Sherry de la Frontera! Motogp Rd. 2

[Gerben24]

So, Ilmor is not competing. A shame! Hope to see them back very soon. Still, there will be 20 riders on the grid this Sunday. Akiyoshi the Japanese wild card for Suzuki will join Hopper and Vermeulen. Are Suzuki preparing Akiyoshi for a full season in Motogp?

http://www.crash.net/news_View~cid~6~id~144806.htm

Is Ducati gonna be as strong as last season? Their top speed isn't much use at Jerez.

Are we going to have a Rossi - Pedrosa battle as with the IRTA test?

All I can say is: BRING IT ON!

[jhansen]

Well, as if I didn't say this last time, but I think Rossi and Pedrosa are the favorites here. Edwards should be quick to. I'm curious about the Ducati boys. Caprirossi showed last year that Ducati can win here. But then again, he didn't have to face Rossi. I'd say those are the five pundents. Suzuki should do fairly well along with the other Hondas.

The atmosphere will be awesome. In terms of the spectacle, this will be much nicer than boring Qatar.

[Knowlesy]

Sherry de la Frontera?

Goddamn, I can't wait for this race. I expect it to be a repeat of the BMW test shootout..... Rossi vs. Pedrosa. I just don't see Ducati having such an advantage at this track.

I do hope Capirossi gets back into the reckoning though.

[BootsOntheSide]

I expect Akoyishi is only doing this race because it's the first European round, and thus cheaper to get a bike to than Qatar.

[Pro Racer]

i would say Rossi, Pedro and the Suzuki's will be good Ducati i will reserve judgment on as their straight line speed isn't going to help and their chassis dosn't look that quick the way Rossi caught Casey around the back at Qatar.

[HDTVKSS]

im gonna stick my neck out and say that the duc will be strong here as well. All comes down to tyres really!

hopefully pedro bot has a BSOD and fails to factor. i think most of the hondas will struggle a bit here.

[Hazza]

I'll say the grid'll be


Rossi
Stoner
Edwards

Melandri
Elias
Pedrosa

Hayden
Hopkins
Chris V.

[Schummy]

Certainly Jerez is not Qatar in terms of straights, its two straights are about half than the one the last GP.

But, anyway, the back straight is after a long quickish corner, so it is rather fast and aero can be useful; also it is partially downhill. The front one is less fast with a very slow entry and slightly uphill, so horsepower is of interest.

If Ducati's top speed comes mainly from aero or engine I don't know, but it will be interesting to see the gaps in both straights to compare.

I expect (or perhaps hope) Ducs will be good here (podium in potential range). Obviously I think Rossi will be a main candidate to win (not hard to guess!). But my unknown quantity is Honda.

Pedrosa will be strong here, but I'm not sure about Honda's all around competitiveness. Qatar was globally rather disappointing, their race lap times were mediocre. Hayden, Melandri, Elias? I really don't know who of them can be the best in the race, and I don't know if they will be able to opt for a podium!

[jhansen]

Originally Posted by Schummy

Certainly Jerez is not Qatar in terms of straights, its two straights are about half than the one the last GP.

But, anyway, the back straight is after a long quickish corner, so it is rather fast and aero can be useful; also it is partially downhill. The front one is less fast with a very slow entry and slightly uphill, so horsepower is of interest.

If Ducati's top speed comes mainly from aero or engine I don't know, but it will be interesting to see the gaps in both straights to compare.

I expect (or perhaps hope) Ducs will be good here (podium in potential range). Obviously I think Rossi will be a main candidate to win (not hard to guess!). But my unknown quantity is Honda.

Pedrosa will be strong here, but I'm not sure about Honda's all around competitiveness. Qatar was globally rather disappointing, their race lap times were mediocre. Hayden, Melandri, Elias? I really don't know who of them can be the best in the race, and I don't know if they will be able to opt for a podium!

This bit of commentary is brought to you by the FIM Winners Game, a better kind of fantasy competition.

[Schummy]

Certainly those losers in F1 forum have to learn one or two things about games.

Ha ha ha h...err... sorry , I'm so sorry for this unfortunate sincere post

[Knowlesy]

At least we don't blame late results on dodgy recordings.

[Schummy]

It's right, but obviously it doesn't make sense to record those boring F1 races

(Oh, I have just remembered *I record* F1 races! I want to retire that argument)

BTW, I didn't see 125cc and 250cc in Qatar because of my unfamous dodgy recordings . I'm going to see them in Jerez, definitively. I expect Jerez to be a good set of races, but I cannot opine about contenders in the two smaller categories because of the formerly expressed reason.

Can someone say who can likely win (apart from Lorenzo, that is ) 125cc/250cc in Sherryland?

[Hazza]

An*Aspar Aprillia rider in the 125s (So, Talmasci et al) and one of the "Usual suspects" Lorenzo, Dovisioso etc in 250

[Gerben24]

I didn't think the Honda was that good in 250 (in Quatar). Jerez is a totally different ballgame, I know. Still I would say Lorenzo is the favourite for victory. Barbera might be a good bet at his home GP. One thing is for sure, de Angelis is going to be second!

[Hazza]

[jhansen]

Originally Posted by Schummy

Certainly those losers in F1 forum have to learn one or two things about games.

Ha ha ha h...err... sorry , I'm so sorry for this unfortunate sincere post

Yet for some reason I have not seen a statistical analysis on Moto GP from the master mathematician from Lagrangian. You know, like the ones I see in the F1 forum...

[Hazza]

Thats cos Dorna do it for you on the MotoGP site.

