MotoGP Blog

It was not a thriller, this Dutch TT, but it was a landmark race for a certain Valentino Rossi. His hundredth win, ridden from the front was uncharacteristic of many of his other victories where he seemed to play cat and mouse with the opposition. Such is the close battle this year that there were no games. It was head down, arse up and ride at 100% for the duration of the race.

A poor start did for Lorenzo. He kept his composure to minimise the damage by fighting his way past determined Hondas and a Ducati, but he was never able to match Rossi for pace. An ill Stoner and disappointed Edwards followed in 3rd and 4th, with a season-best for Vermeulen in 5th.

The Hondas both fell at the same corner, in the same way: a front-end wash-out. The revised chassis available to the Repsol riders seems not to be working with the Bridgestones as yet. It is now 12 months since Honda last won a race, and this is not something that HRC will be happy to tolerate, made worse by the double DNF.

Beyond this, the race was for 6th, with Toseland, Capirossi, de Puniet, Kallio, Hayden and Elias in a race-long joust for the points. Toseland would lead the scrap for most of the race, with Mika gaining a brief advantage occasionally. On the final lap, Kallio would fall, and Capirossi and Elias would make their play for 6th. The final chicane would see Elias run hot into it, forcing his bike and Capirex onto the gravel, allowing JT and de Puniet to pounce and gain the spoils. It was a race-long battle as intriguing as most, with that final chicane again throwing up surprises for the race finish. Happiest of all of these riders will be Nicky Hayden, for once controlling a bike which allowed him to express some portion of his talent.

MotoGPBlog Man of the Weekend: Valentino Rossi, of course. The Centenary Man.

Great news! Enter the Laguna Seca round of the Tipping Contest to have a chance of winning a copy of Ring of Fire, The Inside Story of MotoGP by Rick Broadbent, which I have reviewed previously.

Prizes will be awarded as follows:
Top three scorers for the round (not overall) will win a copy of Ring of Fire.
The most inventive Minella entry in MotoGPBlog’s opinion will also win a copy.

In the event of a tie in scoring for the round, position in the overall championship standings will be used to determine the winners - the higher placed entrant getting the prize.

Get thinking of those Minellas now!

There’s a lot of love for Edwards this weekend in the Assen tipping contest round. Some even suggesting a podium for the Texan. Hmm, could he?

I also need to mention @jeffritter955 with an awesome 21 point Minella, predicting the top ten placings. Brave man. @pintoffuc is also up there as usual with a six-parter, 18 pointer.

Other than that, Dani is conspicuously absent from the picks, with Dovi being the Honda of choice. Speaking of choice, what is your pick? Enter via twitter, and check the rules.

To call this an analysis of the race is a bit rich. I’ll focus on the end game, for that is where the drama lies.

From the off, five riders were in the hunt for the podium: Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner, Pedrosa and Dovizioso. The speed of Pedrosa was amazing, given the pain and medication he is currently in and on, his tumble in QP not helping his recover at all. His challenge for the front positions was to fade as the race progressed, as tiredness grew and drugs wore off. He would finish a creditable 6th.

Another man suffering was Casey Stoner, starting the day ill with cramps in his legs and back. He would battle race-long with Dovizioso and win out over the young Italian, but pay the price in exhaustion. Barely able to stand in the winners enclosure, his third place was a testament to the Australian’s tough and uncompromising character. He gave his all.

Up at the front, it was all about Rossi and Lorenzo. Laps one to three, Lorenzo lead. Laps four to twelve we Rossi’s, and thirteen to 22 were Lorenzo’s. Whoever was in front pushed hard, evidenced by the dangling legs of both riders on corner entry. When trailing, both riders seemed more composed and able to keep the pace of the leader. As a result, neither could escape and the gap was seldom above a quarter of a second.

