MotoGP Round 8 - German GP

[frostie]

Sachsenring this weekend. Interesting to see how Rossi does this weekend and if the changes made at the Aragon test to his braking setup work on a track with lots of heavy braking and slow corners. Pedrosa will be looking to win again but the big question will be how much ground Lorenzo loses to him.

Moto2 could be close this weekend. Kallio has had a few podiums at the Sachsenring and looks ready to get back on the rostrum. Should be a Redding and Espargaro fight at the front but Rabat could be there or thereabouts too this weekend.

Moto3 will be the same guys as ever

[chunder]

Wouldnt say Sachsen has tons of heavy braking, its not a fast track, there are a few stops, but no more than any other, and not from high speed.

What it does have is edge grip issues, probably the track where you spend the longest time on the dge of the tyre, and that is gonna be the main issue, especially with Bridgestones being very tricky and notoriosuly hard to setup for edge grip.

If Cal can find that setup I think he gonna fly here, and I think if Marquez can he will too. But historically its weird, you wouldnt think it but Honda have done OK, despite it looking like a Yam track based on front endy stuff and not power.

[canamman]

OMG!!!! Lorenzo highsided on the repaired collar bone.
Uffda! That dude can not catch a break. Surgery scheduled.

[Dani Filth]

and it seems Pedrosa is following.. just crashed in FP3 quite hard

[GORDON STREETER]

I would think that Lorenzo's chances of another title have gone this year.

[Lancsbreaker]

When you hear Crutchlow describe his injuries, yet he can put in a qualy performance like that, I really do think these guys are on a different plane.....or possibly planet!

Both Lorenzo and Pedrosas high-siders looked nasty

[cg7aa]

If you were a manufacturer having spent cubic inches of money in developing your bike technology, how would you feel about Aprilia quietly and slowly creeping into the picture having presumably spent less?

[canamman]

Originally Posted by cg7aa

If you were a manufacturer having spent cubic inches of money in developing your bike technology, how would you feel about Aprilia quietly and slowly creeping into the picture having presumably spent less?

Then they should step up to the plate and take a swing at Yam & Hon.
Ducati can not get it done, at this moment in time.

[chunder]

Don't believe the hype cg

Aleix did naff all on a Ducati a few years ago and has never shoed this level of pace on countless good bikes in 250 and Moto2

Remember that bike is run by Aspar, the doyen of MotoGP and Spanish millions, you don't see de Puniet suddenly running up front now do you? And he was level pegging with him last year pretty much?

That bike is a factory Moto GP Aprilia in everything but name, it will be running the best electronics, a factory engine (apparently one Randy hasn't got) and the best of everything.

Ezpeleta and Dorna want CRT to be a success, and this is their method of doing it.

The rest of the CRT bikes are still pretty much nowhere, strange that a Spaniard on a Spanish run team who has run Aprilia's for years is all of a sudden right up there

I don't doubt that Aleix is a talent and fully deserving of his praise, but it all smacks a bit to me of a false dawn for CRT's benefit. If Gresini, Ioda, Suter were up there too I would more inclined to be shouting about it a bit more

[gomick]

Sometimes you make sense, just sometimes

[chunder]

Ask the Le Mans fans on the sports car forum!

I got so many bad comments my CP is now negative! lol

[cg7aa]

Originally Posted by gomick

Sometimes you make sense, just sometimes

Most of my education in bike racing has come from this forum and the man himself.

It's always good to take a step back and look beyond the headlines. So, if that bike is more that your normal CRT, why are other commentators who are supposedly in the know not making it very clear that it is not what it seems to be?

Yes, the rider is riding well but the bike equally is a bit of a special bike, nearer a prototype that anything else. Some of them may be hinting it but they are not saying it clearly enough. Who cares and does it matter? Probably no one to the former and yes to the latter because it provides context otherwise we get a false picture.

[JohnnyFiama]

How does Aleix doing well and the rest doing badly make CRT look like a success? Surely if they wanted it to be a success that badly they would change the rules in their favour?

You're right that he is certainly getting top (CRT) kit but his bike still isn't as good as a satellite Honda or Yamaha and he's running with them so fair play....

The ever-reliable motomatters is reporting today that the organisers actually want less Spanish riders and are concerned with the number of Spaniards in the top flight.

Before you get too cynical about Dorna you would have been unlikely to have seen Toseland and Crutchlow without some Dorna money....

[chunder]

Both Cal and James were largely at Yamaha because of sponsorship

And lets face it James was a double world champion, hardly likely to have to go begging. And when he went back to WSB they both stayed with him, it was only when he went on to BMW that sponsors quite rightly left him.

