginning of the race, but further on in the race the laptimes always goes back and the grip always get's less and less. I always get the feeling that it's not a smart decision to chose for soft soft, so why do they do it? am I missing the whole point behind softsoft?

There are many variables that affect what is the adequate tire choice.

My best guess is that Dani's crew thought that with the low temps predicted for sunday the soft soft would work, but the sun shone and Dani's tire only lasted half distance.

I don't think it was such a bad call because with harder tires he might have struggled with the pace to follow Rossi. And after all he was only a couple of seconds behind the winner, if the tires had lasted a 3 or 4 laps more he would have had enough gap to win.

Arguably, its important to have good grip early to clear the middle of the pack and get away with the front runners and then cruise to a solid top group finish, but such a tactic wont win races when you still need grip at the end when the pressure goes up at the front.

Garry McCoy always went for that soft soft choice and he won a few GP's in his day, on a Yamaha too! From what I can see dani rides real hard on the front everywhere so going for a harder front might hurt his confidence. Mugello is a front heavy track so I predict he'll go soft on the front at least, in Italy.

I thought Rossi rode a blinder of a race and was robbed. I agree with Ooost, I'm not sorry for him, what goes around comes around and now it's rossi's turn. We'll see if he's as tough as Doohan now....

Pedrosa should be very happy with how his season has gone so far, pity he's such a grumpy little ......., I might be able to like him. Casey rode a blinder as well but the stars for me were Marco and Loris. Push as hard as you can because you never know whats going to happen next in bike racing, especially in motogp this year. Marco and Loris were there to pick up the pieces. I think we'll leave Mugello with one of those two leading the champoinship. Nicky better keep his eye on the ball.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (skidmark @ May 23 2006, 11:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>what goes around comes around and now it's rossi's turn. We'll see if he's as tough as Doohan now....

Skid, mate I gotta tell you you make some damn good points in your posts. Always worth reading, and I loved this comment, by the way.

Mate, in my opinion, the without doubt, hardest ......., born in his leathers, cool headed racer to the core guy that ever was is MICK DOOHAN. ( plus he was really cool with me when I met him )

( and he did that Pedrosa thing with his left foot )

He had it tough all the way and still made it to the top and stayed there for a considerable amount of time. Rossi has never had it that tough and what he's going through now is a scenario my mates and I have talked about many many times before and wondered what might happen. This time it's not a serious injury, very thankfully I must say, but a very bad start to the season that leaves Rossi looking a long way uphill to retaining his title. We'll see what he's made of this year. I bet Mick is watching this season more closely than any since he retired.

gotta agree Doohan pure class,and the king of cool,it seemed to be after Wayne Raineys accident that Doohan picked up the reign's,i was thinking, could it have been Schwantz,but the cool aussie brought the Honda to the fore,and the rest is history ?

Brilliant race,bad luck for Vale (.... happens),the Loris charge had me and the missus screaming encouragement at the tv.

Valentino was going to fly away into the distance as Dani Pedrosa was slowing down due to his tyre wear kicking in, I still think that he will come back and win the Championship though.
Sur thing is though, if he doesn't win the Moto GP Championship this year he sure won't go to F1 the next year.