Rossi

[Rich R]

the best thing, imo, about rossi is that he isn't 100% perfect, and that leads to last laps like we had today. although i did think rossi was a bit naughty into the last corner it made for great tv.

[MichaelH]

While I don't think for a second he meant to hit Sete, but I thought as soon as contact was made, he made the most of it. He made sure Sete was off the track before he collected it up and went back on line, and it tainted a great battle.

It was a decent race, but a slight anticlimax for me. Much as I admire Valentino as a racer and appreciate the energy he brings into the paddock, I find myself every year, hoping he'll get beaten and ending up disappointed when he's not.

When Sete was leading, I never had any confidence that he'd stay there. Seen it so many times before, Rossi holds back, makes his move with a few laps to go then goes on to win as everyone bleats on about how exciting he is. Exciting the first time I saw it maybe. And the second, third, fourth....then not so much.

Still got high hopes for Honda but have no doubt, one way or another Valentino will clean up again. Exciting.

[Michael RCV]

I don't see his tactics on the last corner as 'genius' in the slightest. Gibernau had him beat into the last corner, but Rossi decided to just slam the breaks on majorly late and hit him.

No way was he making that corner at all. From the helicopter shot he was going off, or extremly wide, and he wasn't even learning over enough at all to make that corner! He was still stood up on the bike!

Gibernau's bike was infront, his front tyre was infront of Rossi's, he had to committed to his line as he's allowed to do, then Rossi smashes him and he goes off the track!

Rossi wasn't going to make the corner without Gibernau there. Something similar happened to seasons ago when Tamada did it to Gibernau on Motegi at the bottom of the long downhill straight...Sete ending up in the gravel, Tamada got a penalty after the for it!

This was no different, it was dangerous.

Block passing is ok, smash passing is not.

More like Schumacher now!

[Slippy Diff]

I think the majority of you are just disappointed that Rossi was not beaten and need to vent your anger. Thats OK. There is a long way to go yet and the favour may well be returned.

[chunder]

So funny, you guys seem to believe Vale can get away with anything just because he is Vale. I have seen guys disqualified for the same thing before, albeit a little more obvious but he clearly decided he was goona go for it whatever the consequennces. I have no problem with that i really don't. WHat I have a problem with is the Senna like "I am going for it if you are there or not, you can decide if you are going to stay in the race or not" Now call me old fashioned but that is not quite in the fair play script for me. Like Senna, the guy is talented enough and skilled enough to not need to do thos sort of moves and I just wish it wasn't Sete he did it too, because then I think the reaction from everyone wouyld have been different.
You cant compare to Loris because that was for a championship and he knew he wasnt staying at Aprilia so didnt care.
But you can compare to Doohan and Criville I think and Mick did the same really without touching, it was the foot off the peg that annoyed me, he knew he was gonna hit him or go down and that, to me, is a little desperate for a multiple world champion. But I guess you dont win that much by not going for it. Just dont tell me it was a great move! ANyone can stuff it up the inside motocross style!

[HDTVKSS]

I think ive seen Rossi do somthing similar before, but to Barros ( i think) was a WEst honda anyways, im pretty sure it was at Phillip Island, Rossi just ran him wide and forced him off the track.

Im not a Rossi Supporter by any means ( go Bayliss!) but the guy obviously has a shed load of tallent and to see him pulling moves like that is just disapointing, esp at the 1st race of the season. OK, maybee they dont like each other, but that doesnt mean they shouldnt be able to race cleanly. IMHO there was no way he was going to make that corner, he was upright, foot off the peg, way off line, too hot. Basicly he used Gibernau as a brake.

I really hope this isnt the way things are going to go in the future for MotoGP, we've seen some fantastic overtaking and racing the past couple of seasons, lets keep it exciting, with good hard racing but also lets keep it clean.

[Michael RCV]

I hope he realises he's done wrong, because if he thinks he's ok it might show he's beginning to get abit of an ego and he might try it again.

I'm not a huge Rossi fan, I really like the moves he pulls and the ammount of talent he has. He is probably the best of all time...

...but I'm a Honda man myself. I want Honda to win whatever.

[Alan Jones]

I need to watch the race back, but I'm fairly sure Rossi had his foot off the peg, or nearly off it, for the whole race on certain corners. He certainly didn't look out of control going into the final corner, just had the inside line, braked a lil later, and held the position. Sete, leaned in, thought he'd beaten Vale, and ran into him.
IMO it was a racing incident, no different than many final corner stouches Sete and Vale have had in the previous 2 seasons.The only difference seemed to be the fact they hit each other. i guess it depends on who you want to win as to how you interpret the final corner. Personally, I thought Vale won the final corner, he had the inside and used it. If Sete had backed off a touch, he might have won the race as he could have got on the power earlier and beat him to the line.Whatever, it made for a fantastic season opener.

[Hazza]

Wow! Fantastic! So much action in the Bike forum!

It was a great show none the less, but I agree that maybe Rossi was a little optimistic in the move and the way he was tucked under Sete stopping Sete from leaning into the corner was very dirty.

Its amusing as a couple of laps back I said to my mates "Look out, here he comes" and they said "He's too far back" towhich I replied: "Rossi's never too far back!"

[Slippy Diff]

Originally Posted by chunder

You cant compare to Loris because that was for a championship and he knew he wasnt staying at Aprilia so didnt care.

Your point being....................??

You could say that the 5 points extra gained for the win may be the difference between winning and losing the championship at the end of the season. Same thing. Isn't Rossi on a year by year contract ( I may be wrong) and if so, he may know he is not staying at Yamaha, so does not care.