Cal was a little different but had long links with Yamaha and Monster going back to BSB days, this would have eased the way considerably.

Dorna are very aware that having some representation on the grid from a number of countries is healthy. Back in the day, Byrne McWilliams, Hodgson and a few others all got help, but these days I think Brits get there more on results and talent, even though Cal was initially something of a risk.

As for Espag, he might be mixing it with a few factory bikes, but that says more about the average talent on them than anything about Espag, I think if you put most riders on that Priller they would be winning CRT, maybe not doing super well, but still very quick.

Der Puniet isn't all of a sudden miles slower now is he, and Espag did chuff all for years before this bike

[JohnnyFiama]

Originally Posted by chunder

Der Puniet isn't all of a sudden miles slower now is he, and Espag did chuff all for years before this bike

Is De Puniet slower or is Aleix quicker?

In their first year together Aleix was a MotoGP rookie, new to the bikes and the tyres, De Puniet had been around for years.

I have no insight into how their bikes compare but isn't it just as possible that Aleix is now just quicker? Compare his first and second years with other rookies (excluding MM!) over the last few years.

[chunder]

Aleix had one year and one half year on a Pramac Ducati so was not a GP rookie I am afraid He did a ful year in 2010 and a few races in 2009. And did very little, but it was on the worts bike on the grid!

Has also beein in GP since 2004! So knows the tracks

His bike is rumoured to ahve a different engine to Randy's.

[JohnnyFiama]

Originally Posted by chunder

Aleix had one year and one half year on a Pramac Ducati so was not a GP rookie

Good point! My mistake, I forgot that...

[bestfit]

Originally Posted by chunder

His bike is rumoured to ahve a different engine to Randy's.

Rumoured by who?
From what I have been reading the bikes are identical but Randy is struggling with it's setup while Espargaro has gelled with it. Not dissimilar to Rossi on the factory M1 prior to Assen.

[chunder]

I did hear that Espag has a slightly better engine

Randy is past his sell by date anyway to be honest, he isn't crashing this year much is he, and that means he isn't trying!

To be fair if I was taking that home every night I would have given up straightaway!

[frostie]

Aleix had a different spec engine up until Assen and since then both Aspar riders are on the spec 3 Aprilia engine from what I've been told. But yeah for most of the year Aleix has had the better engine

[chunder]

Dear God Laguna is rubbish

Utterly dire race

[gomick]

Always has been, bar the corkscrew turns... So many better tracks in the US, yet they continuously go there!

[wnut]

Originally Posted by chunder

Dear God Laguna is rubbish

Utterly dire race

Marquez's pass on Rossi was pretty special; Rossi needs to go away and take a long hard look at himself!

Great effort by Lorenzo to get back and ride, then get sixth place to boot!

[JohnnyFiama]

Originally Posted by chunder

Dear God Laguna is rubbish

Utterly dire race

Sometimes forums are a depressingly negative world...... agreed it wasn't the greatest race in terms of overtaking but there was a lot in it to watch. Could Marquez win on his debut at the track? Could Bradl get his first podium? How would Pedrosa and Lorenzo do with their injuries? Would Rossi continue to show signs of improvement?

So no, there wasn't a lot of crash-bang-wallop racing but there often isn't but there were still a lot of interesting stories in the race (including the MM/VR corkscrew incident). It was great to see Bradl do well and how happy the LCR team were. Well done to Marquez, Lorenzo and Pedrosa. Good to see Bautista back near the front. Personally I enjoyed it.

You've said before you're grateful to BT for stopping you watching it next year, why not stop now and find something more enjoyable to do for 45 minutes on a Sunday?

I would suggest WSB but you moan about that too....

[chunder]

I'm not the only one bemoaning the lack of action these days

Marquez is fine, but my main gripe with him is the way he has been groomed by the people involved since the very beginning, there must be plenty of other riders who were as good who haven't had the backing of the best sponsors aswell as the people running the series.

As for the race, other than the pass, it was incident free really, if you want to watch Ducati's being useless, a couple of blokes riding for their contracts and a bloke with a shoulder injury riding for points, then fair enough. I guess if you really want to find little pockets of interest as you do then you can make it interesting, but once Bautista and Bradl are up there, all you are waiting for is them either to stay or fall back, is that really all that interesting, really? The interest is can they do it again? No one came through the field, no one really dropped away - dull race.

I like to see racing, hence why after watching some superb support class racing for BSB during the day, this was a total letdown!