MotoGP Blog

Gresini rider Nakano gets a new Honda to ride from Brno onwards - the same bike as the factory Repsol riders have - in order to develop the 2009 satellite bike for the Gresini, JIR and LCR teams.

On the announcement that this was to happen, Dovizioso suddenly had a long line of reporters at his doorstep looking for a quote. Why? Because he has been Honda faithful through his 125cc and 250cc career, and it is no secret that he managed some truly awesome results with a less-than-competitive machine last year. He’s also been top Honda satellite rider this year, managing a couple of 4th places and beating the odd factory bike along the way, including Hayden at Laguna. So you can see why this might be less than well received by Dovi, and why the reporters have been trying to get a soundbite out of him.

In reality, these decisions to provide new machinery for development are not based on recent results. This was a deal done most likely right at the start of the season, as part of the contract between Gresini and Honda and Nakano. Honda has a desire to see a Japanese rider competing on one of it’s machines at the highest level, and struck a deal with Gresini to take Nakano as a rider. A sweetener to the deal will have been the promise of an update to the bike during the season, which is just what has happened.

Fear not, Dovi. You’ll be on better machinery next year, when you are wearing Repsol colours. Nakano will still be a satellite rider…if he’s lucky. I’m damned if he doesn’t have the coolest helmet design though.

Apologies this has taken so long to get around to - the calendar now reflects the MotoGP schedule for Brno and Misano, with more being added every day. It should even show the events in your time zone, so if you’re not already subscribed to the calendar, hit the bug button at the top of the page on the right and get a hold of it! If you’re reading this in an RSS feeder, you’ll need to click through to the site first.

Livio Suppo has “let slip” on the Desmoblog (the official Ducati motorsport competition blog) that Marco Melandri will be riding for the MotoGP team in Brno.

This is probably in recognition of the effort Melandri has put in, both in Germany and at Laguna Seca. In Laguna he was top 10 in the times throughout the weekend and was fairing well in the race before running wide at turn 1 and tripping through the gravel.

This probably means that, if Marco manages to keep this effort and improvement up, he will last in the Ducati seat until the end of the season. Why should Ducati take the risk of replacing him with Canepa or Gibernau with no guarantee of improvement? The pressure on these guys would be enormous and, should they fail, the embarrassment for Ducati would be great. The chance that they could do better than Melandri are slim; reference the performances of Elias and Guintoli this year on the sister bike.

For what it’s worth, Melandri deserves this chance to get it right on the bike before he departs at the end of the season. He has worked endlessly, and although he had a defeatist attitude before Sachsenring, he seems to have turned this around. Now it is time for him to put the bike in the top five and prove his doubters wrong.

Casey is without doubt a talented rider and a guy who is driven to succeed. He’s also been accused of making the sport boring by winning by a country mile, grinding out lap after perfect lap without mistake. Thank about it; this is what he is paid for. He is confused by the reception he gets from some fans because of this ability to win. Of course, there is an amount of backlash from the Rossi contingent as they think he should never lose. But it is also more than this, and much of it he has brought on himself.

His interaction with the media is where most people get even the smallest glimpse of Casey and his personality. This is where people decide whether they like him or not, and he should use this to his advantage. Too often recently, he has used this opportunity to complain. Check out the comments on the Battle of Laguna Seca, and you get some idea of the public response to his comments.

I have been struck this week of some similarities with another famous Australian sportsman, Cadel Evans, riding in the Tour de France. Evans is a supreme athlete, able to lead the Tour and hold the yellow jersey for several days. He was, until today, also the favourite to win the race as a whole. Yet his interaction with the media presents a persona of a passive-aggressive, grumpy prima-donna. In one post-stage interview, while in the yellow jersey, he aimed a punch at an Australian journalist’s arm while on TV. More recently, he head-butted a camera out of the way when riding his bike after the finish line. A further discussion of Evans and his media relations can be found in Ned Boulting’s blog, a journalist in the ITV team covering the race. Here is an excerpt from his post about Evans. When you read it, try replacing “Evans” with “Stoner”:

The way he’s ridden on this Tour has been extremely efficient and extremely calculating; he’s ridden to his strengths, he’s been composed, he’s getting the job done. What else can he do?

Evans has got to within a hair’s breadth of winning the Tour de France which for a rider of his qualities is a stunning achievement, even if he has nearly bored us to death in the process.

While I don’t think Casey has the same problems as Evans - there are different, but equally intense pressures on both men - there is much there that he could learn from how Evans behaves, and much that he should learn not to replicate. Casey is known as a no-bullshit, down to business guy in the paddock, which is great. If he could let a little more of himself show in the media, he’d be on to a real winner and get the response from the public he expects, and deserves.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the FASTER competition, we had a fantastic response and were overwhelmed by the number of entries received.

