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MotoGP Jerez 2013 Results

May 5, 2013

An edited version of this story will appear on Motorcycle.com sometime tomorrow.  Until then, enjoy the raw copy here.

Pedrosa wins as Marquez and Lorenzo tangle 

The 2013 Gran Premio bwin de Espana brought a startling reversal of fortune for the top teams and riders in the premier class.  Yamaha owned the practice sessions as factory studs Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi, joined by the ascendant Cal Crutchlow, took three of the top four spots again and again.  Honda, though, qualified Dani Pedrosa and rookie Marc Marquez on the front row.  The final podium of Pedrosa, Marquez and Lorenzo delivered a new series leader and a furious double world champion. 

By all rights, defending champion Jorge Lorenzo should have had a more satisfying result today.  He turned 26 on Saturday, and celebrated by having Turn 13 named in his honor.  He had been at or near the top of the timesheets all weekend and qualified on the pole.  While everyone around him spent Saturday crashing into the gravel, Lorenzo ran as if on rails.  In the stifling Spanish heat on Sunday, though, it was Dani Pedrosa who had the pace.  After a poor start, Lorenzo moved back into the early lead on Lap 1 and held it until Lap 6, when Pedrosa passed him on his way to a comfortable win.

By then, Lorenzo was getting dogged by rookie Marquez, who showed no respect going through aggressively on Rossi on Lap 2, with Crutchlow sitting in 5th place hoping for bad karma among the leaders.  As the race approached its midpoint, Marquez was attacking Lorenzo at every opportunity, slipping, sliding and generally causing heart failure among the team and his ever-present dad.  After one of those “moments” on Lap 12, the rookie backed off, appearing content to settle for the third spot on the rostrum.  The race at that point devolved into another of those premier class processions most everyone hates, other than the 111,000 locals in attendance going mental over the prospect of an all-Spanish rostrum.

As the riders crossed the start/finish line for the last time, Marquez re-appeared on Lorenzo’s pipes.  Lorenzo, who had struggled all day with front grip, appeared to be in trouble, but continued blocking Marquez, other than a momentary exchange of positions around Turn 6.  Finally, though, at, of all places, the Jorge Lorenzo corner, its namesake went a shade wide and Marquez, lizard brain firmly in control, dove inside.  As Lorenzo attempted to cut back, the two touched, with Lorenzo being forced wide into third place both for the day and the season.

As race announcers Gavin and Emmett observed, it appeared Marquez, accelerating when he should have been on the brakes, would have run wide had Lorenzo not been there to provide a bounce.  From here, it looked to be one of those incidents where Race Direction might step in and assess some of their shiny new penalty points for 2013.  [At deadline, the silence from the stewards is deafening.]  Lin Jarvis, who directs Yamaha racing, spoke of the contact as being “just a racing incident,” showing immense self-control.  Lorenzo, visibly angry after the race, rebuffed several attempts from Marquez to make nice, but declined to threaten vengeance upon the gifted upstart at LeMans.

Farther Back on the Grid

Valentino Rossi, who ran an uninspired fourth today, sits in fourth place for the year, 15 points behind teammate Lorenzo, and not yet as relevant as we had hoped entering the season.  Cal Crutchlow, with puzzling rumors circulating about him losing his Tech 3 Yamaha ride next season to Pol Espargaro, delivered another gritty performance today for fifth, after crashing twice on Saturday and with everything bone and organ to the left of his sternum throbbing.

A number of other riders acquitted themselves nicely today.  Alvaro Bautista, on the GO&FUN Gresini Honda, battled Crutchlow most of the day, eventually coming in sixth, ten seconds in front of Nicky Hayden, who led the woeful Ducati effort and spanked teammate Andrea Dovizioso by some 16 seconds.  Aleix Espargaro qualified poorly in 13th but finished 9th, once again topping the CRT charts.  Dude deserves a shot at a prototype ride next year, especially if his big brother, who washed out of the premier class once already, gets one at Tech 3.  And Michele Pirro, wildcarding onboard the so-called Ducati GP13 “Lab Bike”, managed 11th place today, which sounds better than it actually is, given the fact that three of the five riders who crashed out early likely would have beaten him.

The Big Picture

In a split second, the 2013 standings shifted, with rookie Marquez now standing alone at the top of the pile, with a large bull’s-eye on his back.  Pedrosa is resurrected into second place, four points down and a single point ahead of Lorenzo, who had entered the weekend tied for the lead.  After three races this season, we’ve had three winners, a major upset, and the beginning of a new inter-team rivalry.  Jorge Lorenzo is saying his Yamaha M-1 is not yet good enough, although he certainly is.  And let’s not forget that Jerez is one of the tight, slow tracks that typically favors the Honda RC213V.  Lorenzo can be forgiven for being in a bad mood after today’s cluster.

