[VLOCT]

Dani wins convincingly. He and the bike are blindingly fast nowadays. Jorge better start putting some real pressure on Dani otherwise, his championship lead will begin to vanish pretty soon especially if he doesn't end up on the podium in the coming races. Spies does ok finishing at sixth from 10 position. Horrendous start for him. In his pre-race interview, he said his goal is to finish in the top seven in the championship. Should be doable.

[Sheel]

I want Ben Spies to be ahead of Andrea Dovi in Championships standings.

Was busy watching WSBK on ESPN & just flipped to see what Toni & gang are doing & at the same moment saw this horrendous crash, didn't have the heart to watch further. RIP Tomi:(

[KRRaj]

That was a nasty crash and was shocked at the Marshals dropping Tomi as well. RIP Tomi :( , a promising talent nipped in the bud.

[hiren.mistry]

Originally Posted by Sheel

I want Ben Spies to be ahead of Andrea Dovi in Championships standings.

Was busy watching WSBK on ESPN & just flipped to see what Toni & gang are doing & at the same moment saw this horrendous crash, didn't have the heart to watch further. RIP Tomi:(

It was a horrific crash, looked ugly right at the outset.
RIP Tomi, its been a particularly bad 7 days for road racing with Pete Lenz at Indianapolis and Shoya Tomizawa at Misano.

My deepest condolences to their friends and families.

[Mpower]

Happy to see Dani realising his true potential and showing Lorenzo that he is not invincible.

Otherwise, a sad day for the sport with 2 back to back fatalities. Time to revamp the safety requirements.

Originally Posted by Mpower

I'm not undermining his achievement at all. (see my point2) I am just reasoning why suddenly the Euro riders were not able to keep up with him. You will know what I mean when the party heads back to Europe.

Hmm...I guess I was right.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Hmm...I guess I was right.

Euro guys on Factory Support Motorcycles would be a more apt term.

[VLOCT]

The fact that rookie Spies is 6th overall ahead of Ducati factory team rider Hayden and both the Rizla Suzuki factory riders on non-factory Yamaha is tremendous. I'm not sure when this was done last by a rookie. By his own word, being in top seven at the end of the season would be a fantastic achievement.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Euro guys on Factory Support Motorcycles would be a more apt term.

Same guys, same bikes, same crew, same support, even the same spanner and screwdriver is used on every single race and is flown from track to track.

Any other pearls of wisdom you would like to share with us?

[VLOCT]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Same guys, same bikes, same crew, same support, even the same spanner and screwdriver is used on every single race and is flown from track to track.

If that's all that mattered, then we wouldn't have different winners now, would we? It's setup, start, grid position, tyres and a zillion little things but most importantly, mental toughness that'll matter in the end. This is in addition to the bike itself. Skill wise, I think there is little to choose between the riders since, they're the best in the world to begin with.

It's pretty clear now that the fastest bike is the Honda and has been for a while. The only question is if Dani can hold it together under relentless pressure. If you let him get away, you can forget about catching him, not Rossi, not Lorenzo not anyone else with current bike he has. Yamaha better shape up. They're the only team that has the bike to catch him. But I'm not at all convinced about Lorenzo. Dani passed him in the last race as if he was standing still and Lorenzo never fought back. I noticed this last year also, his tendency to relent or decide that he cannot challenge. Rossi took him to task on many occasions last year. Rossi would never give up if he smells even the slightest whiff of a chance. Not impressed at all.

No wonder Yamaha is interested in Spies. They recognize a fighter when they see one.

As for Stoner, I'm glad that Rossi called him out when he said that Stoner is not riding to the full potential of the bike. That Duc is far more capable than what he's getting out of it. Stoner has dropped like a stone in my respect for him as a great rider due to his attitude.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Same guys, same bikes, same crew, same support, even the same spanner and screwdriver is used on every single race and is flown from track to track.

Any other pearls of wisdom you would like to share with us?

Results & Statistics | The Official MotoGP Website

Except the top factory support team, none can even come close to Spies.

Lets respect the man and salute of what he is capable of, no one wins a WSBK championship in his rookie season and that too coming from a feeder series. I don't see Stoner/Dani/Andrea winning championships if they debut in WSBK in their rookie season.
How many are given factory rides in their second year and replace an 8 time world champion?

Marco Melandri/R Dp/Toni Elias can anyday spoil anyone's party if they are on full factory support,
what I am saying is to achieve this much with an inferior Motorcycle is more than super human.

I don't know what would be in store for 2011 and for me the Moto GP 2010 championship is already over

^^If this discussion is irrelevant or not in sync with this head, please give a heads-up

[VLOCT]

Stoner finally shows up and sure enough Jorge settles after getting to the second place. Hayden did some racing finally and a great third place finish for him. Great to see Spies hold off Dovisiozo. Fun race to watch.

[KRRaj]

I was jumping when Hayden finally made the move on Lorenzo. All 29 laps he was behind and I was getting impatient. Spies was very good holding off Dovisiozo, but I believe any other rider on that Honda could have passed Spies.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by KRRaj

but I believe any other rider on that Honda could have passed Spies.

Andrea had already overtaken Spies, courtesy--Factory bike's top end.
Spies got better off him in the braking department and better racing lines.(on a satellite team=an inferior Motorcycle esp compared to the Honda RCV)

[KRRaj]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Andrea had already overtaken Spies, courtesy--Factory bike's top end.
Spies got better off him in the braking department and better racing lines.(on a satellite team=an inferior Motorcycle esp compared to the Honda RCV)

Well, I will modify what I meant. Any other driver I believe would have passed Spies and made it stick Somehow Dovisiozo seems to be too much error prone.

[RacingForIndia]

Originally Posted by VLOCT

Dani wins convincingly. He and the bike are blindingly fast nowadays. Jorge better start putting some real pressure on Dani otherwise, his championship lead will begin to vanish pretty soon especially if he doesn't end up on the podium in the coming races. Spies does ok finishing at sixth from 10 position. Horrendous start for him. In his pre-race interview, he said his goal is to finish in the top seven in the championship. Should be doable.

Though I'd love a honda to win the championship this year I think its Yamahas to loose really.
Jorge is doing a good job of hanging on in there.