MotoGP Blog

Marco Melandri has today joined the list of motorcycling Hard Men. He was injured in Laguna qualifying by a high speed collision with the back end of Kurtis Robert’s bike and subsequent tumble through the gravel trap, a crash sufficient to red flag the session.

He was taken back to the medical centre and checked out OK, just limping, but still managed to get out later in the session to claim 10th spot, just 0.8s off the Stoner pole pace.

He then rode like a demon to bring the Gresini Honda home in a staggering third place. Undoubtedly helped by being Bridgestone-shod, let this not reduce the achievement. It has now come to light that he was riding with a broken ankle. You have our admiration Marco. I’m reminded of a scene from “The Doctor, the Tornado & the Kentucky Kid” in which one of the doctors at the Laguna medical facility talks about how a kind of natural selection eliminates those talented riders who just can’t hack riding with injuries and how those that do make it through have a pain threshold far above that of “normal” people.

Kudos Marco. Now, can we have a word about your awful sunglasses?

Just past half way through the 2007 championship and Valentino Rossi is 44 points behind Casey Stoner. If Rossi is to claim the title this year, he needs to score an average of 6.2 points more than Stoner in the remaining 7 races. That’s the simple mathematics behind it - Stoner “just” needs to follow Rossi home at each race to become the champion. Of course, these things are never that simple.

Rossi is master of the psyche-out. He dominated Sete Gibernau, blew Max Biaggi away, even the latest Honda wunderkind Pedrosa was put in his place last season with a couple of aggressive overtakes and some off-hand remarks made to the press. Still, Rossi did not win last year despite being arguably the best rider the sport has seen for some time, if not all time. Hayden ground out the win when, at times, all seemed lost - the low point being when Pedrosa took out Hayden, handing Rossi a lifeline back into the 2006 championship. Hayden held his ground and was finally victorious, a fantastic achievement.

Winter testing saw Rossi riding a Yamaha carrying an image of the sword Excalibur. The legend goes that the sword is set in stone and only the true king is able to draw the blade. Rossi was simultaneously announcing his willingness to fight back and stating that he was the “true king” of MotoGP and that there is a pretender in his place for the time being. The pre-season press saw Rossi discount Hayden (another psyche-out move) by naming Pedrosa as his main competition for the year ahead. Nobody mentioned Stoner. Read the rest of this entry »

With the official announcement of Lorenzo’s arrival at the Yamaha MotoGP team next year simply confirming what everyone already knew, we’re thinking ahead to how this will pan out in the team. The key phrase in the press release is:

The 20-year-old Spaniard will make his MotoGP debut in 2008 aboard a YZR-M1, with direct Factory support.

This ain’t going to be no Tec-3 ride. This is shoulder to shoulder with Rossi. Now, wither of Colin? Punted to Tec-3? Storming off to Kawasaki? Onto a second string Ducati?

Motogpblog can’t see any of this happening, and we have a strong suspicion that Mr. Edwards will be still riding for Yamaha - on a factory bike - in 2008. Of all the teams out there potentially running three bikes, we think Yamaha are the most likely to even though they have not, as yet, stated this is a possibility. We’re liking this silly season!

The news from Ducati today has got motogpblog thinking about how this has panned out, and just how Ducati could have ended up as they are - with an embarrassment of riches in terms of riders.

Let’s go back to October 2006. There is a hole in the team - Sete Gibernau is not up for it any more and Ducati need a rider for next season. Ducati’s first choice is Melandri for 2007, but Gresini has first shout for his services; Melandri to his credit honours this agreement with Gresini despite the overtures from Bologna. When Ducati realise they could not get their first choice they immediately grab first option on his services for 2008, no doubt with a fat chunk of change slipped into Marco’s pocket.

Ducati, almost in desperation, decide to take a punt on a talented but unproven kid - at least his wage demands are less than others - and sign Stoner for a season. The thinking was, perhaps, Stoner rides for a year in Sete’s place until Melandri joins the team. Then Ducati can realise a dream set-up of two Italians riding and developing the Italian MotoGP machine with perhaps one of them as World Champion at the end of the season.

Fast forward to Laguna, 2007. The success of Casey Stoner, the phenomenal success of Casey Stoner has, we believe, thrown this plan out of the window to the detriment of Capirossi. The once-golden-boy now finds himself third in line for a Ducati works bike. Ducati’s Grand Plan v2.0 is now with Stoner first in line, for how could Ducati allow the World Champion-elect slip away to another team?; Melandri second, long a favourite of Bologna, they have worked too hard, and spent too much money on him already, to let him go elsewhere; Capirossi third, maybe, if he can raise a big enough sponsor.

How things change in 10 races, Loris. From 3rd in the World Championship 2006 to considering options for 2008. You thought you’d retire in red. Perhaps it will come to that.