Quick Hitters

The rider suddenly under considerable pressure is 2012 Moto2 champion Stefan Bradl, whose quick offseason testing on the LCR Honda raised eyebrows and expectations heading into the season.  With two crashes in three starts and 11 points for the season, Bradl may start looking over his shoulder.  Given, however, the history of Germans in France, we can expect young Stefan to return to form at LeMans, possibly at the head of a Panzer division…Yonny Hernandez took the weekend off, qualifying 21st and crashing out early.  And here I thought he was on his way up the food chain.

Randy de Puniet, who pressed teammate Espargaro all last year for top CRT honors, appears to be coasting this season, after rumors of a romance with Suzuki surfaced several weeks ago.  With but six points to show for 2013, he’ll undoubtedly play the “home race” card in two weeks and turn a fast lap in qualifying before settling back into the bottom ten on Sunday…Colin Edwards made a liar out of me, moving from 17th to 15th position on the last lap to steal his first championship point of the year, and making hash of my prediction he would go 0-for-2013.

There will be a one day testing session here on Monday, and, as has become customary since Casey Stoner left in 2011, Ducati has the most on the line. Having again raised expectations with their new Lab Bike, we are fully prepared for another major disappointment from the Bologna factory, which seems to need an entire division just to keep track of the hundreds of iterations of the once-proud Desmosedici floating around.  These days, Ducati Corse must resemble O’Hare Airport on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Watching the Sun Setting on the Circuito de Jerez

Although attendance today was huge—111,000—it’s down from 2010, when I joined 130,000 fans at the storied Andalusian venue.  As the Spanish equivalent of the Daytona 500, the Grand Premio bwin de Espana continues to draw spectators, some of whom probably had to hock their watches to buy tickets.  The track oozes water when the weather is wet and oil when it’s hot.  Hot and slippery works great for sex, but not so much for two-wheeled racing, as it was today when five riders crashed out on the first four laps.  And the infield, which was a manicured lawn back in the day, is now a sea of dandelions and weeds, a symptom of the decline of the Spanish economy and the Estoril-like future of one of its most loved venues.  Qué pena!

 

 

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MotoGP 2012 Phillip Island Results

October 28, 2012

An edited, slightly less entertaining version of this article appears on Motorcycle.com.

Stoner wins!  Pedrosa crashes!  Lorenzo clinches! 

In the 41 minutes it took to run the 2012 Australian Grand Prix, a number of pressing questions were resolved.  Would Repsol Honda top gun Casey Stoner be able to make it six wins in a row at his home crib?  Could teammate Dani Pedrosa make it four in a row for 2012?  Would factory Yamaha mullah Jorge Lorenzo pick up the three points on Pedrosa he needed to clinch the 2012 championship?  And, finally, would one of the local wallabies hop through the infield prior to the race as a reminder we were on the other side of the planet?  In order, the answers were:  Yes.  No.  Yes, and Yes. 

In front of 53,000 delirious fans, Casey Stoner, as is his wont, ran away from the field for his sixth consecutive premier class win in Australia.  Being the fastest rider on the fastest bike at the fastest track on the tour, there was little question that Stoner would go out in grand style in front of his homeys.  He was at the top of every single timesheet all weekend and never seriously threatened during the race itself.  Although he didn’t enjoy a great start, he oozed past Lorenzo on a decisive second lap into the lead and ended up winning by some nine seconds.

Want a good definition of the word “dominant”?  Over the last six years at Phillip Island, Casey Stoner led 160 of 162 laps.  Does that constitute perhaps the greatest home field advantage in the history of sports?  Tough question.  But the only good news about Stoner’s impending retirement—I read he’s moving on to automobile racing starting next year—is that someone else will have a chance to stand at the top of the podium next year at Phillip Island.

Pedrosa Finally Cracks

Dani Pedrosa came into the race today needing to make up 23 championship points in two races, an almost impossible task unless Lorenzo were to make some kind of uncharacteristic gaffe.  Despite having won five of the last six races, Pedrosa was unable to gain much ground on his consistent countryman.  As Pedrosa kept winning, and the deficit to Lorenzo shrank ever so slowly, pressure continued to build on the diminutive Spaniard.  Today, it found its release.

Starting from the front row, the three Aliens had good starts, with Stoner settling into third position while his tires warmed up.  Pedrosa put the pedal to the metal (?) and went through on Lorenzo into the lead midway through the first lap.  On lap two, Stoner went through on Lorenzo, and was dogging his teammate when Dani lost the front in a slow, arcing lowside that looked eerily like Simoncelli’s crash last year at Sepang.  Although he was able to re-mount his damaged bike, he entered pit lane moments later, his day, and year, suddenly over.