The winners were drawn at random from the correct entries by Mark Neale, the director of FASTER, earlier this week.

The winners are:

• Johnny Lam
• Alan Lyons
• Daniel Kong
• Jason Westervelt
• Stevo from Biting Back

I’ll be in touch with the winners shortly to organise the collection of your prize.

If you weren’t lucky enough to win this time around, you can still download the movie from the US iTunes store.

It’s worse than originally thought for Jorge’s left foot. Three broken metatarsals, rather than the one originally identified at the track. The treatment is simple. Immobilise it in a cast, then splint it up so he can walk on it.

The Yamaha team go on to say that it will be 10 days before he can begin to work on mobility of the foot and ankle again, which gives him a further 12 days to get fit for the Brno round on the 17th August. A tall order, but perhaps he will be able to twitch his left extremity enough to change gear. At least this means he just might be forced to sit still long enough that his ankles have a chance to heal. On the other hand, he’ll probably be out motorcrossing in 11 days time and crack another bone somewhere. You never know with Jorge.

This is not the usual MotoGPBlog race analysis. This was not the usual MotoGP race. The battle between Rossi and Stoner is deserving of special treatment, and here it is. Blow by blow, move by move. If you are in the UK, follow the commentary in the post with the free BBC iPlayer playback of the race (available until 11pm Sunday 27th July 2008).

Lap 1
Stoner leads from pole to the first corner. Hayden gets second place but Rossi holds the inside line through Turn 1 and into the Andretti Hairpin to fend off a rampant Hayden. Prior to the race Rossi stated he had to stay with Stoner from the lights. He made his intentions clear with this move at the first corner: Stoner would not escape today.

[Lorenzo high-sides at Turn 5]

Rossi trails by half a second at Turn 5, the bottom of the climb up to the Corkscrew. He closes this on the brakes at the top of the Rahal Straight, sliding it up the inside on the left-hand entry into the top of the Corkscrew, surprising Stoner and everyone else.

Stoner has been faster in section of the track following the Corkscrew (i2 onwards) all weekend. This time, Rossi contains Stoner enough to lead over the line.

Lap 2
Stoner spends the lap latched on to Rossi’s rear wheel. He is within a gnat’s breath of Rossi through the Corkscrew and Rainey curve. The power of the Ducati allows him to pull alongside out of the final corner and down the home straight.

Lap 3
The battle is truly joined in lap 3. Stoner carries his speed advantage all the way down the straight, through Turn 1 to pass Rossi on the inside - crucially, the only time he will get to the inside of Rossi at this point of the track - and lead into the Andretti Hairpin, a move started way back in the Corkscrew.

Rossi passes Stoner at the Turn 5. He stuffs it up the inside of the left hander, forces Stoner to pick the Ducati up. Stoner’s new line gives him a chance to get on the bike turned and on the power earlier. As a result, the grunt of the Ducati allows Stoner to aggressively pass Rossi through the blind Turn 6 and chop the nose off the Yamaha. On the TV pictures you can see Rossi’s left knee pop out involuntarily as Stoner comes past him at a point where physics dictates he should not be able to. Both of them know they are in a fight now.

Stoner’s overtake carries him into the Corkscrew on a wider line than normal, and as a result, Rossi sees a gap and needs no second invitation. Rossi goes for the inside on the brakes - he is right on the limit, if not over it. He runs wide on the left-hander at the top of the hill, so he ends up running across the kerb of the right-hander at the bottom, and through the gravel on the inside. Stoner, with good drive through the entire curve gets alongside him on the outside, at the bottom of the hill. Rossi bounces across the gravel and kerb, and as a result runs wide in the right hander, forcing Stoner right out to the edge of the track - is this one of the moves that Stoner was annoyed about?

Still smarting, Stoner gets a good drive out of Turn 11 and passes Rossi on the outside, on pure power over the start line.

Lap 4
Stoner leads into Turn 1, but Rossi refuses to let him run off into the distance. He takes the lead at turn 5, on the brakes into the left hander. Rossi gaps him just enough to have a clean line into the Corkscrew, and out to the finish line. Stoner’s rear kicks out a couple of times on the power; he is right on the edge.

Lap 5
Rossi leads leads Stoner for the lap. Take a breath. Rossi’s foot wags off the peg into the last corner, his turn to look as though he is on the edge of adhesion.

Lap 6
Stoner maintains station behind Rossi this lap, perhaps studying his lines and looking for weakness. The Yamaha appears to be about 3 bikes wide.

Lap 7
Stoner tries again around the outside of Rossi, but the Italian holds inside line down start/finish straight. A common pattern that will be repeated over many laps.

