Qatar MotoGP Race **SPOILER**

Results:
1 C. Stoner (AUS) Ducati tyres 00:00.100
2 V. Rossi (ITA) Yamaha tyres 00:00.200
3 D. Pedrosa (ESP) Honda tyres 00:00.300
4 J. Hopkins (USA) Suzuki tyres 00:00.400
5 M. Melandri (ITA) Honda tyres 00:00.500
6 C. Edwards (USA) Yamaha tyres 00:00.600
7 C. Vermeulen (AUS) Suzuki 00:00.700
8 N. Hayden (USA) Honda 00:00.800
9 A. Barros (BRA) Ducati 00:00.900
10 S. Nakano (JPN) Honda 00:01.000
11 A. Hofmann (GER) Ducati 00:02.000
12 O. Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki 00:03.000
13 K. Roberts (USA) KR Honda 00:05.000
14 T. Elias (ESP) Honda tyres 00:06.000
15 S. Guintoli (FRA) Yamaha 00:07.000

WELL DONE CASEY!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm really happy for the guy!! He drove a very good race. Nice to see him win his first race in Motogp. He definitely deserved to win. It looks as if he improved, cause...well, he stayed on his bike
I hope to see him in front often this season. Should be interesting!

Rossi had a good start and he actually did a very good job, but I think he couldn't have done better today than 2nd position, cause he lost out on the straight. Stoner's bike had so much more power on the straight. Rossi just couldn't top that. Nevertheless a good job from Casey!!

Dani did what I expected him to do, finishing on the podium. Well done to him as well!! Wish I could say the same about Nicky, I thought he would make it into the top 6, but 8th was all he could do today. Hopefully he will do better next time.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Franco Fangio @ Mar 10 2007, 01:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Wish I could say the same about Nicky, I thought he would make it into the top 6, but 8th was all he could do today. Hopefully he will do better next time.
nicky finished 8 th only because he was gifted 3 places when capi checa and randy crashed out ahead of him, very weak ride from nick i think.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

He stopped on the thing, and WON!!!!!!

the power he had down that straight was AMAZING to watch. well done casey!

that and dani being third well....

125 and 250 was naff though, what the hell happened with bautista!


anyway....

Well done to Casey for a debut victory!

toots horn

I can't help but think 'what if the Duke didn't have the top end'?

BUT!

That's racing!

And Rossi is 18 points better off this time than he was this time last year.

Brilliant race, unexpected outcome but well deserved. Loved every minute of it. Can't wait for the next one. The top three bikes had their strengths and weaknesses, but the Duke was outstanding as was Casey keeping his cool. Well done. Rossi is out to win as usual so should make for an interesting season. Though I did think pedrosa would do better but theres plenty of time.

Liz

WOW!!!! The Ducati is an absolute beast!! Brilliant win from Casey..he rode an impeccable race!
As for Rossi nothing more he could have done. Here's some gems from Italian commentary:
Post race Vale said he's going to grab his M1 and take it down to Misano to the guy who used to hot up his scooter when he was a kid!
The Italian commentator patted him consolingly on the back and said "Well you were out there riding a FIAT but Casey was riding a Ferrari"

Does anyone know if this will be repeated anytime?

I missed it because the footbal was a early kickoff at 12 I was well pssed off

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Spacedeck @ Mar 10 2007, 03:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Does anyone know if this will be repeated anytime?

I missed it because the footbal was a early kickoff at 12 I was well pssed off
Do you have British Eurosport?

No mate. We just got the freeview box but not a top up one

I warned you all didn't i. I said that Casey was a man to watc and he was kind enough to ride a perfect race, brilliant stuff.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Spacedeck @ Mar 10 2007, 03:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Does anyone know if this will be repeated anytime?