On the back nine of his MotoGP career at age 27, the brooding, introspective Pedrosa appears to be on his way to becoming one of those eternal runners-up.  Entering today’s race, he, Stoner and Lorenzo each had 44 career wins, a statistical anomaly of the first order.  But Stoner and Lorenzo have now each won two world championships, while Pedrosa has a fourth, three seconds, two thirds and about a pound of titanium plates and screws to show for his efforts since 2006.  I’m reminded of Fran Tarkington and Jim Kelly, both stellar NFL quarterbacks with 0-4 records in Super Bowls.  I’m thinking of Karl Malone, who played second fiddle to Michael Jordan all those years; in terms of championship rings, it ended up Jordan 6, Malone 0.  The difference between being a great athlete and a world champion often comes down to timing, luck, and karma, none of which Pedrosa seems to enjoy to any great degree.

From the Department of Idle Speculation, we believe next season may be his last to capture a world championship.  He will have Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi to deal with on the factory Yamahas—ugh—as  well as his new teammate, Alien-in-waiting Marc Marquez, who himself clinched the Moto2 title today.  Pedrosa should be able to contain Marquez during his rookie season, but the New Kid in Town looks ready to start winning premier class titles sooner rather than later.  And Lorenzo, hard as nails and regular as a piston, is two years younger than Pedrosa, who will turn 30 during the 2014 season.

Winning a title is not going to get any easier for Dani Pedrosa.

Image2012 MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo

Jorge Lorenzo—First Spanish Double World Champion

As dominant as the Spanish riders in all three classes are these days, it’s surprising to me that Lorenzo is the first to win two premier class titles.  The secrets to his success are, in my opinion, consistency and a crystal clear understanding of what he is capable and incapable of doing on a Yamaha M1.  He has matured greatly since joining the premier class in 2008, and in mid-career is at the top of his game.  Assuming he podiums in Valencia, he will set a new MotoGP record by recording 17 podium finishes in one season.  That, folks, is consistency.

In several respects, Lorenzo’s Yamaha has some disadvantages compared to the Repsol Honda RC213V, most notably the Honda’s superior acceleration coming out of turns.  This is not to say that the factory Yamaha is a tortoise compared to the Repsol hare.  But it does back up the assertion by many knowledgeable MotoGP people that grand prix racing is 80% rider and 20% bike.

Congratulations to Jorge Lorenzo on a stellar 2012.  I’m pretty sure this will not be his last world championship celebration.

Sidebars

Cal Crutchlow, who had failed to finish four of the last six races, spent a lonely, productive day in third place for his second career premier class podium.  His post-race comments about the inadvisability of going after Lorenzo today were a hoot…Andrea Dovizioso spent his day fighting with satellite Honda pilots Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista, finally going through on both simultaneously late in the last lap for a well-earned fourth place finish…Two of the best battles of the day were intra-team affairs.   Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden played grab-ass all day long, with Rossi prevailing for another ho-hum seventh place finish.  And Power Electronics’ Aleix Espargaro essentially clinched the imaginary CRT championship by out-racing teammate Randy de Puniet for an 11-point lead heading back to Spain.  De Puniet would have to finish, like, sixth at Valencia for any chance to outpoint his teammate, and THAT’s not going to happen.

On to Valencia

And so the grid heads back to Europe for the annual Valenciana Anti-Climax, with nothing on the line, as usual.  Rather than running another meaningless season-ending parade, I think Dorna should organize Valencia as a series of three lap match race heats, with the winners facing off for a five lap finale:

  • Stoner vs. Lorenzo vs. Pedrosa
  • Crutchlow vs. Dovizioso
  • Hayden vs. Rossi
  • Bautista vs. Bradl
  • Barbera vs. Abraham
  • Espargaro vs. de Puniet

Let the winners of each heat compete for a big cash prize, and start them on the grid in the reverse order of their finishing times in the heats, handicapping the field so even Abraham or de Puniet might have a chance to win.  Something like this, it seems, would be a more interesting way to spend a Sunday afternoon on the Iberian peninsula than watching 21 guys compete for a title that has already been decided.

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MotoGP 2012 Brno Results

August 26, 2012

An edited version of this article can be found at Motorcycle.com.

Pedrosa Captures Last Lap Thriller; Race Tightens Again

Last week we suggested that Brno is one of the Yamaha-friendly tracks on the MotoGP circuit, and that factory stud Jorge Lorenzo might well add to his lead in the 2012 championship this weekend.  The top of the practice sheets during the run-up to the race reminded me of a bad 60’s rock-and-roll band—Dani and the Yamahas.  In the end, Repsol Honda mighty mite Pedrosa held off Lorenzo in a stirring last lap to venture within 13 points of the lead for the 2012 title.

With teammate Casey Stoner missing in action due to the ankle injury he suffered at Indianapolis, Pedrosa carried the hopes and expectations of the entire Honda nation into the Czech Republic.  In FP1, he recorded the fastest time, with the next four going to Yamahas.  In FP2, it was pretty much the same story, with Ben Spies falling to eighth.  FP3 virtually duplicated FP1.  During qualifying, Pedrosa crashed early, and had to resort to his #2 bike to finish the session.  Although he struggled somewhat, he eventually captured the last spot on the front row, wedged in between Yamaha stalwarts Lorenzo, Cal Crutchlow, Spies, and Andrea Dovizioso.