Rossi, having watched Lorenzo for nine laps, made his move to break Jorge in the midst of lap 23. It was almost like vintage Rossi, playing with his opponent before executing a carefully planned, devastating overtaking manoeuvre to dispatch his opponent once and for all. Rossi made his pass on the start/finish straight, drafting past Lorenzo and leaving his braking very late. JL kept his head and a tighter line, soon closing the small gap Valentino had opened. He would be in Rossi’s slipstream for the straight, passing him on the inside after the line so the stats. show Rossi leading the lap. Lorenzo then moved back to the racing line in the braking zone for turn 1, only to have Rossi outbrake him right on the outside. So far out to the edge of the track was Rossi that was out on the rumblestrip and had to pull in his knee to get through on Lorenzo, see the first picture in this post. It was a high-risk pass, and he looked to have run wide, but somehow between his Yamaha’s front set-up and the Bridgestone front, he forced the bike around the right-hander. Lorenzo continued to hunt him down, remaining calm and close. Half-way through the lap and Rossi appeared to brake test Lorenzo to unsettle him two corners from the back straight, and gain enough of a lead to prevent the draught-pass. It did not work.

The Last Lap
It will probably be the lap of the season. It will be long remembered as a classic, clean contest between two riders at the top of their game.

Lorenzo passed Rossi on the straight, again after the start-finish line and this time did not allow Rossi the room for his cheeky knee-in move. They were side-by-side through turn 1, Rossi trying to hold position for the inside of turn 2. Lorenzo reads this and slams the door shut, forcing Rossi to back off and gaining a valuable tenth. Through turn 3 now, and Lorenzo remains composed, although his body language on the bike shows the effort he is putting in. Hanging off the bike so much his head is level and almost below his throttle hand on the right-hander, there is not doubt he is at 100%.

Turn 4 and Rossi stuffs it up the inside in a classic block-pass manoeuvre, but success is short-lived. Before the corner is over, VR has run wide and Lorenzo needs no second invite to swing back inside to regain the lead.

Lorenzo makes his Yamaha as wide as he can, and through turns 5 to 9 there is nothing Rossi can do. Now onto the short back straight to turn 10 and Lorenzo takes a very defensive inside line into the achingly long turn 10. Rossi is forced wide and again has to concede the corner to Lorenzo.

The lap is fast reaching it’s conclusion, with just turns 11, 12 and 13 remaining. Lorenzo holds his line in 11 and 12, and leads onto the minuscule straight joining 12 to 13. He maintains the racing line, brakes and tips it in. “Nobody passes here,” he must have said to himself “I have this won” only to have Rossi fly past on the inside in a crazy move that was, to all intents and purposes, win it or bin it. That Yamaha front end worked again well, for although Rossi’s corner speed was slower than Lorenzo, who almost collided with Rossi at the apex, he was baulked sufficiently to cause a momentary hesitation and win the race by less than a 1/100th of a second.

Fantastic racing, fantastic skill, and a fantastic spectacle. Rossi has a challenger in Lorenzo who will not be easily cowed and has comparable skill and machinery. A statistic bandied about before the race was that Rossi has been beaten by his team mate 12 times in the MotoGP class. Six of these have been by Lorenzo. True, for many of Rossi’s races his team mate was Edwards, who you could say was fairly unlikely to challenge Valentino in this way. With Lorenzo, Yamaha have a second, strong championship challenger who is not there to make Valentino look good. Ducati must be very jealous.

Jorge unveils a new livery for Catalunya, celebrating his club’s Champion’s League victory.

Special Correspondent Dave Minella covers Mugello for MotoGPBlog this week. You can contact Dave on Twitter (@DaveMinella) and also on his blog, Cranial Ooze. Thanks very much Dave, and over to you…

As if to help silence the critics who’ve begun to cast off Grand Prix motorcycle racing as a boring spectacle, Mother Nature has decided to step in this season to add a little bit of excitement to the grid. The rain-drenched first race at Losail was a harbinger of what the weather was to bring to the other tracks at least during the first half of the MotoGP season, and the Le Mans debacle gave us a reason to scratch our heads at the lack of options the teams were given from the back of the Bridgestone truck. Although, for many teams and riders, the French Grand Prix was a demonstration of what not to do during a changing-condition, flag-to-flag race, it seems to have served as a valuable lesson in how to race in wet-to-dry conditions. The entire field seems to have brought those lessons with them to Mugello, and this stop on the MotoGP calendar was anything but boring.

