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well hello everyone!

i just got back home from Qatar and WOW what a weekend! For all of you inconvinenced due to TV timings imagine all us fans sitting being drenched in the rain for more than 2 hours and then having to go home with no race. At first noone thought theyd re do it i then heared from someone that Capirossi's manager had confirmed to someone, etc. that they will run the race on monday. This was about 2 hours before it was offcialy announced. Ofcaurse as it was just a rumour i had no idea what the .... was going on and didnt changed my flight. Then at 2 inthe morning confirmation came and i changed my flight and payed the fees. Unfortunatly about 50% of the fans couldnt change the flights. This is due to the fact that the stand was half empty on Monday, where as it was full on Sunday, and there where few to no locals at the race. Organisation of the race is terrible. Our taxi driver didnt know there was a race. For god sakes the head of the Qatar Radio And Television Corporation didnt know there was a race! What. The. .....??! Im from Bahrain. Did anyone notice a red zig zagged flag covering the Australian one during the national anthem?! That was me

Also we went to meet a friend at the Ritz after the GP and I saw JT there. Went up to say hi but he ran right to the lift. I guess he knows he needs to improve. Fast. The atmosphere the day it rained was crazy. You should have been there!

And everyone, as Bahrain is very close to Qatar, I can tell you that my mother, whos memory is well and strong stated the last time it rained like that was in the 1960's. It is unprecedented what happened that day. Anyway iv just spent 4 hours at airports so I will go sleep I will try to give a full report later!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fernando_Loris!!! @ Apr 14 2009, 05:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>well hello everyone!

i just got back home from Qatar and WOW what a weekend! For all of you inconvinenced due to TV timings imagine all us fans sitting being drenched in the rain for more than 2 hours and then having to go home with no race. At first noone thought theyd re do it i then heared from someone that Capirossi's manager had confirmed to someone, etc. that they will run the race on monday. This was about 2 hours before it was offcialy announced. Ofcaurse as it was just a rumour i had no idea what the .... was going on and didnt changed my flight. Then at 2 inthe morning confirmation came and i changed my flight and payed the fees. Unfortunatly about 50% of the fans couldnt change the flights. This is due to the fact that the stand was half empty on Monday, where as it was full on Sunday, and there where few to no locals at the race. Organisation of the race is terrible. Our taxi driver didnt know there was a race. For god sakes the head of the Qatar Radio And Television Corporation didnt know there was a race! What. The. .....??! Im from Bahrain. Did anyone notice a red zig zagged flag covering the Australian one during the national anthem?! That was me

Also we went to meet a friend at the Ritz after the GP and I saw JT there. Went up to say hi but he ran right to the lift. I guess he knows he needs to improve. Fast. The atmosphere the day it rained was crazy. You should have been there!

And everyone, as Bahrain is very close to Qatar, I can tell you that my mother, whos memory is well and strong stated the last time it rained like that was in the 1960's. It is unprecedented what happened that day. Anyway iv just spent 4 hours at airports so I will go sleep I will try to give a full report later!


Cool we want pics bro

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Anders GUZZI @ Apr 14 2009, 04:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>OK i'm joining the others,great post.Yamaha apparently has the benefits of a v twin or v4 tractionwise and gets a fantastic throttle respons,plus maybe easier to get peak hp than a v engine of what i have read.
I'm not 100% sure but quite sure it's like that.