In 2010 and 2011 we watched week after week as Jorge Lorenzo would get double-teamed by Hondas—Pedrosa, Stoner, Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli all taking turns making life difficult for the Mallorcan.  Though Lorenzo prevailed in 2010, the numbers last year were too much to overcome, as Stoner rode his RC213V to the title.  As today’s race began, I was thinking it wasn’t going to be Pedrosa’s day, going one-on-four with Yamaha M1s well-suited to the flowing layout of Brno.

Brno 2012:  One for the Pedrosa Family Scrapbook

The race started predictably enough, with Pedrosa sandwiched in between Lorenzo and Cal Crutchlow’s Tech 3 Yamaha.  Once everyone’s tires were warm, Lorenzo and Pedrosa went off alone to do their business, with Crutchlow and his teammate Dovizioso falling back to 3rd and 4th.  Valentino Rossi, who had started from the six hole, his best start of a miserable year, materialized in fifth place, although his GP12 was smoking like a ’62 Rambler.  Satellite Honda dudes Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl trailed Rossi, but not by much and not for long.

For the first half of the race, the only real action was the battle for 5th, as rookie Bradl, looking exceptionally Aryan, went through Bautista on Lap 5 and Rossi on Lap 9.  Pedrosa, who had spent 12 laps admiring his reflection in Lorenzo’s chrome, passed him cleanly on Lap 13 but was unable to get away, the hunter having become the hunted.  Things would remain this way until the last lap of the race.

On Lap 22, Lorenzo, who had been hoping to pressure Pedrosa into a mistake for nine laps, took matters into his own hands and went through on Pedrosa with half a lap left in the race.  Pedrosa, who in past years might have surrendered at this point, stiffened and, in an impressive display of mental strength, bike and balls, seized the lead back from Lorenzo in the last few turns to win by 2/10ths of a second, leaving the fans and the announcers gasping for air.

When Dani Pedrosa’s racing career is over, he will undoubtedly look back at this race as one of his finest hours.  Severely outnumbered, on a track favoring his opponents, and with no room to fall farther back from the championship lead, he held his ground, ran an exceptionally smart race, and snatched victory from the proverbial jaws of defeat.  He has now won three of the last five races after going oh-for-7 at the beginning of the season.  And if he ends up winning the 2012 title, a prospect I find dubious, history may decide that he took the first, or perhaps second, step at Brno.

Elsewhere on the Grid

Cal Crutchlow, newly re-signed on a one year deal with Herve Poncharal’s Tech 3 Yamaha team, spent the day by himself in 3rd place, capturing the first podium for a British rider since one Jeremy McWilliams at Donington in 2000.  Crutchlow’s teammate Andrea Dovizioso, who, during the week, finally signed his two year contract with Ducati, celebrated by finishing off the podium for only the second time in the last six rounds.  Riding for Ducati for the next two years, there’s no point in getting too used to the champagne celebrations, I guess.

Rookie of the Year Stefan Bradl finished the day in 5th place, another superb result for the young German, trailed by underachiever Alvaro Bautista on the San Carlo Gresini Honda.  There is a lot of chatter these days regarding the prototype seat on Fausto Gresini’s team for next season, with Ben Spies among those riders rumored to be taking Bautista’s job.  Were it not for Marc Marquez, Bradl might have been a contender to join Pedrosa on the Repsol factory team next season.  As it is, he will have to wait another two years, at least.

Spots seven through ten were captured, in order, by Rossi, Randy de Puniet, Karel Abraham and Aleix Espargaro.  Teammates RDP and Espargaro would, in a perfect world, be candidates for prototype bikes next year, as they are clearly the cream of the CRT crop.  Alas, the Yamahas and Hondas are all pretty well allocated for 2013, with the possible exception of the San Carlo Honda.  If given the choice between staying with their current team or saddling up a satellite Ducati next season, I’m not sure how they would go.  Their ART bikes seem to give them an equal chance of finishing in the top ten, with far less chance of getting launched into a low Earth orbit by the demonic Desmosedici.

Three Final Thoughts

Without wishing to take anything away from Dani Pedrosa’s glittering 2012 season, we should not lose sight of the fact that, were it not for Alvaro Bautista’s boneheaded move at Assen, which removed Jorge Lorenzo from the proceedings, Pedrosa could easily trail Lorenzo by 33 points today, rather than 13.  Yeah, I know, luck figures heavily in this sport, you gotta take the good with the bad, etc., etc.  But Pedrosa has been pretty fortunate this year, perhaps a cosmic payback for some of the bad luck he’s had during his career, in the form of brake failures, Marco Simoncelli and more.