[Schummy]

Dorna's statistics are very ordinary. Raw data in its web is pretty good, though.

FORIX stats are probably the best all-round for F1 and now for MotoGP.

As races go by along the season, probably that guy Schummy put some bizarre calculations here

Anyway, there in F1 they need more stats because most of time they are lost in their arguments

... and because F1 is the most important forum in ten-tenths, but I cannot say it here

Here we are more informed. We are the elite of motorsport , that's the reason we are few... At least I *hope* that's the reason... (but I know it is not)

[Gerben24]

Originally Posted by Schummy

Dorna's statistics are very ordinary. Raw data in its web is pretty good, though.

FORIX stats are probably the best all-round for F1 and now for MotoGP.

As races go by along the season, probably that guy Schummy put some bizarre calculations here

Anyway, there in F1 they need more stats because most of time they are lost in their arguments

... and because F1 is the most important forum in ten-tenths, but I cannot say it here

Here we are more informed. We are the elite of motorsport , that's the reason we are few... At least I *hope* that's the reason... (but I know it is not)

F1??? Isn't that one of the Sub-classes of Motogp?

[Gerben24]

Honda don't have a lot to complain about at the mo:

Free practice 1 times from Crash.net:

1. Kenny Roberts USA Team Roberts (M) 1min 41.182 secs
2. Marco Melandri ITA Gresini Honda (B) 1min 41.418 secs
3. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1min 41.450 secs
4. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1min 41.566 secs
5. Toni Elias SPA Gresini Honda (B) 1min 41.613 secs
6. John Hopkins USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1min 41.860 secs
7. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1min 41.959 secs
8. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team (M) 1min 42.057 secs
9. Colin Edwards USA Fiat Yamaha Team (M) 1min 42.078 secs
10. Shinya Nakano JPN Konica Minolta Honda (M) 1min 42.199 secs
11. Carlos Checa SPA Honda LCR (M) 1min 42.205 secs
12. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1min 42.269 secs
13. Alex Barros BRA Pramac d'Antin MotoGP (B) 1min 42.383 secs
14. Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1min 42.427 secs
15. Alex Hofmann GER Pramac d'Antin MotoGP (B) 1min 42.515 secs
16. Randy de Puniet FRA Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 1min 42.892 secs
17. Olivier Jacque FRA Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 1min 42.997 secs
18. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Dunlop Tech 3 Yamaha (D) 1min 43.161 secs
19. Makoto Tamada JPN Dunlop Tech 3 Yamaha (D) 1min 43.309 secs
20. Kousuke Akiyoshi JPN Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1min 44.168 secs

[Schummy]

Early times yet but Stoner looks as the seasoned team leader in Ducati.

Look at the Kawas, they look puny ("pun" intended)

[Schummy]

As I said, very early times yet, but distribution of nationalities, in the ten first places, is significative of current status in each category (even counting the local spanish factor).

125cc: 3 spanish, 3 italian, 1 hungarian, 1 japanese, 1 czech, 1 austrian
250cc: 5 spanish, 4 italian(*), 1 finnish
MotoGP: 4 USA, 2 spanish, 2 italian, 1 japanese, 1 rare country
(*) Altough sanmarinese people pretend they are not italian, I don't fall in that trap

In short, many spaniards, many italians, americans in bigger bikes and some japanese here and there (it used to have more of them years ago). The rest are more or less "random", depending on the lonely talent of some individuals.

I think the most constant along the years are italians. Currently we are in a wave of spaniards, and years ago we had a wave of japanese. Other nationalities sometimes have (modest) waves as well (yes, australians for example).

[Knowlesy]

Carlos Checa!

[jhansen]

Originally Posted by Schummy

Dorna's statistics are very ordinary. Raw data in its web is pretty good, though.

FORIX stats are probably the best all-round for F1 and now for MotoGP.

As races go by along the season, probably that guy Schummy put some bizarre calculations here

Anyway, there in F1 they need more stats because most of time they are lost in their arguments

... and because F1 is the most important forum in ten-tenths, but I cannot say it here

Here we are more informed. We are the elite of motorsport , that's the reason we are few... At least I *hope* that's the reason... (but I know it is not)

Of course, the F1 Forum need stats to talk about, as there is not much racing to discuss.

[jhansen]

FP2 times:

1 Carlos Checa Honda LCR Honda RC212V 1:40.851
2 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda RC212V 1:40.906
3 Toni Elias Honda Gresini Honda RC212V 1:40.972
4 Casey Stoner Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati GP7 1:41.171
5 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha M1 1:41.198
6 Kenny Roberts Jr Team Roberts KR212V 1:41.201
7 John Hopkins Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki GSV-R800 1:41.245
8 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki GSV-R800 1:41.305
9 Colin Edwards Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha M1 1:41.339
10 Alex Barros Pramac D'Antin Ducati GP7 1:41.362
11 Loris Capirossi Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati GP7 1:41.409
12 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini Honda RC212V 1:41.477
13 Nicky Hayden Repsol Honda Team Honda RC212V 1:41.536
14 Randy De Puniet Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki 1:41.666
15 Alex Hofmann Pramac D'Antin Ducati GP7 1:41.835
16 Makoto Tamada Tech 3 Yamaha Yamaha 1:42.097
17 Sylvain Guintoli Tech 3 Yamaha Yamaha M1 1:42.311
18 Olivier Jacque Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki 1:42.402
19 Shinya Nakano Konica Minolta Honda Honda RC212V 1:42.424
20 Kousuke Akiyoshi Rizla Suzuki Suzuki GSV-800 1:42.549

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2007/Mar/070323b.htm