I thought it was the other way. for the inline 4 to have the V4 firing order like it does they use balancer shafts which slightly reduce peak power due to moving more mass and having slightly more resistance.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tom @ Apr 14 2009, 05:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I thought it was the other way. for the inline 4 to have the V4 firing order like it does they use balancer shafts which slightly reduce peak power due to moving more mass and having slightly more resistance.
As i said i'm not sure it's true about this,but i meant the in line 4 it self is easier to get higher peak power than a v4.Before balancer shafts and altered timing.I'm probarbly wrong.And maybe they have found a really good way to reduce friction as it has that reversed crankshaft rotation too.I don't know.Anyway it's a hell of an engine and i can't imagine that they will get much more out of it in the near future as Yamaha and everyone else is probarbly concentrating on enginelife enhancement.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tom @ Apr 14 2009, 06:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I thought it was the other way. for the inline 4 to have the V4 firing order like it does they use balancer shafts which slightly reduce peak power due to moving more mass and having slightly more resistance.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Anders GUZZI @ Apr 14 2009, 06:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>As i said i'm not sure it's true about this,but i meant the in line 4 it self is easier to get higher peak power than a v4.Before balancer shafts and altered timing.I'm probarbly wrong.And maybe they have found a really good way to reduce friction as it has that reversed crankshaft rotation too.I don't know.Anyway it's a hell of an engine and i can't imagine that they will get much more out of it in the near future as Yamaha and everyone else is probarbly concentrating on enginelife enhancement.


Barry just put his answer to this on youtube check it out. Its pretty amazing really
<object width="425" height="350<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uCwDtUOL_Js&feature=PlayList&p=387923044391A279&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=54</param><param name="wmode" value="transparent</param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uCwDtUOL_Js&feature=PlayList&p=387923044391A279&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=54" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350</embed></object>

Can't remember what page I left off on. The thread is too long. (Suggestion next race, please split into practice qual and separate from race).


Congrats to Stoner. He is simply amazing! He's been the fastest man in the season for three years running now.

Rossi had a very good race, it was the best he could do against simply a faster man this race. He mentioned something about tires in post race interview. Was he saying the tires held him from making a charge or that they denigrated? Not sure what he meant by citing tires, but he didn't look happy.

Lorenzo podiums twice in two attempts. He's nails here. Nice pass on Dovi.

Edwards may have his best year to date. Excellent 4th.


Other notables:

Dovi had issues in the later parts of the race and reminded me of Hayden's issues of fading do to some package problem. Could it be they haven't solved it?

Capi was putting on an outstanding effort until he crashed. I think we will see him in the top five all year.

De Angelis' pass on Peders was hard but not intentional. Peders did well by staying on bike and was an amazing save. But the joke here is that it was announced the incident was under "scrutineering" (is that even a word?). .... if that was being scrutinized and they put it up on the screen for sensationalistic purposes, then where were they in about 10 other incidents in the last few years?

Peder's words about how life will pay back De Angelis for his "disrespect" was laughable. Perhaps he is right though, maybe this was a little of life paying him back for that torpedo incident in which his teammate had no ill comments toward him. Peders deserves all the .... he gets thrown at him for always managing to show his .... The man has learned nothing about character, even when he had a good example in a teammate of how to professionally treat such incidents.

Kalio had a great debut. He has talent and will only improve. Its is also a testament to how close the feeder and premier series have become.

Melandri was very impressive and he would have bagged a top 7 had he stayed on track. His attitude has improved, but how long will it last?

Hayden had problems all weekend. It was a nightmare practice and qual session, all of which were shortened. I'd say his showing in the race was a combination of lack of performance and and a major lack of mechanical reliability. There is no way we can really gauge what his performance would have been like had his bike stayed together the entire weekend. To lend some perspective, Casey did make a comment in the post race interview regarding the shorter practice time alloted, he said it was difficult to set up the bike and he lacked confidence in the final set up for the race. Now this is coming from the guy who won the race. So now factor this into Hayden's lack of set up time by no fault of his own, coupled with a highside, and his result doesn't look so bad. Of course you will always have Pink’s lap dogs like Migs of the world blinded by hate unable to make any fair assessment of an event involving Hayden. It would be equivalent in thinking that Peders had a subpar performance and not factoring in his injury. But for the simple minded member you can look at it this way, it was a drag to the line with the heir apparent. During testing, Hayden managed to be 5th fastest, so he was showing some improvement with the bike. You can't blame the guy for having an engine blow and sensors out of whack, a clutch malfunction, then legitimately putting it all on sub par performance saying he, the man, was sub par and you be taken seriously. So all things considered, his showing was fair, but still a long road ahead.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jumkie @ Apr 14 2009, 09:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Edwards may have his best year to date. Excellent 4th.