The six engine rule may play a part in the final third of the season.  Lorenzo was racing his fifth engine today, while Pedrosa was still working his fourth.  With a third of the season yet to come, and Lorenzo having blown one in the collision with Bautista in Holland, things could get a little tight for Lorenzo at the end of the season.  It’s hard to imagine the governing body of any major motorsport agreeing to a completely arbitrary rule that could have a material outcome on one of their championships.  Yet that’s exactly what we might have in store for in 2012.

Finally, the super slo-mo cameras that MotoGP is using this year, at 2500 frames per second, give a completely different view of this sport than that seen by fans at the track.  Through these cameras, you can watch the frames of the bikes flexing, and see the rear tires turning faster than the front, constantly spinning.  You also get the clear impression that the rider and the machine are bonded into a single unit, a completely different aspect from any form of auto racing.  It’s a shame that motorcycle racing in the United States is a fringe sport, while auto racing is a big deal.  At 2500 frames per second, there is no comparison.

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MotoGP Sachsenring Preview

July 3, 2012

An edited version of this article will appear on Motorcycle.com on Thursday, complete with high quality images.  Until then please enjoy this preview of the German Grand Prix.

Pedrosa, Stoner and Lorenzo Square Off in Bavaria

Repsol Honda’s #1 rider, Casey Stoner, is a lucky man.  He’s famous, young, and wealthy, has a beautiful wife and daughter, and reigns at the top of his chosen profession, doing what he loves, or at least likes.  While he may have lost his passion for racing, it still beats working for a living.  Thanks to the vastly ill-considered antics of San Carlo Honda’s Alvaro Bautista at Assen last week, Stoner is also back in contention for the world championship.  Lucky and good is a wicked combination.

The Sachsenring is one of those old world venues surrounded by tidy Teutonic villages and soaring peaks straight out of The Sound of Music.  Between 1962 and 1971 it hosted the East German Grand Prix, which sends a bit of a jangle up the spines of people old enough to remember the old Soviet Bloc.  After a bit of a political flap in ’71, the German Grand Prix bounced around a number of venues until 1998, when improvements at the Sachsenring lured the MotoGP race, and where it has been held every year since.  Organizers recently signed an extension of the contract with Dorna through 2016.  Dass ist eine gute sache, nicht wahr?

Recent History

The 2009 German Grand Prix was one for the ages.  That was the year Casey Stoner suffered from what came to be diagnosed as lactose intolerance.  By mid-season he was starting races like a house on fire, but would run out of gas, as it were, usually finishing well off the podium.  In Germany that year, he led the first 17 laps, at which point the Battle of the Factory Yamahas commenced.  Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, teammates and bitter rivals, went hard at each other for the next 13 laps, Rossi ultimately winning by just under a tenth.  Dani Pedrosa finished 3rd that year, a relatively poor showing for him, as we shall presently see.

The fans got their money’s worth in 2010, enjoying two races in one afternoon.  LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet’s had his leg broken in two places and his bike destroyed as Rizla Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista and Pramac Racing’s Aleix Espargaro were able to avoid neither bike nor rider when the Frenchman went down on Lap 9.  The race was red-flagged.  After the re-start, Pedrosa took command early and eventually finished comfortably ahead of Lorenzo and Stoner, followed by Rossi, who made a very macho early return from injuries suffered at Mugello several weeks previous.

Last year, it was “déjà vu all over again” as Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Stoner finished 1-2-3, although the final standings were in doubt until the last lap.  Pedrosa ended up edging Lorenzo by 1.4 seconds, while Lorenzo punked eventual world champion Stoner and his Repsol Honda by a tenth at the flag.  This was Round 9 last year, at which point Stoner led Lorenzo for the title by a mere 15 points.  From there, Stoner went on to three consecutive wins, with Lorenzo collecting two seconds and a fourth, and that was that.

Of the three major contenders, Pedrosa has the best history in Saxony with a remarkable five wins in eight starts across both the 250cc and premier classes.  Stoner’s first and only win occurred in 2008, and Lorenzo has never won at the Sachsenring in any class, in ten tries.  Finishing second each of the last three years must stick in his throat like a bone.  Our crack research staff is busy scouring the archives to find any other current MotoGP tracks at which Lorenzo has been, um, stoned.  Check back for the results of their hard work…well, never.  You probably don’t care all that much and they don’t really exist anyway.

Final Reflections on Bautista, Lorenzo and the Big Picture

A few half-crazed conspiracy theorists out there are promoting the idea that Bautista’s unseating of Lorenzo at Assen was part of a vast and implausible plot hatched at HRC headquarters in Asaka.  Their “reasoning” is that HRC would gladly make a sacrificial pawn of satellite rider Bautista in order to advance the championship prospects of factory stud Casey Stoner.  This goofy notion does, however, recognize the cozy working relationship between HRC and Fausto Gresini, who seems to enjoy way more factory perks than do the poor French schlubs at LRC.  In any case, we will not dignify the wild speculations of a few fevered motorheads over what was, in truth, a rather ordinary crash.  The layout at Estoril is similar to that at Assen, and these kinds of first-turn crashes happen all the time in Portugal.