Jorge Lorenzo was the first near-casualty of the early portion of the race as he went down in turn two of the sighting lap. He barely had time to switch bikes, and when he took his position on the grid, he was still covered in fresh dirt. New bike, new tires and a few bumps and bruises all contributed to a horrible start, and he was unable to gain traction when the red lights went off, quickly going backwards from pole position. In what would be another of the afternoon’s surprises, Randy De Puniet briefly took the hole shot before being passed by several riders, including Rizla Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen who charged from the 11th spot to take the lead. The Repsol Hondas fought hard for second, as Lorenzo found himself way back in the pack, trying to play catch up.

Marco Melandri was once again out to prove he could ride the Hayate as he quickly began to move up from 15th. After four laps in front, Vermeulen couldn’t hang on as the track began to dry and lost positions to both Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso. With 20 laps remaining, Lorenzo found the throttle as he set the fastest lap with Melandri all over his rear tire. On the same lap, Stoner lost the battle for the lead to a hard-charging Dovizioso.

Lap five would find the first rider in the pits as James Toseland came in for a tire change. The early switch would pay off as JT heated the new slicks up quickly and began to make his way back up through the field. Melandri wouldn’t let the Spaniard on the Fiat Yamaha go without a fight, as #33 and #99 knocked each other around the corners. With 18 to go, Vermeulen’s shimmer of glory in what may very well be his last season in MotoGP began to fade just as Valentino Rossi began to make his move. By lap six, Rossi had moved into the second spot while Melandri found himself in sixth position and would soon make quick work of Casey Stoner to move into third behind the #46 and #4 machines. Pramac Ducati’s Nicolo Canepa was the second rider to switch bikes as he came in on lap seven. Hayden & De Puniet followed suit on lap eight.

With 16 to go, the top three were Rossi, Dovizioso and Melandri. Melandri passed Dovi on the next lap, and the Repsol rider subsequently peeled off for a bike change. Pedrosa, Capirossi, Edwards and De Angelis came in as well on lap nine. With 14 to go, Alex De Angelis put his Honda down in the gravel as Melandri took the lead from Rossi. One lap later, Melandri, Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner and Elias came in putting an end to Melandri hopes for a victory and even a podium finish.

Once back on the track, the #33 Hayate began to fade fast just as Toseland was setting the field’s fastest lap times. Dovi took the lead on lap 11, and at the halfway point, Melandri was already back to the sixth spot. Yuki Takahashi took this opportunity to exit the race as he also decided to introduce the shiny side of his Honda to the asphalt. With 11 to go, Dani Pedrosa went down hard as Stoner and then Capirossi edged out Dovi for the one and two spots. Two laps later, Capirex took the lead from the Australian and held it for the next two trips around the circuit, but it just wasn’t to be as the Italian veteran lost a spot to Stoner, then Lorenzo, then Rossi and, finally, a last-lap pass by fellow Italian, Andrea Dovizioso, knocked the Suzuki off the podium. Ducati rider Casey Stoner led Lorenzo and Rossi past the checkered flag giving Ducati its first Mugello win in the 800cc era and giving Valentino Rossi his first loss at the track since he crashed out with two laps remaining in 2001.

The final results for Mugello are as follows:

1 27 Casey Stoner, Ducati
2 99 Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha
3 46 Valentino Rossi, Yamaha
4 4 Andrea Dovizioso, Honda
5 65 Loris Capirossi, Suzuki
6 5 Colin Edwards, Yamaha
7 52 James Toseland, Yamaha
8 14 Randy De Puniet, Honda
9 88 Nicolo Canepa, Ducati
10 7 Chris Vermeulen, Suzuki
11 33 Marco Melandri, Hayate (Kawasaki)
12 69 Nicky Hayden Ducati
13 36 Mika Kallio, Ducati
14 24 Toni Elias, Honda
15 15 Alex De Angeles, Honda
Not Classified
3 Dani Pedrosa, Honda
72 Yuki Takahashi, Honda

