MUGELLO Italian GP (Predictions & Practice/Qual)

I choose for Rossi, Stoner and Lorenzo on podium. but i like to see Rossi beat Horhay, and he or Stoner wins the race, to get a closer standing, especially for Casey.



But from race of 2006, i think Hayden and Capi and Melandry can have a good race also, though Capi and Melandry haven't good bikes maybe, but Hayden can shine here.



Dovi and Maybe Simochelli can shine too. I cant discount Pedrosa also.



So, i hope we can finally have a race like the Mugello 2006, with more than 2 rider's fighting for the win untill the last few corners.





I hope Casey or Vale will take the pole.

1. Rossi - home track and he hasn't had a win in a while (please no more talk about his shoulder)

2. Lorenzo - he's on a roll but Rossi I think is more hungry, hopefully we get a good Rossi vs Lorenzo battle

3. Stoner - enough to beat Hayden this time but still not enough to win

4. Hayden - as CK says, it's his spot

5. Dovi - Honda struggles

6. Dani - Dani struggles

7. Melandri - Home track, confidence is back after good result in Le Mans

8. Spies - back to where he should be, around 6th - 10th

9. Edwards - also back in form

10. RdP - a solid 10th for the guy that we used to make fun of for crashing every other race



Bring on Mugello, one of the best tracks !!

Lorenzo - the new kid on the block

Stoner

Dovi

Pedrosa

Hayden - Id rather see hin bin it for a podium instead of settling for 4-5th but thats not Nicky's style.



Rossi DNF - he's going to push it and bin it.

Things I would like to see:

• 
  
  []Great racing start to finish
  
  []Nicky on the podium
  
  []A fierce battle between Pedrosa and Dovizioso, with the midget ....... loosing the fight
  
  []Stoner crossing the finish line, preferably behind his teammate
  
  []Pieman doing well despite his personal troubles
  

Stoner

Lorenzo

Rossi

Hayden

1. Horhey

2. Kayzee

3. GOAT

I think Stoner will start off with alot of run offs but i think he will solve most of the troubles with the new forks.

Lorenzo will probarbly be on top on friday.

Rossi will probarbly not be fond of the breaking into the first turn.

Practice:

Stoner

Lorenzo

Rossi

Capirossi

Hayden

Pedrosa



For the race:

One of the Rossis,Lorenzos and Stoners is going to crash or run off i think.



Stoner more or less has to finish so he might be backing off.Or he has a big slip but stays on the bike.So:



Rossi

Lorenzo

Stoner

Hayden

Pedrosa

Capirossi

Anders GUZZI said:

I think Stoner will start off with alot of run offs but i think he will solve most of the troubles with the new forks.

Lorenzo will probarbly be on top on friday.

Rossi will probarbly not be fond of the breaking into the first turn.

Practice:

Stoner

Lorenzo

Rossi

Capirossi

Hayden

Pedrosa



For the race:

One of the Rossis,Lorenzos and Stoners is going to crash or run off i think.

Stoner more or less has to finish so he might be backing off.Or he has a big slip but stays on the bike.So:



Rossi

Lorenzo

StonerHayden

Pedrosa

Capirossi

Click to expand...

MotoDude said:

Things I would like to see:

• 
  
  []Great racing start to finish
  
  []Nicky on the podium
  
  []A fierce battle between Pedrosa and Dovizioso, with the midget ....... loosing the fight
  
  []Stoner crossing the finish line, preferably behind his teammate
  
  []Pieman doing well despite his personal troubles
  

Click to expand...

To be perfectly honest, I love the premier class, and some of the races have been pretty good so far. But for great racing for the entire race, I've been tuning into the Moto2 races, way better lap to lap action.

OahuGrown said:

To be perfectly honest, I love the premier class, and some of the races have been pretty good so far. But for great racing for the entire race, I've been tuning into the Moto2 races, way better lap to lap action.

Click to expand...

No doubt! I love the premier class as well but generally SBK and Moto2 both provide far better action. Perhaps less drama, but more action. Sometimes the drama of inter-team rivalry and or unexpected crashes makes up for the lack of on track action. Kinda like last weekends F1 race!!

MotoDude said:

Things I would like to see:

• 
  
  []Great racing start to finish
  
  []Nicky on the podium
  
  []A fierce battle between Pedrosa and Dovizioso, with the midget ....... loosing the fight
  
  []Stoner crossing the finish line, preferably behind his teammate
  
  []Pieman doing well despite his personal troubles
  

Click to expand...

in some parallel universe

Rossi- it's mugello, he even won there in 07!! Screwed around last year in the puddles.....



Dovi- Honda speed and a change in form this year.



Pedders- still a fast midget



Nicky- 4th status quo











Jorge will have to push very hard to beat goat this weekend- maybe a spill on the way.