Let’s not forget the uproar that took place last year at Jerez when Valentino Rossi, in only his second race on the factory Ducati, clipped Stoner from behind, putting a major damper on the Australian’s early season prospects.  Stoner, you will recall, had opened the season with a mildly surprising win at Losail in his first race on the Honda RC212V.  Thinking that 2011 might be his year, his fans were OUTRAGED that Rossi would ride in such a reckless and feckless manner.  Catastrophizers immediately assumed that Vale had trashed any chance Stoner might have had of repeating as world champion.  This, clearly, was an over-reaction, and mirrors the response to Bautista’s atypical wreck.  Stoner went on to win the title last year, and Lorenzo will probably do the same this year, as his M1 is smoother and easier to handle than the RC213V.

My only comment should not be construed as an ethnic slur, but here it is.  A rider carelessly taking a championship-leading Australian out of a race gets his wrist slapped by Race Direction.  A rider taking a Spaniard out of the championship lead in similar fashion is sent to the woodshed and thence to the last slot on the grid.  I’m not suggesting that Bautista should not have been penalized for his carelessness, as lives and careers are at stake in this game.  I’m just suggesting that Rossi, too, should have paid some kind of price for his equally ill-advised move on Stoner.  Just sayin’…

What Does Dorna Know that Rossi Doesn’t?

Final thoughts this week concern the curious comments offered up by Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta last week concerning Valentino Rossi’s future MotoGP prospects.  In an interview with Omnicorse.it, Ezpeleta was quoted as saying, “I am calm. Valentino next year will be riding a competitive bike, but I [can’t] tell you what it is. It is still too early to talk about: in 2013 we will see Rossi fight for the win… again.”  When asked about the statement, Rossi’s response was to play dumb, as if to say, “I will?”

Surely Rossi has a number of irons in the fire concerning 2013 and beyond, but for now he is sticking with the story that he is 100% committed to improving the Ducati.  Ezpeleta, whose behavior reminds me of Bernie Ecclestone more each year (and that’s no compliment) may be making it harder for The Doctor to keep his intentions under wraps than it might otherwise be.  We should know sometime next month where Rossi will end up.  Until then, we’ll have to endure the pain of watching him struggle to finish in the top eight each week.  How the mighty have fallen.

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July 1, 2012

Thanks to Motorcycle.com for the link.

Bruce Allen's avatarLate-Braking MotoGP

Assen, The Netherlands, Saturday, June 30, 2012–Immediately following today’s race, Cal Crutchlow, who labors for the Tech 3 Yamaha MotoGP team, had a few choice words for fellow rider Alvaro Bautista, the #1 rider on the San Carlo Honda team.  At the start of the race, Bautista launched himself from the number eight spot on the grid, going white hot into the first turn.  The resulting, entirely predictable low-side crash removed Bautista from the contest, which is fine.  The problem was that it also removed championship leader Jorge Lorenzo, he of the factory Yamaha team, who was quietly minding his own business.  Crutchlow, too, was victimized by the reckless actions of Bautista, as he slipped from fifth position to 13th, trying to avoid the chaos in front of him.

Crutchlow was still amped on adrenaline and anger shortly after the race when someone stuck a microphone in his grille and…

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Fantasy MotoGP – The Bautista Conspiracy

July 1, 2012

This telephone conversation did not take place on Friday, June 29, 2012 at 10:20pm GMT.  If it had, it would have been conducted in Italian.  The imaginary caller is Livio Suppo, Marketing Director of Honda Racing Corporation (HRC).  The gentleman not receiving the call is Mr. Fausto Gresini, volatile owner and team manager of the San Carlo Honda Gresini racing team.

LS: “Fausto, good evening.  Livio here.”

FG (lying): “Livio, how nice to hear from you.  That was some lap your boy Casey put down this afternoon.  What did you do, shoot him full of meth during the rain break?”

LS: “Always kidding around, aren’t you Fausto?  What was Alvaro’s problem this afternoon?

FG: “Chatter, of three types.  Coming from the front tire, the rear tire, and his filthy Spanish mouth.  San Carlo is on me like a cheap suit about putting that stronzo on a podium, and all I get from him is excuses.  If only I had hired Andrea, none of this would be happening.”

LS: “I believe my superiors feel much the same way.  Bautista seems to be improving, but not very rapidly.  And although the Japanese are known for their patience, there is a limit, as we know.”

FG: “So, Livio, to what do I owe the pleasure of this late night call?  I was preparing to bring a small world of pleasure to these two rather, um, gifted blonde Dutch girls that showed up at my hotel room perhaps an hour ago.  And to myself as well.”

LS:  “Ah, yes, Fausto, and you’re welcome.  Courtesy of HRC.”

FG:  “I assume there’s a catch.”