It’s difficult to judge who was deserving of the rider of the weekend honors, as there were more than a few moments of glory from riders on every type of machine. Of course, Loris Capirossi showed that he still has some fight left in him as he brilliantly held off charges from the series leaders. Perhaps age or perhaps the under-performing Suzuki is to blame for his late-race fade to fifth. James Toseland deserves a nod for his run from 15th to seventh, and even Randy De Puniet’s eight place finish should be looked at as the Frenchman seems to have forgotten how to crash this season, and currently finds himself in the top 10 in points. Melandri’s charge to the front was spectacular, and had the conditions remained wet, there’s no telling what would have happened with him as well as with Vermeulen. But, the MotoGPBlog Man of the Weekend award for Mugello goes to Jorge Lorenzo who came back from a sighting-lap crash and a horrible launch to regain second place. My black eye for the weekend goes to Ducati, which managed to take away Rossi’s Mugello crown, but once again only barely managed to keep another machine in the top 10.

Next up is Catalunya, where Dani Pedrosa shined last year. Casey Stoner, Loris Capirossi and Valentino Rossi have both stood atop the GP podium, but Jorge Lorenzo, Marco Melandri, Randy De Puniet and Andrea Dovizioso have won there on 250s. The weather shouldn’t play a role in Northern Spain, but with the way this season has started out, nothing is guaranteed.

Contest results for the Mugello round are now in, and it was another lean month for tipsters. Only two Minellas came good, @ScottFriday (Capirossi 5th) and @NomadRip (Pedrosa crashes) - well done to both.

Our current top two (@DaveMinella and @rumblestrip) scored a big, fat zero so the gap has closed at the top of the overall standings to just 8 points, 3rd to 6th putting pressure on the leaders.

Picks for Catalunya are being accepted from the 7th June, so start your research now! We’re going to have some prizes for round winners in July - watch this space for more news.

A damp warm-up threw the cat amongst the pigeons on Sunday morning. Heavy showers are forecast for the day - whether these will influence the race remains to be seen.

The Ducati factory riders looked strong - Hayden managing 6th and Stoner taking the top, perhaps a softer fuel map helping Nicky find his rhythm. Interestingly, both Stoner and Canepa had massive rear-end slides at the same corner when on the power. It looked to my eye as though the anti-wheelspin technology on the Ducati was not working as expected. When the Ducati throttle was opened, full power was provided, resulting in the rear wet tyre spinning up and trying to overtake the front. Neither rider fell, but both had heart-in-mouth moments. The identical nature of the incidents would seem to suggest Ducati have some software updates to apply before this afternoon.

Both the Suzukis looked good - Vermeulen liking the damp stuff and Capirossi maintaining his strong form from qualifying. Melandri also looked at home - another podium in the pipeline for Marco?

Rossi was there or there abouts - perhaps not wanting to compromise his dry set-up and banking on a dry race this afternoon. Lorenzo had a miserable time - but again perhaps gambling in the race being dry. Was this the case for Dovizioso and the injured Pedrosa? de Puniet showed no fear as usual, the top Honda for much of the race.

If it rains, it’s likely to be the usual lottery. Rossi chose a losing ticket in Le Mans - will this be a winner for him?

Ducati have so much right about their MotoGP efforts. They have a championship-winning bike, they are at the front of the technology wars in terms of electronics, fuel management, traction control, and have made a success of the desmodronic valve actuation system. This year even the frame of the GP9 is revolutionary - a tiny carbon-fibre airbox doubling as the frame to which the headstock is bolted, and a new carbon-fibre swing-arm providing just the right amount of flexibility and strength.

How is it then, that only Casey Stoner can ride it? In 2008, Stoner was routinely on the front row and podium, fighting the Yamahas and Hondas for the win. Melandri had a very different experience. Trailing most of the field and occasionally the satellite Ducatis, Marco had the season from hell, well documented in the press and on this blog, he was unable to gel with the bike on any level. Now in 2009, with Hayden in the saddle of the factory Ducati, a similar story is playing out. Hayden and the satellites are in the bottom half of the results table each race weekend, while Stoner fights it out with Lorenzo, Rossi and Pedrosa for the championship lead.

A number of factors contribute to Stoner’s success on the Ducati above and beyond his prodigious talent. These same factors make it difficult for other riders to emulate his success. The factors are: Stoner’s style of riding, the Bridgestone rubber on the Ducati, and the clever on-board electronics.

