Impressions From Suzuka

[f1manoz]

* Valentino Rossi dominated and basically picked up from where he left off last year. Had small fights with Biaggi and Capirossi but once in front was basically unchallenged. The Honda is still the class of the field by far, taking 3 of the top 5 positions.

* Max Biaggi did enough to finish second in a good ride. Tohru Ukawa screwed up big time while Sete Gibernau was an impressive fourth. More rides like that will increase his confidence.

* The new Ducati already looks impressive. Despite a poor qualifying, both Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss made excellent starts. Capirossi led the first five laps before falling to third, where he finished, while Troy held fourth and finished a comfortable fifth. Perhaps it is up to Ducati to challenge Honda dominance.

* Yamaha disappeared during the race. Checa went backwards while Alex Barros struggled with knee ligament problems and finished a brave 8th after riding in much pain.

* Suzuki and Kawasaki were nowhere. John Hopkins beat his team-mate Roberts and I wonder how much longer Suzuki will put up with his moaning about the machine when he produces no results.

* Proton were without their four-stroke so it was obvious they would struggle.

* Daijiro Kato is a very lucky man to be alive. My heart lept for a moment when I saw him stricken on the track unconscious, but during the telecast we were given updates and apparently he only suffered head and chest concussion and was taken to the hospital for further checks.

[x_dt]

Re: Kato. Only saw the aftermath of the crash, not the crash itself unless it was shown during a commercial break (has it been shown anywhere?). Just how serious are his injuries (will he be in South Africa)?
Hope he gets well soon.

When did Rossi switch back to Aprilia?

Poggiali came out of nowhere to win the 250cc race. Will we still see a close battle between the Aprilias and Hondas this year or could Poggiali dominate the season?

125cc race - nearly 7 years since Perugini last won. Giansanti misses out again (will he ever win?). It is still impossible to say who the leading championship contenders in 125cc will be and will probably remain so until well into the season.

[gomick]

whats chest concussion - the way the marshalls threw da hero on the stretcher, i reckon he's probably got head and chest injuries - that did not look good....

typical rossi race, max must be realizing that he will finish 2nd again....
ducati - fast.... do we think that they burn there tyres up faster than the honda's
yamaha - spewing barros hurt his knee....
aprilia - impressive ride by edwards, but i think we expected that....
suzuki - hope hopkins beats roberts in every race....
kawasaki - atleast both riders crossed the line at the same time....

[gomick]

in response to x_dt

rossi didnt go back to aprilia - still repsol honda
no footage of da hero crash....

bad luck for ant west who crashed out of 2nd in 250cc race good ride by poggiali.

how about cecchinello's save on the last lap in the 125cc race - sideways like mccoy on the grass with a barrier in touching distance..... that was crazy.

[x_dt]

Any more news on Kato?

[marcus]

I dunno about Kato , that looked mightilly serious , he wasnt moving at all and I have no idea what a chest concussion is ??? perhaps broken ribs or some internal bleading or something like that , but I hope he is Ok.

the 125's were the best race in my book , what an awesome race , checcinello's save on the last lap was amazing but when he missed the chicane I dont think he should have got a 30 second penalty , they should have at least put him back to 5th ,because he was with the leading pack all day and in reality that was the worst he would have finished , but a mighty fine race.

the 250's were pretty good , until Westy fell off , great to see him back and in good form , the best is yet to come for this guy im sure.

the 500's or Moto GP as its known now were pretty good but no one can hold a candle to Rossi , the guy is simply awesome.
great debut for the Ducati's I was very impressed and didnt think they would do as well as that.
good effort by barros as well , he apparently fell in warm up and damaged his knee , so it was couragous of him to do what he did today.

a good start to the year with the excepting of Kato's crash , and its looks like being a great season in all 3 classes.

Bring on Sth Africa.

[BootsOntheSide]

Another amazing ride by Rossi, the guy seems invincible and was spectacular all afternoon. Even on equal hardware, Biaggi can't come close.

Ducati are the most promising of the other teams, they've clearly prepared very well, although I ahve no doubt that there's mroe to come from Kawasaki. Loris and Troy made especially good starts, but ahd no trouble holding onto front-running pace.

Also thumbs up to Barros, who was seemingly in considerable pain, and Gibernau, who had one of his on-days.

I hope Katoh isn't as badly hurt as it looks, get well soon Daj.

[SPman]

Kato is apparently in a coma with serious head. chest and neck injuries.

[Marcel ten Caat]

Dutch teletext reports that doctors have said 'chance of survival' is 15%

[wreckless]

geez what a blow....

on a lighter note, i thought hayden put up a good showing on his debut, better than probobly most of us expected

[Marcel ten Caat]

Taken from Crash.net

The latest news on his condition is that he has serious head, neck and chest injuries and is in a coma. His heartbeat is belived to have been restarted by Doctors at the circuit and he is now in intensive care at a nearby Hospital.

[Winther]

Yeah his heart stopped, then they revived him.
They talk about a slight improvement.
And this guy has a small son if I am not mistaken....damn I hope he will make it.

[Marcel ten Caat]

Eurosport update on the injuries
- fractured skull
- severe neck trauma
- punctured lungs

[f1manoz]

This is just tragic news. I was hoping my first suspicions were incorrect..

Kato will be in my prayers.

*fingers crossed*

[racer69]

My thoughts:

- They've stuffed the track (well, the last part anyway)

- Ducati did much better than i thought, i take back my words on how competitive i thought they would be. Great job by Cappirosi and Bayliss

- Impressive ride by Edwards and Hayden, and also Haga, getting back to twelfth after coming off during the race. The Aprilia looks like it could be competitive.

- Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki have alot of work to do.

- Lets hope Kato can pull through

[Matthopps]

What have they done to the last corner? Surely F1 aren't going to use that pddly-little excuse for a chicane that's bein installed after the existing chicance- which has also being modified.

[racer69]

I was wondering the same thing, from what i could see it looked like the extra chicane that the bikes took was added to the outside of the normal right hander onto the main straight. From what i can gather from that the F1 cars will follow the normal track.

- I must also add a great ride by Gibernau. It seems he made a pitstop to fix his bike, fell to the back and unfortunatly witnessed Kato's accident, yet came through to finish 4th.

[f1manoz]

Gibernau was the only one to see the Kato accident. Wonder how that will affect him over the next few days.