Lap 8
The gap never been more than quarter of a second between the two scrapping at the front. Stoner’s Ducati occasionally looks loose at the back under power, really loose. Rossi seems to be holding his place through late braking EVERYWHERE.

Lap 9
Stoner tries a pass again at the final corner, but Rossi firmly closes the door. TV pictures show the right side of Rossi’s rear tyre tyre balling up - no evidence of a change in performance from the Yamaha which looks to ride much more smoothly than the Ducati; less drama.
Stoner closes on Rossi through Turn 6 and up the hill. Rossi is late on the brakes again at the Corkscrew to fend of the Aussie.

Lap 10
Dorna graphics on screen show how much earlier on the gas Stoner is than Rossi. Rossi progresses smoothly but quickly from half throttle to full throttle, where Stoner get to about two thirds throttle then straight to 100%, even while still leant over. On the brakes he is the same - 50 - 60% then BANG 100% brakes.

It is now 11 seconds back to Vermeulen in 3rd place.

Lap 11
Stoner follows Rossi through the lap, and then gets better drive out of final turn again. A familiar pattern repeats: Stoner alongside through the start/finish straight but Rossi on the inside has the line into Andretti Hairpin.

Lap 12
Again, Rossi holds inside line and forces Stoner, carrying greater speed, towards the outside and the long way around.

Lap 13
Stoner, getting frustrated, passes Rossi around the outside through Turn 1, and carries huge speed into Andretti. Hard on brakes while leant over he runs wide into the sandy outer limits of the tarmac. Rossi calmly stays on line takes the lead back. You can almost hear Stoner swearing in his helmet over the terrific noise of the Ducati. The gap opens up to 0.9 seconds, the largest it has been since the start of the race.

Lap 14
Across the line Stoner has the gap down to 0.6 seconds. He is clearly faster than the Yamaha, but he can’t make a pass stick; Rossi is always able to find a way past him, and then to make his bike as wide as wide can be. Rossi is giving Stoner a lesson in racecraft: it’s not just about going fast.

0.6 seconds gap at i2 - Rossi is fast in i1 and i2. It is down to 0.4 after i3, and a lot less at start/finish line. 1:21.4 lap for Stoner - the fastest lap of the race.

Laps 15 to 17
Stoner follows Rossi bringing down that gap. It is 0.092 at the start of the lap.

Lap 18
Stoner looking for a way around; has he run out of ideas?

Lap 19
It is that familiar pattern: Stoner is forced wide down start/finish straight by Rossi, and again Rossi holds the inside line and the advantage into Andretti.
Stoner can’t find a way around, fast as he is in the final few turns of the lap.

It is now 18.2 seconds back to Vermeulen. Rossi and Stoner are in a league of their own, something Vermeulen himself will say in Parc Ferme at the end of the race.

Lap 20
Rossi holds the inside down the start/finish straight. Stoner is visibly frustrated. There is no way he can challenge Rossi on the brakes, and there is no straight long enough for him to get past Rossi on power.

Lap 21
Dovizioso passes Hayden for 4th place. He will be greeted as a hero by his pit at the end of the race.

Lap 22
The Rossi/Stoner gap remains stable at 0.2 secs.

Lap 23
The next great confrontation is just a few hundred metres away.

Stoner makes yet another attempt at getting past Rossi into Andretti, using his speed in the second half of the lap to carry him around the outside through Turn 1 and intending to lead into Andretti. Rossi, later than ever on the brakes, puts it up the inside and pushes Stoner out around the hairpin. They remain almost side by side around the whole of the corner, this giving Stoner the inside line for Turn 3.

Instinct say Rossi should concede the corner with Stoner inside and on the line, but he is not in the mood to concede anything. He hangs on around the outside, right up on the kerbing, and chopping off the nose of the Ducati. Rossi later says that Stoner’s front wheel touched his shoulder.

TV pictures show further balling up on the right side of Rossi’s tyre. Still there is no sign of performance degradation from the Bridgetones of either rider.

Stoner, looking mad as hell, tries again with an extraordinary move around the outside into T11, the final turn. Rossi brakes late, Stoner later; as it turns out too late. Rossi makes the turn and Stoner runs deep onto sandy tarmac, has to pick the bike up and ends up on the grass, then gravel, then ignominiously drops the Ducati in the gravel.

The battle was over, bar the shouting. Stoner’s mistake costing him the race but not second place, and minimal damage to his bike. He rejoins before Vermeulen can get even remotely close.

Laps 24 - 31
After the most action-packed 23 laps in recent memory, the war is not quite over as both continue to lap at a remarkable pace. Any mistake by Rossi and Stoner would have him, and the same applies to Stoner and Vermeulen.

The gap remains at about 7 seconds between Rossi and Vermeulen, and a
7.6 sec gap Stoner to Vermeulen.

