Sepang - Predictions, Practice + Qualifications

Geo Nerd said:

Pedrosa is on a Midget Ninja Rampage!

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That made me laugh. Cheers.

Anyone up for FP2?

nothing to predict none event race in none event sport



Eng stream up



ped

dov

sto



top 3 as yet



hopper beating hayden



btw why do the Jap Factories always put some old dead wood on there bikes ? ......s motogp needs a slogan



"May the FARCE be with you"

10 min left in FP2

Casey's setup is moving in the right direction, equaling Pedrobot's FP1.

Pedrobot suffering firmware glitches and has not improved.

Mad Hatter his usual 0.5+ back, and not far ahead of Edwards.

Hopper a fairly useful P13 - hoping for a top 10 Qual.

FAAACK!



Peddles drops the bomb with a 2:01.25

Someone at Yamaha must not like Collie... he shoulda been on Jorge's bike! Peders is FAST today... hope he stays on!

It seems like the practice times of the Ducati are slower than their testing times at the start of the year (unless I am mistaken).

2011 MotoGP Sepang Test Day 1 Results:



1. Casey Stoner (Honda) 2’01.574

2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2’01.977

3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2’02.024

4. Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 2’02.295

5. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 2’02.332

6. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 2’02.422

7. Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 2’02.483

8. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 2’02.507

9. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 2’02.514

10. Randy de Puniet (Ducati) 2’03.152

11. Kousuke Akiyoshi (Honda) 2’03.224

12. Valentino Rossi (Ducati) 2‘:03.365

13. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 2’03.508

14. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 2’03.695

15. Hector Barbera (Ducati) 2’03.767



Despite running 12th after Day 1 Ducati's Valentino Rossi is encouraged about his results and his improved fitness.



Where have we heard that before?





2011 MotoGP Sepang Test Day 2 Results:



1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2:00.770

2. Casey Stoner (Honda) 2:01.434

3. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 2:01.508

4. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 2:01.512

5. Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 2:01.522

6. Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 2:01.534

7. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2:01.563

8. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 2:01.687

9. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 2:01.722

10. Hector Barbera (Ducati) 2:02.093

11. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 2:02.379

12. Randy De Puniet (Ducati) 2:02.426

13. Valentino Rossi (Ducati) 2:02.597

14. Kousuke Akiyoshi (Honda) 2:02.619

15. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) 2:03.032

16. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 2:03.047

17. Karel Abraham (Ducati) 2:03.466

18. Yamaha Test Rider (Yamaha) 2:03.910

19. Toni Elias (Honda) 2:04.026



2011 MotoGP Sepang Test Day 3 Results:

1. Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 2:00.757

2. Casey Stoner (Honda) 2:00.811

3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2:00.845

4. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 2:00.945

5. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 2:01.002

6. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2:01.241

7. Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 2:01.353

8. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 2:01.534

9. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 2:01.651

10. Valentino Rossi (Ducati) 2:01.842

11. Hector Barbera (Ducati) 2:02.030

12. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 2:02.057

13. Randy De Puniet (Ducati) 2:02.159

14. Karel Abraham (Ducati) 2:02.645

15. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) 2:02.717

16. Toni Elias (Honda) 2:02.916

17. Yamaha Test Rider (Yamaha) 2:02.965

18. Kousuke Akiyoshi (Honda) 2:03.452

19. Yamaha Test Rider (Yamaha) 2:03.621

20. Noburu Aoki (Suzuki) 2:04.700



Sepang 2011 FP2 Times....



1. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda 2m 1.250s

2. Casey Stoner AUS Repsol Honda 2m 2.070s

3. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda 2m 2.664s

4. Marco Simoncelli ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 2m 2.823s

5. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini 2m 2.951s

6. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2m 2.991s

7. Alvaro Bautista ESP Rizla Suzuki 2m 3.123s

8. Randy de Puniet FRA Pramac Racing 2m 3.159s

9. Ben Spies USA Yamaha Factory Racing 2m 3.312s

10. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing 2m 3.318s

11. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro 2m 3.445s

12. Loris Capirossi ITA Pramac Racing 2m 3.595s

13. Valentino Rossi ITA Ducati Marlboro 2m 3.677s

14. John Hopkins USA Rizla Suzuki 2m 3.885s

15. Cal Crutchlow GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2m 3.901s

16. Toni Elias ESP LCR Honda 2m 4.071s

17. Hector Barbera ESP Mapfre Aspar 2m 4.603s





Rossi seems to be right where he has been all year.....floundering at the back during qp/fp....



Dont forget Rossi had a bung shoulder at the Sepang test in February....now he can use the pinky excuse instead.

Uhmmm Mr. Squig, you DO realize that the weather, heat and humidity in the Kuala Lumpur area is February is totally different that of October... the results are hardly comparable.