I missed it because the footbal was a early kickoff at 12 I was well pssed off

serves you right (joking) - you would sooner watch football than motogp!

it will be repeated on eurosport tonight

That Duke is a rocket, well done Stoner, great rides from Hopper and also Barros who came in a crediable 9th.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (stop_killing_dead_things @ Mar 10 2007, 04:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>serves you right (joking) - you would sooner watch football than motogp!

it will be repeated on eurosport tonight

lol I would yes. Football is my number one sport and I haven't missed a home game this season!

But also it was a West Yorkshire derby so didn't want to miss that

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tom @ Mar 10 2007, 04:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I warned you all didn't i. I said that Casey was a man to watc and he was kind enough to ride a perfect race, brilliant stuff.

It anoyes me that I didn't pay enough attention to the top speed differences. That might have changed my prediction for Stoner, but then again, who expected to see such a huge difference?

I've never written Stoner off. As an old saying goes; It's easier to learn how to stop crashing than to learn how to be fast.
Being part of a larger team with more expertise anable the team to get the right bike setup for him, making it easier to stay on the edge without falling off. The guy is fast and can very well be one of the major players this year. But don't expect to see this level of power differences to continue. Both Honda and Yamaha will work franatically to find some extra ponies in their bikes.

Bikergirl: Those coments post race were hillarious

Btw, did anyone study the throttle bars for Casey and Vale near the end of the race? It was quite a distance between the bikes, about 10 to 20 metres, even so, in every corner Rossi were earlier on the power. Every single one. Still he lost distance in the exit, even early in the exit. It's hard to decide if this was lack of power or lack of grip. In Rossis first year at Yamaha we could often se how Rossi had higher speed out of the corners by being earlt on the power, masking the power differences between the Yamaha and the Honda. But today it looked like he was back on his Vespa, whith neither power or grip to keep up. It was even worse than his first year at Yamaha. Or maybe the power bars were miscalibrated and casey is Rossis equal in corner exits?

GRRRRRRR bloody work making me go in today!! just watched the tape although the 1st half didnt record properly!! not a happy man!! managed about 8 laps where i could see everything properly!

how good was the duke today?? so much extra grunt down the straight and with a long straight like losail he had a definate advantage. shame about capirex (or as he say's cos he's old now he's gonna be called capi-t-rex) and what happened to hayden today?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Best Man @ Mar 10 2007, 04:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>GRRRRRRR bloody work making me go in today!! just watched the tape although the 1st half didnt record properly!! not a happy man!! managed about 8 laps where i could see everything properly!

how good was the duke today?? so much extra grunt down the straight and with a long straight like losail he had a definate advantage. shame about capirex (or as he say's cos he's old now he's gonna be called capi-t-rex) and what happened to hayden today?
Shame that you couldn't watch the whole race - i'm sure you'll catch the highlights sometime.
The Ducati made the Yamaha look like a 50cc pit-bike going down the straights, it carried so much speed! Rossi with the Yamaha was a little bit quicker through the winding corners and that's how he regained time on Stoner but he just had to give up in the end and let Stoner take the victory. Rossi was very late on the brakes going into turn 1 at the bottom of the straight which really helped him gain more speed through the first corner and overtake Pedrosa as he also overtook him down the straights most of the way through the race.
Nicky Hayden had a very quiet day and finished P8 behind Chris Vermuelen, Colin Edwards and Marco Melandri. He would of finished in P11 too if the 3 guys infront of him didn't crash out of the race. Hayden was complaining that he just couldn't get to grips with the front end of the bike...i'd say that he was lucky to even grab a few points!

Classic performance from Edwards, he shows promis and speed in testing and practice, then the lights go green and he gets out raced. Very average effort as usual.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tom @ Mar 10 2007, 06:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Classic performance from Edwards, he shows promis and speed in testing and practice, then the lights go green and he gets out raced. Very average effort as usual.

It does look very classic Edwards, but I think we will see better results from Edwards in the future. The reason I think so is the huge power advantage both Honda and Ducati had on the Yamaha. Even the Suzuki had higher top speed. At least I hope so

What a awful result from the reigning world champ, 8th place? What's that all about? Maybe one of the Haydenboppers can enlighten us, preferably one that previously slagged me off.