Excellent post....agree about Colin, having spent the last decade as the resident mascot at Clermont Ferrand, (a supposed marriage made in heaven) the shot gun wedding to Bridgestone must have left him wondering 'where have you been all my life' Suddenly as a front end rider, he's got some real front end feel and it's going where he wants it to...let's hope that means more regular excursions into parc ferme, 'cause we all love Colin

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fernando_Loris!!! @ Apr 14 2009, 11:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>well hello everyone!

i just got back home from Qatar and WOW what a weekend! For all of you inconvinenced due to TV timings imagine all us fans sitting being drenched in the rain for more than 2 hours and then having to go home with no race. At first noone thought theyd re do it i then heared from someone that Capirossi's manager had confirmed to someone, etc. that they will run the race on monday. This was about 2 hours before it was offcialy announced. Ofcaurse as it was just a rumour i had no idea what the .... was going on and didnt changed my flight. Then at 2 inthe morning confirmation came and i changed my flight and payed the fees. Unfortunatly about 50% of the fans couldnt change the flights. This is due to the fact that the stand was half empty on Monday, where as it was full on Sunday, and there where few to no locals at the race. Organisation of the race is terrible. Our taxi driver didnt know there was a race. For god sakes the head of the Qatar Radio And Television Corporation didnt know there was a race! What. The. .....??! Im from Bahrain. Did anyone notice a red zig zagged flag covering the Australian one during the national anthem?! That was me

Also we went to meet a friend at the Ritz after the GP and I saw JT there. Went up to say hi but he ran right to the lift. I guess he knows he needs to improve. Fast. The atmosphere the day it rained was crazy. You should have been there!

And everyone, as Bahrain is very close to Qatar, I can tell you that my mother, whos memory is well and strong stated the last time it rained like that was in the 1960's. It is unprecedented what happened that day. Anyway iv just spent 4 hours at airports so I will go sleep I will try to give a full report later!
Welcome to the forum mate
Oh, and don't forget the pics too!

Cheers

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Arrabbiata1 @ Apr 14 2009, 01:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Bridgestone must have left him wondering 'where have you been all my life' Suddenly as a front end rider, he's got some real front end feel and it's going where he wants it to
True, that's the impression I got. Did you see how giddy he looked after the race. The man is in love.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fernando_Loris!!! @ Apr 14 2009, 09:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>well hello everyone!

i just got back home from Qatar and WOW what a weekend!

Welcome to the forum friend. Please do tell of your experience of the weekend in great detail. Pics and video welcome.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jumkie @ Apr 15 2009, 06:37 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Hayden had problems all weekend. It was a nightmare practice and qual session, all of which were shortened. I'd say his showing in the race was a combination of lack of performance and and a major lack of mechanical reliability. There is no way we can really gauge what his performance would have been like had his bike stayed together the entire weekend. To lend some perspective, Casey did make a comment in the post race interview regarding the shorter practice time alloted, he said it was difficult to set up the bike and he lacked confidence in the final set up for the race. Now this is coming from the guy who won the race. So now factor this into Hayden's lack of set up time by no fault of his own, coupled with a highside, and his result doesn't look so bad. Of course you will always have Pink’s lap dogs like Migs of the world blinded by hate unable to make any fair assessment of an event involving Hayden. It would be equivalent in thinking that Peders had a subpar performance and not factoring in his injury. But for the simple minded member you can look at it this way, it was a drag to the line with the heir apparent. During testing, Hayden managed to be 5th fastest, so he was showing some improvement with the bike. You can't blame the guy for having an engine blow and sensors out of whack, a clutch malfunction, then legitimately putting it all on sub par performance saying he, the man, was sub par and you be taken seriously. So all things considered, his showing was fair, but still a long road ahead.