LS: “Indeed, but a very small one, in the great scheme of things.”

FG: “Pray tell, Livio.  Tell me about this small ‘catch’.'”

LS: “You recall our agreement last year at Assen.”

FG (horrified): “Please don’t remind me.”

LS: “Perhaps you need a little reminding.”

FG: “Please, no, let’s not discuss that.  Ordering Marco to take Lorenzo out of the TT Assen was one of the worst moments of my entire career.”

LS: “I understand, Fausto.  I also understand that it was necessary, in order to ensure that Casey had an unimpeded path to the title.  You and Marco played a significant part in that.  We were and are still grateful for your help last year.”

FG: “And you promised, did you not, that our ‘arrangement’  last year at Assen was a one-time thing, never to be repeated.”

LS: “At the time, that was my understanding.”

FG (freaking out quietly): “Are you about to tell me that your understanding has, um, changed?  Because there is no way–NO WAY–I can tell Bautista to do what Marco did last year.”

LS: “Fausto, let’s not get overly dramatic.  This is, after all, just business.”

FG: “BUSINESS, MY FAT ITALIAN ASS!  You PROMISED me last year you would never ask such a thing again.”

LS: “Things are different this year, Fausto.  Casey is having trouble with the 1000cc bike, and his goddamned wife is whispering in his ear every week, begging him not to crash out and possibly leave their daughter without a father.  At this rate, Lorenzo is a shoe-in to win the title.  There is so much on the line, eh?”

FG: “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation, Livio.”

LS: “Nor can I, my friend.  But your boy Bautista is not having such a great season that a crash at Assen will make much difference.”

FG: “Jesus.  You are telling me to do this again.  I can’t believe I’m hearing these words from the Director of Marketing for HRC.  If word of this conversation ever got out, you would be ruined.”

LS: “And you, my friend, would be sleeping with the fishes.  Remember Luca Brazzi.”

FG: “But you work for the Japanese!  They don’t do business this way.”

LS: “Of course they do.  They’re just more, er, discreet in how they go about things.  I believe we understand one another, no?”

FG: “You bastard.  But consider this–Bautista starts from eighth position tomorrow.  What if he is unable to catch up to Lorenzo in time to take him out in the first turn?  He will have to be changing gears while all the other riders are braking.  It will be too obvious.”

LS: “Fausto, you give people too much credit.  Accidents like this happen all the time, and the press overlooks all but the most obvious examples.  When was the last time a rider was penalized for taking another rider out of a race?  Last year, when your boy Marco body-slammed Dani at Le Mans, no one did a thing.  Assuming Bautista can reach Lorenzo early in Lap One, there doesn’t figure to be a penalty, and Alvaro can then focus on the rest of the season.  No more late night phone calls.”

FG: “Livio, you’re a pig, and I will hate you for weeks, make that MONTHS, about this.  If I didn’t depend on you and your inscrutable Japanese bosses for my livelihood, I would come over to your apartment tonight and cut your throat.”

LS: “So, we have an agreement?”

FG: “Yes, we have an agreement.  Kindly rot in hell, and have an unpleasant evening.”

LS: “And you make sure to enjoy yourself with Heidi and Gretel, Fausto.  Good night.”

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2012 MotoGP Assen Results

June 30, 2012

An edited version of this story appears on Motorcycle.com with photos and everything!

Stoner Prevails in the Dutch Demolition Derby

Through no fault of his own, Repsol Honda ace Casey Stoner won the Iveco TT Assen today, coasting to victory in front of teammate Dani Pedrosa, and well in front of eventual third place finisher Andrea Dovizioso on the Tech 3 Yamaha.  For the second year in a row, factory Yamaha icon Jorge Lorenzo was de-pantsed in turn one of Lap One by the #1 San Carlo Honda rider.  Last year, it was Marco Simoncelli; this year, the dishonor went to Alvaro Bautista.  Those of you into conspiracy theories will be getting busy on your blogs.

In the practices leading up to today’s race, it appeared that Stoner was well off his normal game.  Though he had the third fastest lap in FP1, the best he could manage in FP2 was 10th; in FP3 he finished 6th after a huge high side in the wet.  The qualifying practice on Friday was remarkable, as Stoner was loitering in 9th position when rain interrupted things, sending everyone back to their garages.  With less than five minutes remaining in the session, the sun came back out, the bikes re-entered the track, and Stoner appeared to have been fired out of a howitzer.  He warmed up his tires on the first lap, and then jumped into third place on the second go-around.  His third and final lap was a blur, and launched him onto the pole in front of Pedrosa and Lorenzo.

Stoner’s QP had me thinking about Marco Simoncelli in 2011.  Sic had a habit of laying down one extremely fast qualifying lap and starting from the front row of the grid.  From there, he generally crashed out or destroyed his tires, typically finishing worse than he started.  The first turn incident today, with Bautista playing the part of the reckless amateur, was under investigation by Race Direction immediately, and we’ll surely hear more about it later this week.  All we know at this moment is that Lorenzo’s comfortable lead in the 2012 championship is history.