Lap 32
Rossi wheelies over the line, punching the air in elation. Obviously pumped up, he rarely celebrates in this manner: aggressive, victorious, not the joker . He pets his bike before stopping at the Corkscrew to kneel and kiss the tarmac.

Rossi victorious, Stoner angry, the best racing we have seen for years. The heady cocktail that ensures that this race will go down in the collective memory as a classic.

If you enjoyed reading this post you might also enjoy Getting FASTER - an interview with Mark Neale, director of the MotoGP movie FASTER.

Stoner again showed his class throughout the session, improving his already impressive pace further and further until he seemed impossibly fast around the short Laguna Seca track. Here’s the thing about Stoner, he seems to be able to push his machine closer to the edge of crashing than anyone else, and yet remain totally in control. That is his genius, because genius it is.

In the battle for second, Rossi showed his pace and is no doubt glad of the move to Bridgestones this weekend. Spending time early on in the session to further refine race set-up and tyre choice, his chase for pole did not start until the second 30 minute spell. Each time he brought his lap to within a couple of tenth of Stoner, the Aussie would head out and strip off another couple of tenths, maybe three. Stoner isn’t just moving the goalposts here, he’s shifting the entire playing field.

Michelin have struggled so far this weekend, bringing harder compounds than previously and being greeted by surprisingly cold, foggy weather in the mornings. This has led to them cutting up slicks far enough for them to be officially considered intermediates, in order to get enough heat in them to make the tyres work. Fortunately this has only been necessary in the cold morning sessions and there was no sign of this in qualifying.

Hayden and Lorenzo (3rd and 4th) regained some pride for Michelin, producing fast laps on qualifiers to come in 0.4 and 0.7 behind Stoner - a blink of an eye but simultaneously a massive gap around this, the shortest of circuits on the calendar.

Further down the grid, Toseland got to grips with the track in his first visit, and pulled in an admirable 5th place, 2 spots ahead of Edwards who must have completed more than a thousand times more laps than the Englishman around here. Vermeulen (8th), too, was looking strong for much of the session but failed to make the most of his qualifiers.

Tony Elias (10th) reminded everyone he can ride a motorcycle and gave the Alice team something to motivate them, creeping in under the 1:22 mark and looking fast all session, not just on the sticky rubber, and out-qualifying his team-mate by 0.8 seconds.

Down at the bottom of the qualifying sheet, the condemned man Melandri still lingers. He probably can’t wait for the agony to end and this will be affecting his performance even more for, as the old racing adage says, 80% of racing is in the head. 2.5 seconds off the pole pace on the same machinery must be hurting him and his confidence.

Wildcards Hacking and Spies have acquitted themselves well enough. Spies (13th) 0.1 seconds behind Capirossi, who is in turn 0.1 seconds behind Vermeulen. Spies shows signs of getting used to the GP bike and will be aiming for a top 10 finish tomorrow. Hacking has struggled with set-up this weekend but found some sort of a breakthrough in qualifying. Both Kawasaki riders have been complaining of a lack of front end feel - a common complaint from riders around Laguna. However, it has affected West tremendously, his trip into the air fence on Friday due to a front end tuck. 3.6 seconds off pole and out-qualified by Hacking, he, in desperation, tried Hacking’s set-up but to no avail.

Alex de Angelis was running well before high-siding at the very same corner West low-sided at. Fracturing his left thumb, it looks like he will still ride today but will start from the back of the grid as his accident meant he did not have the opportunity to run a sticky tyre.

Dani Pedrosa took no part in proceedings after Friday free practice, the screw in the back of his left wrist causing him too much pain while riding the bike. Hewill now convalesce over the summer break, but his title hopes have been dealt a serious blow. Is it now between Rossi and Stoner? Stoner will almost certainly win this round, and Rossi’s aim has to be second place.

“To stop Stoner, you’d have to shoot him” Rossi joked to Spanish TV. This might be true of the race in California, and it may be becoming true of the 2008 championship.

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Valentino Rossi has re-signed for Yamaha for a further two years, through to 2010. In the press release, aside from all the usual PR noise, his statement has an undertone that he is probably going to call it quits in 2010. Here’s an excerpt, make your own mind up:

Valentino Rossi:
“After so many years spent in racing, fortunately with so many victories, I needed a special motivation to take the decision to sign for two more years. The best place to find this motivation is Yamaha, since I have a great relationship with Yamaha’s directors, which comes from a mutual trust and loyalty.

In our team there is a special atmosphere and with this new deal I can continue to work with my crew, where I am part of the project and part of the development of my M1. I had other opportunities but due to Yamaha’s efforts to give me the best bike in the best environment, I have decided to stay with Yamaha for two more years. This contract means that Yamaha is the manufacturer I will have spent most of my career with. This means more than a thousand words”