I think the 5th fastest lap is the real measure, he got bashed senseless on a highside and had a crap race. Rossi, Stoner, Pedro Lorenzo have all had crap races and it took Jorge months to come back from his highside festival last year.

I'm still prepared to bet that Nicki will be at least a semi consistent top 5 finisher (unlike any other Casey team mate) by the mid season and by the end of the year I'm looking at podiums.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jumkie @ Apr 14 2009, 01:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Peder's words about how life will pay back De Angelis for his "disrespect" was laughable. Perhaps he is right though, maybe this was a little of life paying him back for that torpedo incident in which his teammate had no ill comments toward him. Peders deserves all the .... he gets thrown at him for always managing to show his .... The man has learned nothing about character, even when he had a good example in a teammate of how to professionally treat such incidents.

Amen, Brutha J!

I was thinking about the Toxic Midget's comments today while driving to Phoenix and back.

Pedrosa has finally lost any last shred of respect and benefit of the doubt he enjoyed. What sort of malevolent ....... wishes ill fate on anyone? "Life will pay him back!" he may as well say "I hope you get cancer." We all have moments were we wish various people would eat .... and die, but to say this after-the fact and to the media+world is a reprehensible, truly classless act. I don't care if that sociopath Puig is whispering in his ear 24/7, Dani is 23 and is responsible for his behavior.

Nevermind the raw hypocrisy!
I think most would agree that Puig and Pedrosa have gone out of their way to hurt anyone judged to be a rival. Nicky and Dovi's difficulties are well known. You can probably pin most of the cowardly back-alley backstabbing on Alberto, but DP is a more-than-willing, fully aware, accomplice. The little ...... really thinks his doesn't stink? (I sure as hell don't remember Nicky wishing doom upon the human torpedo back in 2006.)

I'm not sure I really believe in 'karma' as some physical force. As a hard core agnostic, the notion is absurd. Still, I've seen some pretty unlikely things happen to people. DP's continuing spate of injuries seems to be just a little more than bad luck. Mystic voodoo, or mere coincidence, Pedrosa is reaping a bitter harvest - the just rewards for all the poison seeds he's sowed.

We can only hope that Honda comes to it's (limited) senses and sacks the Poison Ps after this year's campaign. Motogp doesn't need people of this character.

Feh...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Andy Roo @ Apr 14 2009, 05:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I'm still prepared to bet that Nicki will be at least a semi consistent top 5 finisher (unlike any other Casey team mate) by the mid season and by the end of the year I'm looking at podiums.
I hope you are right friend. Here is something I found interesting. Not sure what to make of it if anything really. It just seemed interesting to see the disparity between brands alike.

FIM MotoGP World Championship
Losail International Circuit
Doha, Qatar
April 13, 2009
Warm-Up Top Speeds LINK (all on Bridgestone tires):

1. Mika Kallio (Ducati), 205.1 mph
2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda), 205.0 mph
3. Casey Stoner (Ducati), 204.7 mph
4. Toni Elias (Honda), 203.7 mph
5. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), 203.1 mph
6. Marco Melandri (Kawasaki), 202.7 mph
7. Sete Gibernau (Ducati), 202.5 mph
8. Alex De Angelis (Honda), 202.4 mph
9. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), 202.1 mph
10. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda), 201.4 mph
11. Nicky Hayden (Ducati), 201.3 mph
12. Colin Edwards (Yamaha), 201.0 mph
13. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki), 200.9 mph
14. James Toseland (Yamaha), 200.0 mph
15. Niccolo Canepa (Ducati), 199.8 mph
16. Yuki Takahashi (Honda), 199.0 mph
17. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), 198.3 mph
18. Randy De Puniet (Honda), 197.0 mph

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Geonerd @ Apr 14 2009, 05:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Pedrosa has finally lost any last shred of respect and benefit of the doubt he enjoyed. What sort of malevolent ....... wishes ill fate on anyone? "Life will pay him back!" he may as well say "I hope you get cancer." We all have moments were we wish various people would eat .... and die, but to say this after-the fact and to the media+world is a reprehensible, truly classless act. I don't care if that sociopath Puig is whispering in his ear 24/7, Dani is 23 and is responsible for his behavior.

