MotoGP 2017

[J.A.W.]

Meanwhile at Le Mans..
FP has been held in wet conditions, FP1 was topped by Jack Miller, & FP2 by Andrea Dovizioso, with M.M. 2nd in both..
Weather is expected to settle back to dry conditions for Q, & racing..

[Andres125sx]

OMG what a crash!

Luckily Miller didn´t suffer any mayor problem, but when you look at the crash it´s shocking


I wonder if tarmac in that zone could have prevented this accident

[J.A.W.]

Miller is still able to race, nothing broken, just bruising, amazingly enough.

Yamaha guys have snared the front row in 'fluky' Q conditions, with the factory team joined by Zarco for his home G.P..

[f1316]

Miller is still able to race, nothing broken, just bruising, amazingly enough.

Yamaha guys have snared the front row in 'fluky' Q conditions, with the factory team joined by Zarco for his home G.P..

I didn't see qualifying - why flukey?

I was going to say that it seems encouraging for Rossi if he has now found genuine speed - and somehow come out of his rough period with the championship lead - but if there strange conditions in quali then perhaps that's premature.

[J.A.W.]

Q was "Flukey" due to not much dry lap time, ( best lap was ~ a second slower than the record best) & Michelin's
ongoing tyre concerns.. & Lorenzo got caught up in the 'head games' over both.. & showed how brittle he is..

( esp' with regard to his haughty over-personalised misrepresentation of Miller's use of a vulgar, but common term,
"Opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one' - & which Lorenzo took it to mean Miller was calling him - an arsehole,
so that Lorenzo got all 'cognitive dissonance' upset & reacted angrily, since he is known to be slow - in such conditions.)

[J.A.W.]

A strange race.. the 3 Yamahas on the front row all took turns at leading, & it made for a fairly
processional race while many machines failed behind them..

Dani Pedrosa made his way through from 13th on the grid to close up on his team mate M.M. in 4th,
when M.M. lost the front ( for the 3rd time this weekend - in the same corner). & D.P. chilled out some..

V.R. made his bid for victory by muscling past his team mate to lead in the final couple of laps, but then
undid his good work by tossing it down the road too, in dramatic, ( but not injurious) fashion.. so..

1, M.V.; 2. J.Z.; 3, D.P...

The factory Ducatis were unable to make much impression, ( while their 2nd string bikes failed en mass),
& nor did the Suzukis do anything..

[F1NAC]

Rossi's hopes slid in that corner for championship

[seventhsin]

Haha, Miller, representing the Aussies! Good to see our boy make the top ten and maintaining our stereotypes
Very happy for Zarco to be able to take place on the dais. In front of 100,000+ of his countrymen, congratulations! Deserved too, after some impressive finishes so far this season and again today, taking a conservative tyre choice but making it work, there were doubts he could keep the tyres there in the end.
Devastated for Rossi to have made a blunder in the final lap, very uncharacteristic but maybe shows the pressure mounted on him over the last few seasons, there is fight in the old dog left yet! It'd be a fairytale to see VR secure a final world title before his retirement, he is truly one of the greats, if not the greatest.
Vinales is shaping up to be the title favourite, does this show the Yamaha has made the step forward over Honda for 2017, or is Vinales truly gifted and making most of the Movistar Yamaha package? (see Lorenzos results and Marquez step back in dominance, how would Zarco perform on a Movistar Yamaha?)
All in all a classic race, unpredictable even on the final lap, the tension was palpable and a great podium finish for the French Fighter Zarco!

Oh and if anyone caught the restarted Moto3 race, I chewed all my fingernails off praying for Darryn Binder to take a podium, he also DNF'd on the final lap.

[f1316]

So now Vinales, Marquez and Rossi have all tossed it away once.

I get the feeling that it's in these kinds of things that we see the effect of Rossi's age: others are also doing it, sure, but there were a couple of races last year and this one today where he's made a mistake when in a promising position - the Rossi of 10 years ago would never have done that, perhaps because at this age he's having to stretch himself that much more to keep up with the young guys. Bit like some of Schumi's errors during his comeback years - one of which cost him the Monaco GP.

[J.A.W.]

Excellent effort by Team Ducati at Mugello, Dovi kept M.V. off the top step of the victory box..
& Petrucci did likewise to V.R. for 3rd..

1/2 the top ten finishers were Ducati riders, with that ~10 km/h top speed advantage ( to ~350) really working..
M.M. was the sole Honda to make the 10 best ( in 6th), & D.P. took out out C.C. late in the race, in a rare crash..

The 1st few laps were an exciting tussle, with many lead changes ( inc' Lorenzo), but A.D. then made the race his..

[J.A.W.]

Back in Spain for Catalunya, & Honda seems to have featured some improvements, ( though the track hasn't!)
with M.M. topping FP from J.L., & only marginally down on top-speed versus the Ducati, @ 340+ km/h..

[Andres125sx]

Back in Spain for Catalunya, & Honda seems to have featured some improvements, ( though the track hasn't!)

What do you mean?




Yesterday I watched LeMans race as I recorded it and didn´t have the time to watch it yet. Amazing that Zarco finsihed the race while Marquez and Rossi crashed. I think Yamaha had put some pressure on them for the 500 victory for the brand, because I can´t remind last crash from Rossi on last lap. Ok he was trying to recover from a mistake wich did cost him the lead some turns back, but even so he doesn´t make those mistakes usually

Great race for Viñales and Zarco

[J.A.W.]

Yamaha factory riders have been unable to find 'grip' on the track, & the surface is 'difficult' ( slippery/bumpy..

So to Q.. Dani snared pole, & Jorge got 2nd spot, from fellow Ducati man Petrucci, & M.M. in 4th ( after 4 crashes!)..

M.V. is 9th, with Rossi 13th..

[J.A.W.]

Dani took the hole-shot, only to relinquish the lead to Jorge..
..'til he ran out of grip, & had to cool it.. so Dovi took up the challenge..
Dovi took the lead from Dani, & M.M. followed into 2nd.. ( after crashing 5 times in prep!)..
So again A.D. takes the win, with splendid tyre control.. from M.M... D.P.... & Jorge - backing up in 4th..

& hilariously L.Jarvis was wearing big dark glasses - with his factory riders finishing back in 8th ( V.R.) & 10th (M.V.)..

[J.A.W.]

Excellent race at the Dutch TT/Assen.

Zarco zapped into the race lead from pole, on his soft tyre selection & kept all challengers at bay for 10 laps..

Wily ol' guile was fully applied by Rossi to take the lead, & apart from momentary passes by a hard-riding Petrucci..
Rossi stayed in front 'til race finish - for a welcome win - by the veteran.. & his 'squeeze' - who pashed him up bigtime..

Dramas aplenty with M.M. saving an incredible front end slide - by the 'skin' of his elbow, (& he still got a podium spot)..
& Vinales losing his rear grip.. so crashing out of his lead position in the Championship, a spot gained by Dovi,by finishing 5th!

A declared wet race added to the spectacle in the latter stages, but did not affect final podium placings muchly..
So Rossi 1; from Petrucci; M.M. in 3rd; & with Cal Crutchlow just denied a spot on the box - in a final flurry of dicing..

Last year's wet race winner Jack Miller made 6th, behind Dovi, after making up places in the 'declared wet' final laps..