Stoner’s Style
Casey is used to a bike moving about underneath him. His very early races were dirt-tracking in Western Australia in a similar manner to other notable Aussie racers. Coming through the UK and Spanish national 125cc race scene, he was picked up by Puig and joing the MotoGP circus in the 125cc class. His small, wiry frame suited the small bikes and his determination and focus saw him advance through the classes, despite a reputation for being unable to handle worn tyres and for crashing, often from podium positions in the race. A raw and untempered talent, his crashes were almost always as a result of pushing the front when in a battle with other riders. Casey leans a lot on the front tyre, braking later and harder then most. Often his corner entry will involve him approaching the apex, still braking and leaning the bike in. Crucially, on the exit to corners, he’s happy to open the throttle early and let the back end sort itself out. His style suits the Bridgestone front, and the properties of this tyre has helped to quell his reputation of being a crasher and allowed him to develop awesome consistency.

The Bridgestone Front
Bridgestone brought a different approach to tyre manufacture to the MotoGP party, tacking the problem of providing grip and durability from an entirely different perspective than the incumbent Michelin. The French company’s focus was very much on compound and the adaptation of this compound to the particular bike, rider, tarmac and conditions the tyre was being made for. Construction was a secondary concern, and after all, Michelin had the luxury of being able to fly-in tyres to European races, after making them the day before. Bridgestone, out of Japan, did not have the luxury of this, and so needed a different solution. This was to work with the construction as well as the compound to find the best compromise that would work well over a wide range of conditions. Whereas Michelin we focused on tuning the tyre to each rider, bike and track, Bridgestone worked on making the best tyre with the widest range possible. Compound was important, yes, but also how to get as much of that compound in touch with the tarmac in corners. The development of the deforming Bridgestone front was key in the Ducati success, and suited Stoner perfectly. He could now lean on the tyre when braking as hard as he liked, and it would keep him upright. Note, in 2006 on the LCR Honda “Crasher” Stoner was running Michelins.

Ducati Electronics
The MotoGP teams are engaged in an all-out electronics war, developing systems to manage the power and fuel efficiency of their engines, so that not a horsepower or drop of fuel is wasted. One of the most advanced is the system on the Ducati which uses a complex array of gyroscopes and sensors to judge lean angle, gear, throttle position and velocity to control how much power and wheelspin to allow. These aids allow Casey to be opening the throttle before he reaches the apex of the corner. The bike will sort itself out and allow him to open the throttle further, sooner than riders on other manufacturer’s machines. While still in corner exit, cranked over, he can open up the throttle and be sure the rear end will sort itself out, with just enough spin and slip. This is the phase of the corner where we see the Ducati buck and kick like a thoroughbred. Stoner alone is comfortable with the bike behaving like this.

Melandri? Hayden?
So why could Melandri not make it work, and why is Hayden still struggling to get to grips with the machine? Melandri is a pure 125 - 250 - MotoGP racer from the European school. He rides smoothly, maintains high corner speed, generally keeping the wheels in line. He’s pretty traditional in his cornering approach, and does not push the front. The idea of braking deep into the corner before immediately getting back on the throttle prior to the apex would simply be wrong for him - his instinct would suggest he needs to get around the corner and be standing the bike upright before he can increase the throttle in a dramatic way. Also, he gave up early in 2008, talking himself into failure. On the Kawasaki, he is back in familiar territory, with his smooth, in-line style paying dividends again.

Hayden might at first look to be better suited to the Ducati. Also a dirt-tracker, Hayden excelled in the 990-era, power-sliding and smoking his way around the circuits. Loose on the exit is how Nicky likes it. His issue is more with trusting the front end and the Bridgestone tyre to the extent Stoner does. Also, the early throttle action will be alien to him, and again he needs to develop trust in the electronics and in the bike that it will not highside him. This trust will be hard for him to gain given his start to the 2009 season.