Ducati are playing the long game with their riders - in MotoGP, two riders contracted for two seasons is certainly the long game. Stoner even has an option for 2010. Looking at the wording of the press release, Loris certainly seems to be out in the cold, which is such a reversal for the old stager from the “Dream Team” tag bandied about a few years ago. Take the headline:

DUCATI TEAM ANNOUNCES 2008 AND 2009 MOTOGP LINE-UP

…and the release going on to say that the team is Melandri and Stoner. A done deal. And not including you Capirex. Mention of Loris is relegated to the final words:

Next week Loris Capirossi and his manager will meet with Ducati representatives to evaluate the possibility of preparing a third official Desmosedici MotoGP bike for the Italian rider to use in the 2008 World Championship.

Which motogpblog believes could be rephrased as “Have you got a sponsor to bring with you Loris, one that will cover a significant proportion (or all) of the costs of you riding a third bike?”

It sounds as though Ducati are holding all the cards. Their team line-up is decided for the next two years, and it’s up to Capirossi to convince them they need to keep him. Will Capirossi’s pride let him even try to convince Ducati? Or will he make a big money move to Suzuki or Kawasaki? We’ll probably know in a couple of weeks.

Perhaps stung into action by losing Hopkins, Suzuki have gained the signature of Chris Vermeulen for another 12 months with, apparently, an option for 2009 too.

It looks like a great result for both sides of the deal, given the Laguna result where Chris finally proved he can mix it with the front runners in the dry as well as the wet.

Things are beginning to sort themselves out for this silly season - I’d expect a bit more news over the summer break. The key bits of news motogpblog is waiting on are:

• We were told there would be a Pedrosa/Honda announcement in Germany and it never came. Are Dani and Honda to part ways?
• The three-bike Kawasaki factory team story, put out there by Kawasaki, is still possible.
• Capirossi’s future is still in doubt - has he signed anything yet for Suzuki or Kawasaki?
• With Lorenzo coming into a Yamaha team next year, what of Edwards? Will he stay or will he go?
• Melandri to Ducati?

And that is just the start of it. These key moves will pretty much sort everyone else out - unless you know different?

Autosport report that Hopkins has been fined for his agressive kick and gestures towards Carlos Checa at the end of qualifying at Laguna. While reminiscent of that old videogame favourite Road Rash, his reaction is seen by the authorities as inappropriate.

Hopper was mad as hell, sure. No doubt he reacted in the heat of the moment and lost his head. However, the reaction was a little out of proportion. Checa claims he was slowing for waved yellows. Hopkins makes no mention of yellow flags in his moan in the Autosport piece, but complains about people slowing to a cruise to take the chequered flag and practice starts.

With Kurtis Roberts knocking Melandri off early in the session, there are a few things need working out between the riders before there is a serious accident. A Friday meetin, as in F1, would be sensible. Would it be well attended though?

There is a part of me that loves to see this between riders though - passion, spice, aggression, call it what you will. Hopkins cares about his performance, maybe a little more than Checa these days, who must be soon to retire. A bit of in-fighting between riders is great stuff for the sport - perhaps why the fine was a trifling $2,000.

There are many unwritten rules in MotoGP and motorbike racing in general.

One of them is that you don’t slow down on the racing line, anywhere, for any reason. If you’re easing up or have a mechanical problem, you get the hell off the line everyone else is on.

Kurtis Roberts forgot that for a moment at Laguna in qualifying. He eased up on the racing line in one of the fastest sections of the track and it resulted in Melandri clipping his bike as he shot by at racing speeds, catapulting him onto the gravel. Melandri jumped off before the bike hit the air fence - very sensibly - and while the bike ploughed on into the barriers he tumbled to a stop before hitting anything too solid.

All Kurtis’ fault. Wake up fella. You’re off Gresini’s christmas card list.

As I type, it looks like Melandri is heading back to the pits in a golf cart to get back on the spare bike. Amazing.

Kawasaki have previously stated they may run three bikes next year in the factory team. Word from Eurosport is that if Roger Lee Hayden does a half-decent job at Laguna, he would be in the running for one of them. With the Capirossi rumours currently around him going to Suzuki next year, Kwak might have the budget to run the three bikes - yes, that really is how much Loris’ alleged pay requirements are, enough to run another bike and rider for a year.

It’s a difficult decision Kwak have to make - run two bikes but with a potential front-runner of Capirossi in the team, or run three bikes and get more exposure that way by simply having more green machines out there. I’m in no doubt they would prefer to be winning races and so will pay the big bucks to Capirex. But if the Suzuki rumours are true, the decision may well be made for them.

Laguna has been resurfaced for this year, after last year’s disastrous surface implosion caused by the heat and the forces the bikes were putting down onto the tarmac. Having potholes appear mid-race is a nightmare for the riders and the organisers, so this year we have brand new tarmac. It’s had some interesting effects.

Riders with less experience around the track (anyone who is not American, essentially) seem to be reporting that it’s better than last year, but still a bit bumpy.

The more experienced Laguna riders report different bumps than they are used to, and are making fewer positive noises.

Perhaps the lines which the US riders learned when they were cutting their teeth in racing, and used to their advantage in the previous GPs at Laguna, are something less of an advantage this weekend? We’ll perhaps not see the dominance of Hayden we have come to expect (two wins from two attempts) and perhaps Edwards will struggle to get on the podium. After FP1 and FP2, Stoner is the man to catch. We’ll have to see if the surface affects the result on Sunday.