Talpa said:

Rossi- it's mugello, he even won there in 07!! Screwed around last year in the puddles.....

Click to expand...

I think he remembered his spill in 2001 pushing too hard to get to the front and wrecking that Hawaiian bike!! I love that bike..



Plus he probably just wanted safe points since the rain at Le Mans the round before really bit him in the ... for his 4 pit race!!

man i still haven't seen the 600s in action =( stupid speed channel.

let's say



1. Rossi ( because Mugelo)

2. Casey (fight with lorentho)

3. Jorge ( fight with staycey)

4. Dovizioso (honda trouble)

5. Pedrobot (Kicked by Dovizioso)

6. Hayden (Ducati running too wild)

7. Edward ( Tech 3)

If Nicky finishes 4th again Im going to be disappointed. Id rather see him wreck TRYING for thrid than finish 4th.

MdubSTYLIE said:

Click to expand...

Forgot to add: if not:

Anyway,i have a feeling the one of Stoner,Rossi or Lorenzo with the worst setup is going to push too hard and run wide/run off and return in 10th place or something,or crash.

OahuGrown said:

To be perfectly honest, I love the premier class, and some of the races have been pretty good so far. But for great racing for the entire race, I've been tuning into the Moto2 races, way better lap to lap action.

Click to expand...

I admit I have not been paying enough attention to Moto2, but that is gonna change as of right now.

Valentino Rossi says that his lingering shoulder injury is "a big problem" and that it may not be until after the USGP in July until he is fully fit. The 31-year-old Italian added that he may even need surgery at the end of the season to repair the tendon and cartilage damage in his right shoulder.



Now feeling under "big pressure" for his home race, Rossi goes into the Italian GP at Mugello on Sunday clearly less than 100% fit.



His assessment confirms the opinion expressed by his crew chief Jeremy Burgess earlier on SPEED.com.



While Rossi prefers not to use his shoulder as an excuse it seems the injury is not improving fast enough. Rossi suffered the injury six weeks ago when he crashed a motocross bike during training. He has been treated by MotoGP medical guru Dr. Costa.



"The good thing is that we now understand exactly the situation although it has taken one and half months because always with Dr. Costa you need time to understand the reality," Rossi said. "Unfortunately it is quite bad; I have damaged the cartilage so the problem is that my shoulder is not 100% stable. For a normal person it would be up to four months to be 100% but it is now just 1.5 months since it happened.

Casey Stoner will revert back to a set of 2009 spec Ohlins front forks in practice for the Italian GP as he attempts to cure a mystery front-end issue that has effectively killed off his MotoGP title hopes after just three races.



Stoner is still baffled by his recent crash at the French GP in Le Mans that left the 24-year-old facing a massive task to claw his way back into title contention this season.



Stoner goes into Sunday’s clash at Mugello trailing series leader Jorge Lorenzo by 59-points after just three rounds and in a bid to cure his front-end issues, he told MCN today he’ll run tests on last year’s forks.



The Australian, who also crashed out of the lead in the season’s opening race in Qatar, told MCN: “In Le Mans until the race everything was working fine. We’re going to try something in the front forks to load the front a bit more and something in the rear to try and put a bit more pressure on the front tyre.



"Or we might take some weight off it. It seems every crash has happened when I’ve released the front brake, it never happens while I’m on the brake so in theory we should be putting more pressure on the front.



"We tried that in Jerez at the test but it made the bike worse and closed the front a lot more. It is not really giving us correct feedback. Taking more weight off the front should make it worse but we tried that in Jerez and it made it a little better. We don’t have solid points to figure out.”



Stoner said he hoped the use of the old spec forks would at least give him some answers to the issue that has left him baffled.



He added: “I’d like to back-to-back the forks. Everybody is pretty much been using the new forks but since the beginning of the season we have been struggling to find a set-up as easily as what we did in the past.



"But at the same time we have a new engine and all things that can play a big factor. It is very difficult because we’ve tried having more and less engine braking, more and less weight in the front and to be honest I’m not getting the right feedback at the point in the corner. It is very complicated at the moment.”



Stoner denied that any of the issues were related to a new Big Bang engine that Ducati introduced for 2010 to help tame its factory contender on corner exit.



Stoner added: “I don’t think it’s a problem of the engine. I can understand from when I’m getting on the gas harder that it might upset the front but it is not at the point in the corner when I’m crashing.



"We’ve had more and less engine braking and didn’t get any improvement. The only thing we haven’t tried is forks. We’ll try different damping systems to what we have now and just try and get some feedback.



"You lose the front all the time but they can pick the bike up. That’s normal and how you find the limit but when I’ve lost the front I’ve not even been close to picking the bike up again.



"Once it goes I can’t dig my knee into pick it up. When it does go it goes slowly but it doesn’t want to comeback. Maybe with a change in damping the fork can spring up quicker.”