What can Ducati do? It looks like not much other than wait for their riders to get their heads around the revolutionary machine they have buit. It takes time for a rider to trust a motorcycle, and even longer to change a riding style to suit, always with the threat of a highside and broken bones an instant later. The best thing that Ducati can do is offer help and support to their riders, and give them time. Meanwhile, keep Casey happy and fighting for the win.

A confluence of events made Le Mans the most unusual race in a while. A rainstorm before the start of the race to wet the tarmac; the heat of northern France to evaporate that rain at an uneven pace; a lack of an intermediate tyre or cut slicks thanks to the single tyre supplier; the flag-to-flag racing regulations, and a champion who called it wrong.

Back to that rain and the tyre choice. The conditions were screaming “intermediate” - no standing water, little spray, but a greasy, slippy, not-quite-wet, not-quite-dry situation that ruled slicks out of the equation. Rain tyres were the only choice.

Since the introduction of flag-to-flag I can’t recall a race which started wet and dried to the extent it did on Sunday - please drop me a comment if you can pick one out. Previously, dry races that got wet have been the norm, and picking the time to move from slicks to intermediates or wets has been the key. The other way around is a different call, with more variables - are your wets done? It is dry enough for a slick tyre to retain it’s temperature? What is the set-up on the other bike like for the dry? What is the dry line like, wide or narrow? Continuous? It is very different decision process.

In terms of those comfortable from the off, Pedrosa, Rossi and Lorenzo looked well set. Stoner, despite contesting the front positions in the initial laps, soon dropped off unhappy with the performance of his bike. Late in the race, he would (according to Suppo) miss a gear out of the final corner and concede a place to Vermeulen. At the time he was staring at his pit crew and almost seemed to be protesting to them that he could not work with his machine. He would pass Vermeulen again, but later and still unhappy, Stoner would skip the post-race interviews.

Back in the initial laps, Lorenzo and Rossi lead the Repsol Hondas and the dry line starts to appear in the areas where the tyres are most stressed, and the lines most limited - through the corners. Crucially, there are still patches around the circuit which are far from drying. Also proving happy in the wet is Melandri, up to 5th place, passing Pedrosa and Vermeulen in the changeable conditions.

The race, however, would turn on the timing of the team’s choice to pit for slick tyres. In dry-to-wet switches, the first rider to change is often the one who benefits most, able to put in the really fast laps and use areas of the track which are not available to the riders still on slicks. In wet-to-dry, the slick riders have only the narrow, dry line to run on. When Rossi came in to change bikes and tyres, the dry line was not even complete around the circuit, let alone wide enough to offer line choice.

Rossi wasn’t the only one to come in - Pedrosa and Capirossi followed him. Dorna’s coverage seemed to validate Rossi. Pictures from Lorenzo’s bike of his rear tyre showed it chunking up, rubber flying off. Seconds later, Rossi was off, a slow-speed low-side. This was only the start of the nightmare. Back to the pits, he would switch back to his #1 bike with wets for a couple of laps while the #2 bike was repaired. Speeding in the pits would cost him a drive-through, and another switch back to the #2 bike on slicks would put an effective end to his race. He would be 2 laps down, hoping to pick up a point or two through other rider’s misfortune. Only Kallio would oblige. Rossi would finish 16th with no points.

Lorenzo’s team must have monitored the Rossi and Pedrosa lap times and have seen that he was still much faster than the slick-shod riders. Why come in? The Lorenzo-Yamaha and Hayate teams deserve credit for having the courage of their convictions to stick to the faster tyres.

Once Lorenzo and Melandri did come in, they were able to get the best out of their tyres and hold the other slick runners at bay. Pedrosa stuffed Dovizioso (who had changed to slicks later than Dani) on the last lap to take third. A cynic would say that, due to the speed with which Pedrosa caught and took Dovi, that this was team orders to maintain Pedrosa’s challenge for the championship. Certainly Dovi looked very unhappy after the race - whether this was losing a podium in the last lap, or being told to, we’ll probably never know.

It was a rare form of a MotoGP race. A race won as much by the team as by the rider. Credit to Lorenzo and Melandri for handling their bikes with severely degraded tyres, but credit too for their teams for making the win possible for them.

MotoGPBlog Man of the Weekend: Marco Melandri for the podium nobody thought he would get this season.