Mick D said:

Uhmmm Mr. Squig, you DO realize that the weather, heat and humidity in the Kuala Lumpur area is February is totally different that of October... the results are hardly comparable.

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Agreed.....I was just posting those times in response to akeizm's question about the earlier Feb tests - in no way was I guaging performance relative to todays FP times as conditions are different and as you correctly point out times are irrelevant.



However, rider postiton in regards to track placings is relevant to Valentino's current 13th place in FP2. In other words not much has changed.

Theres a wee interview on gpone with Rossi, i used google translate but even so, he comes across as rather despondant....things really arent looking good.



On another note, how fast was Dani?! Sure Casey will get it sorted though

spooky said:

Theres a wee interview on gpone with Rossi, i used google translate but even so, he comes across as rather despondant....things really arent looking good.



On another note, how fast was Dani?! Sure Casey will get it sorted though

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Dani has been on the soft hoops all day apparently as opposed to most of the other guys out there - but as we all know he is an exceptionally fast rider and should do well in the race if not win it outright. Casey will probably be his only real challenger with Jorge out.



As far as the Rossi situation goes I think we are seeing the first real cracks begin to emerge now....the fact that JB on last weekends OneHD telecast made some quite pointed remarks regarding "the rider not giving valuable feedback" is telling - he was clearly suggesting that Rossi was simply not doing his job properly. I have never heard him say anything like that about any of his riders previously so it took me by suprise when he made these remarks. The health scare involving his wife would obviously be his top priority at present and I would not be at all suprised to see JB retire in the very near future.



Darryl Beattie also interviewed Rossi about the movie "Faster" and said he got the feeling after talking to him that he was just waiting for this season to end.



I personally cant see Ducati improving enough to be competitve next year but they may suprise again like they did in 2007 with the change of formula. Considering the 1000cc bikes are not fundamentally that different from the 800's I cant imagine a scenario where they are suddenly going to be challenging the technical superiority of Yamaha/Honda who both have very well sorted bikes - with their current riders at the top of their game it will be an uphill battle to be competitive next year - especially seeing how the current GP11.xxxx incarnations have gone backwards or at the very least sideways in development this year.

Mick D said:

Uhmmm Mr. Squig, you DO realize that the weather, heat and humidity in the Kuala Lumpur area is February is totally different that of October... the results are hardly comparable.

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Hmmm, but relative to other riders nothing has changed, as the differences in climate are imposed upon all riders and machinery equally. No?

Mr Squiggle said:

As far as the Rossi situation goes I think we are seeing the first real cracks begin to emerge now....the fact that JB on last weekends OneHD telecast made some quite pointed remarks regarding "the rider not giving valuable feedback" is telling - he was clearly suggesting that Rossi was simply not doing his job properly. I have never heard him say anything like that about any of his riders previously so it took me by suprise when he made these remarks. The health scare involving his wife would obviously be his top priority at present and I would not be at all suprised to see JB retire in the very near future.

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I heard that too and it only supports my otherwise totally unsupported theory that JB is headed back to Repsol Honda with a young Mr Stoner.



Just the vibe of the thing











I also wonder what JB's opinion really was (PR verbatim regurgitation aside) about the switch to Ducati?

What makes you think Casey would ditch anyone in his crew for jb

Andy Roo said:

I heard that too and it only supports my otherwise totally unsupported theory that JB is headed back to Repsol Honda with a young Mr Stoner.



Just the vibe of the thing











I also wonder what JB's opinion really was (PR verbatim regurgitation aside) about the switch to Ducati?

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hawkdriver said:

What makes you think Casey would ditch anyone in his crew for jb

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Man has been behind more championships than anyone else



"Stealing" him back would be a moral victory for Honda after Rossi's acrimonious departure in (2002/2003? correct me if I'm wrong - not using google)



It would be a loss for Rossi and Ducati, after all they are making a twin spar deltabox style Ducati now, they need the experience (The DuHonAya)



I don't have the evidence, it's just "the vibe of the thing".



Honestly I have no evidence but a collection of snippets and statements I cannot be bothered researching to make weak evidence for a theory of mine. The vibe, I'm telling you.

Nah, CG is Stoners JB and they are pretty close CS and CG ( and probably the rest f the crew ).



And to be honest I think CG is actually better at the job these days.

I dont think Stoner would have JB, sure i've read comments the JB has made about Stoner that arent too disimilar to the comments Rossi himself has made.



As for Rossi....he's ....... I remember thinking after the 2nd round 'ok, its taking time but he'll get there', now its obvious that he'll never get there...unless Ducati redesign bike. Sad times, he may have made his bed but this isnt justifiable IMO. He's better than this.

spooky said:

He's better than this.

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How? He hasn't changed his skill set has he? His skill set was never as rich as Stoners. Rossi is riding as he always did, its just so happens the Ducati needs more.

Also on Stoner and Gabarini ........ don't forget that they are the winningest combination since they have been on GP ...... not just 800's.