Nevermind the raw hypocrisy!
I think most would agree that Puig and Pedrosa have gone out of their way to hurt anyone judged to be a rival. Nicky and Dovi's difficulties are well known. You can probably pin most of the cowardly back-alley backstabbing on Alberto, but DP is a more-than-willing, fully aware, accomplice. The little ...... really thinks his doesn't stink? (I sure as hell don't remember Nicky wishing doom upon the human torpedo back in 2006.)

Well said. I actually felt a bit sorry for the guy because you could see he was riding around clearly not at his best, but then he had to stomp out any good will by making those comments.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (johnny @ Apr 14 2009, 06:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Barry just put his answer to this on youtube check it out. Its pretty amazing really
<object width="425" height="350<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uCwDtUOL_Js&feature=PlayList&p=387923044391A279&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=54</param><param name="wmode" value="transparent</param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uCwDtUOL_Js&feature=PlayList&p=387923044391A279&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=54" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350</embed></object>
I know it's hardly entertaining reading for you guys with me guessing about things i don't really know.It's just that i find these tech things so damned interresting.It's part of why i watch Moto GP in the first place.I'll try to keep it to a minimum
Sorry

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jumkie @ Apr 15 2009, 05:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I hope you are right friend. Here is something I found interesting. Not sure what to make of it if anything really. It just seemed interesting to see the disparity between brands alike.

FIM MotoGP World Championship
Losail International Circuit
Doha, Qatar
April 13, 2009
Warm-Up Top Speeds LINK (all on Bridgestone tires):

1. Mika Kallio (Ducati), 205.1 mph
2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda), 205.0 mph
3. Casey Stoner (Ducati), 204.7 mph
4. Toni Elias (Honda), 203.7 mph
5. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), 203.1 mph
6. Marco Melandri (Kawasaki), 202.7 mph
7. Sete Gibernau (Ducati), 202.5 mph
8. Alex De Angelis (Honda), 202.4 mph
9. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), 202.1 mph
10. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda), 201.4 mph
11. Nicky Hayden (Ducati), 201.3 mph
12. Colin Edwards (Yamaha), 201.0 mph
13. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki), 200.9 mph
14. James Toseland (Yamaha), 200.0 mph
15. Niccolo Canepa (Ducati), 199.8 mph
16. Yuki Takahashi (Honda), 199.0 mph
17. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), 198.3 mph
18. Randy De Puniet (Honda), 197.0 mph
At least partly explainable by his handicap since the genesis of dorna's fabulous pocket-bike formula, his size and weight. I think canepa has actually said he has trouble fitting on the bike even in terms of placing his feet.
I too hope nicky will get there, and he has looked promising at times when he didn't have engine failures or massive highsides and acute tyre scarcity.

oh for .... sakes enough with the size issue. valentino isnt small and he never uses it as an excuse. what about simoncelli winning 250's???

Laws of physics

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fernando_Loris!!! @ Apr 15 2009, 03:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Did anyone notice a red zig zagged flag covering the Australian one during the national anthem?! That was me

Saw that!! I thought it was someone being intentionally artistic ...... looked pretty good .....

I was watching the race again and now I wonder if Rossi seemed a bit "out of sorts", could have been due to the way things went this year at qatar. He has a plan to battle Stoner but it involves getting in front of Stoner at some stage ..... maybe this looks a very much harder task to do this year?

Last year Stoner had to come through the pack. this year he got out in front straight away and just kept Rossi away from him with air. I think this might be Stoner and Ducati's plan for this year, were they can, so we will see more emphasis on quali by Stoner and given its the only way to battle Rossi, Stoner will be running a calculated gap where he can.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BarryMachine @ Apr 15 2009, 11:26 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Saw that!! I thought it was someone being intentionally artistic ...... looked pretty good .....

No! im rubbish at art! Its Bahrain's flag!