Your comment was ridiculous and smacks of jingoistic support.

Edited to say:
Well I have just read your profile. You do not seem to be Spanish, so maybe jingoistic is the wrong word.

[Wingman]

Rossi is great, maybe the greatest. But he got that last corner wrong, and the sign of a true champion would have been to take the win, and be a little humble about it.

[marcus]

i wanted both of them to come down and Melandri come through for the Win

well i can dream anyway , but it was a tough call , there certainly was a gap there and of course Rossi had to have a go and for sure sete had to try to defend , I think it was just a sad incident at first i thought Rossi was completely in the wrong and then thought about it andf watched the replay again and then came to the conclusion that it was a racing incident.
I then watched it again and realized he would never of made the corner if Sete wasnt there.

so i dunno what to think now but it certainly made it exciting.

best thing to happen was Rossi laughing at sete as they walked up to the podium , I mean come on Sete priorities son , stop playing the fool and get on with the job boy

Loris rode with broken bones in his foot and now sete is unsure he can ride next weekend , sheesh

But good on track stuff , hard racing debatably fair or unfair depending on your view , cant wait to see what happens in Portugal

[chunder]

Haha what a load of old rubbish. I would expect more from an islander, its usually the Auusies I wind up on here! (sorry guys coulsnt help it!)
Loris was on a hiding to nothing, he knew what he had to do to win and didnt care about what happened to Tetsuya. His mindset was the same as Vale's but my point being that his move was for the world championship not just the first race in a season. I know what you mean about contracts but even so he is not a race by race and Vale does not need to race for win money hardly!
I just dont like moves like that and as I said to do it this early may be setting out your stall or putting someone in their place but come on!
Have to admit though I do wish it wasn't on Sete, coz now he is playing the wounded animal bit and that just smacks of sore loser!

[Canberra>karter]

Yep I thought Sete was hard done by, but telling the interviewer he doesn't know if he will race next weekend is just crazy. He will have plenty of oportunities this season to return the favour, and instead of playing hurt he should be fired up and looking forward too it!

[maximus]

What disgusted me the most was the crowd booing over the national anthem. Yes the move may have been wrong in their eyes (I had no problem with it myself) but booing over the anthem is rude and disrespectful.

[Marbot]

I really don't know! Such is the mentality of some Rossi fans VR could well have launched rockets at Sete on that last corner and they would still defend him.

VR seems to have a win at all costs attitude,reminds me of someone else,can't think who.

[tally-bally-ho]

As Boots says, there was a gap and Rossi went for it. It was a great move and Sete had plenty of time to concede the position, but he inisiting on fighting for it out of sheer pride. Stop complaining.

All he had to do was let Rossi run wide & do him on the exit, but he was on home turf, a Spaniard in Spain. He had led the race for a long time until Rossi intervened. Macho pride clouds judgement.

[Michael RCV]

Originally Posted by martyn bott

I really don't know! Such is the mentality of some Rossi fans VR could well have launched rockets at Sete on that last corner and they would still defend him.

LOL.

I think atleast Rossi shouldn't of show boated so much, ramming someone off the track to win, he should of stayed quite like he knew he'd made a mistake.

I've really gone off Rossi now. Maybe he's into that position that all the things will go his way because he's champion. Like Schumacher always got decisions to go his way...

[SALEEN S7R]

Personally I was dissapointed by the move Vale made on Sete, was a move made in desperation because he messed up half way through the last lap. Sete would never have made such a move on Vale, or any other rider. Heck, even the Eurosport commentators were saying he seemed just a little too "cocky" on the podium, and when they asked Shakey what he thought of the incident I think he summed up the situation nicely.

[Knowlesy]

Yeah, but Sete will never be a champion. He needs to develop a hard nose, he is far too babyish at times. He crumbles mentally after losing one race. The 2005 championship has already been decided.

I don't think Rossi made a move whereby he was thinking he could barge into Sete and take the win. I think he just misjudged the corner in the heat of the moment. His footpeg movements looked panicced going into the corner and he had nowhere to go.

If Sete had been a little more aware he could have just parked the bike and waited for Vale to shoot off into the gravel trap.......but the racing was too close and frenetic for Sete to be able to make such a decision.

it's unfortunate......but it was still a racing incident in my view.

[Yoong Montoya]

Originally Posted by Slippy Diff

There is a long way to go yet and the favour may well be returned.

That's what bothers me. Sete could end up pulling a Gilles Villeneuve and seriously injuring or even killing himself trying to beat Valentino at the next race. Gilles at Imola 1982 and Sete at Jerez 2005 reacted pretty much exactly the same way post race.

[alesi95]

I can understand why Gibernau is furious, but if he hadnt been so insistant on closing the door then he would have been ok......the beauty of hindside.

[Alex Hodgkinson]

hmm it annoys me when people say rossi is the greatest rider ever.

Do they really mean it?

better than Giacomo Agostini, Geoff Duke, Jim Redman, Mike Hailwood, Phil Read, Nieto etc etc etc...?



For me so many of those riders are legends and greats in their own rights and can not and should not be compared to Rossi...

[Yoong Montoya]

Originally Posted by alesi95

I can understand why Gibernau is furious, but if he hadnt been so insistant on closing the door then he would have been ok......the beauty of hindside.

Tell that to Gilles Villeneuve.

[Slippy Diff]

Originally Posted by chunder

Haha what a load of old rubbish.

I am glad you have the decency to admit that. Realising that what you posted was rubbish takes courage

Originally Posted by chunder

Have to admit though I do wish it wasn't on Sete, coz now he is playing the wounded animal bit and that just smacks of sore loser!

Spot on.