Quote:
Originally Posted by HDTVKSS
If Rossi had kept his mouth and ego in check, Marquez would have gone out and just done his own race. he may even have come off as has been his habit this year. Whoever advised him on this being a good idea is a fool and made a massive misjudgement of Marquez's character.
After being called out so publicly + the history of scraps between them such as Assen pretty much guaranteed the Sepang response from Marc. Getting shunted off the bike at Sepang pretty much guaranteed that Marquez was going to punish Rossi if he could. Marquez had nothing to lose and called Rossi's bluff in a big way. IMHO Marquez would probably have crashed Rossi if he'd caught up to him last night before letting him past. Im thankful that never happened because that would have taken this to NASCAR levels of stupid. What goes around tends to come around.
So now the big wall will go up again at Yamaha, this time at Lorenzo's bequest and any data that was going between the two will cease. Be interesting to see how Rossi deals with that.
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At Sepang Marquez was struggling badly so he wouldn't have got ahead of Lorenzo and while I think he could have won at Valencia (he certainly could have tried at least one pass...) the key there was for Pedrosa to do the same, at which point Lorenzo would have fought tooth and nail to keep him behind. So I don't the final standings would be that different even if the infamous presser never happened.
I think that the clashes at Assen & Termas de Rio Hondo left their mark, so that even if Rossi had kept his mouth shut Marquez would still have made it difficult to get past. To what extent we will never know but it's academic as Rossi played right into Marquez's hands and gave him the "excuse" he needed to get involved. Two wrongs don't make a right though, and I'm more annoyed/disappointed with Marquez's behaviour than I am with Rossi's - at least he had his moment of idiocy off-track. The kindest thing I can say is that it's a real shame they are at opposite ends of their careers, because they deserve each other.
I think we already have the answer to how Rossi will deal with no setup sharing because that's already been happening for the latter half of the season. Decent race pace and an inability to get the qualifying tyres working well. This year was his last chance though, you won't be seeing Rossi fighting for the title again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Razzzor
But why is Lorenzo anti-Rossi? The thumbs down at the podium, trying to put a stop on the appeal, they're supposed to be teammates but they seem to get on worse than Vettel/Webber did!
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Lorenzo thought he had seen off Rossi after he left for Ducati, only to find him quickly back at Yamaha re-establishing all his old links with the personnel (for all of Jorge's immense skill and dedication, he has never what you would call a "people person"!) and vying for No. 1 status in the team. Now that's not a problem if he can keep Rossi behind, but for the first 1/3 of the season Rossi could seemingly do no wrong and made almost every call correctly to capitalize on Lorenzo's errors. You can understand his frustration, if not his responses at times.
It's an odd one with Jorge - he is at his best on his own, metaphorically and literally. But even though he had the pace over Rossi (as the stats point out) Rossi definitely has a needle stuck in Lorenzo's head. It is ironic that after watching Rossi create trouble for himself by not keeping quiet, Lorenzo ... decides not to keep quiet. Time will tell if there are any ramifications from Sepang but the first thing that comes into my head is what happens when Lorenzo is in Rossi's position and a younger faster teammate is challenging him for the title? We've now seen that he is willing to forgo the team's best interests to further his own.
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Originally Posted by gomick
Does it say much for the depth of MotoGP if Rossi can finish 4th from last place on the grid?
Congrats to Jorge, definitely faster than Rossi all year. Pity Marquez didn't have a go at him for the win, he would normally have a go from a long way back - maybe he was protecting?
Congrats to Danny Kent too  |
That's a very diplomatic way of putting it!
But you have found the elephant in the room. MotoGP is basically a contest between two factory teams and their four riders and everyone else is entertainment-based filler who intermittently get involved. If it were a more open contest the looming spectre of Rossi departing would not be a problem because there would be other rider(s) to become the "face(s)" of the series. That's (IMO) why everyone was so hyped about Simoncelli even though he didn't really have the pace to be right at the sharp end. It's not Lorenzo's/Marquez's/Pedrosa's fault they are not as popular (and therefore as marketable) as Rossi, but when he leaves a lot of fans will go with him. You're free to think that getting rid of Rossi's more fervent fans is a good thing (and I won't defend them), but that will ultimately mean less money for Dorna who aren't in the rudest financial health as it is.