Okay, but What about the Race?

Pedrosa and Stoner were running in front of Lorenzo exiting turn one, and headed off together into the wild blue yonder.  Though the rest of the field avoided the mishap, poor Cal Crutchlow ran so slow and wide doing so that he fell back into 13th position.  (This reminded me of the day in 6th grade when, standing in the lunch line, the girl in front of me threw up on the linoleum, causing me to bail, losing roughly six places and missing out entirely on the Apple Brown Betty.)  Cal then spent the rest of the afternoon cursing his luck, finally clawing his way back into a respectable fifth place finish.  Being interviewed after the race, he used adult language to describe Bautista’s act, which you can catch below.

Yamaha pilots Ben Spies and Andrea Dovizioso settled into a daylong battle for the third podium spot.  Spies sits precariously on the second factory bike, a seat hugely coveted by the Italian on his satellite M-1.  Both riders are closers, and they battled through 25 laps.  At some point late in the race, Dovizioso went through on Spies to claim third place.  I say “some point” because those of us viewing the race from places other than the grandstand were unaccountably forced to watch Stoner drifting around by himself, blowing kisses to the crowd, rather than the two Yamaha rivals trading paint vying for a podium.

A gaggle of riders coalesced into the third group fighting for fifth position.  Comprised of the three Ducati riders that actually started the race (Karel Abraham had a note from his dad excusing him today) and Crutchlow, it had to be revolting for the suits from Bologna to watch as the Brit methodically picked off first Hector Barbera on Lap 12, then Valentino Rossi on Lap 14, and finally Nicky Hayden on Lap 15.  (Now that Crutchlow has unofficially been offered a contract to ride for the factory Ducati team next year, he has to be wondering about the wisdom of such a move.  The Desmosedici has the power and technology to turn former world champions into also-rans.  What will it do to the career of a promising rider who has never won a single MotoGP race?)

You Mentioned Something about a Demolition Derby…

When you have three CRT bikes finish in the Top 10, something’s up:

Karel Abraham:     Injured; failed to start the race

Jorge Lorenzo:       Crashed, Lap One

Alvaro Bautista:     Crashed, Lap One

Stefan Bradl:             Crashed, Lap Two (first DNF in MotoGP)

Yonny Hernandez: Crashed, Lap Six (not his first DNF in MotoGP)

Colin Edwards:          Retired, Lap Eight (sick of the whole CRT thing)

Aleix Espargaro:       Crashed, Lap 15 (first DNF in MotoGP)

In a shout out to the Paul Bird Motorsports team, discussed at some length recently in this space, it should be noted that Vale Rossi lost a chunk of his rear tire around Lap 20.  He entered his garage, dismounted, had the team brew up an espresso con latte while they replaced the rear tire, enjoyed his coffee, rejoined the race, and STILL finished in front of James Ellison.  I so can’t wait to have TWO mopes from Bird’s team to jeer at next season.

The Big Picture

Today’s result finds Stoner and Lorenzo tied at the top of the food chain, with Pedrosa sullenly lurking, 19 points back, despite still not having won a race all year.  Crutchlow now leads Dovizioso by a single point in their personal Tech 3 battle for fourth place.  With Bautista and Bradl getting blanked today, Nicky Hayden climbed into seventh, a mere two points behind teammate Rossi.  Ben Spies, with his best finish (4th place) of the year, now moves into the Top Ten, his “underachiever” tag firmly in place.  Barbera and Abraham bring up the rear of the prototypes.  In CRT land, Randy de Puniet now trails teammate Espargaro by a single point in the battle for the second division lead.

Jorge Lorenzo’s bad luck today may, in fact, be worse than it appears.  Immediately after the crash, he was running back to his bike, hoping to rejoin the race, when the engine went up in a cloud of white smoke comparable to what you see at The Vatican when they elect a new pope.  If this was a new engine, as the announcers were speculating, it puts added pressure on the Spaniard regarding the six engine rule.  As if he needs additional pressure now, with Stoner all up in his business again.

On to The Sachsenring

Eight days until Round 8 in Germany.  Expect attendance at this year’s German Grand Prix to skyrocket, now that there’s a local boy, Stefan Bradl, in the mix.  With three races in three weeks, any technical development of the bikes is on hold, meaning “the state of the bikes” entering this weekend will remain unchanged through Mugello.  For the factory teams and Tech 3 Yamaha, which operates like a factory team, this is no problem.  For the others, it means holding on for dear life until Laguna Seca in late July.

Three riders in particular have a lot on their minds tonight.  Valentino Rossi must determine what he’ll be doing for the next few years, as the rule changes implemented this weekend preclude him from switching to Yamaha or Honda beginning in 2013 without some mind-bending disruption of the status quo; there will be no fifth privateer Yamaha or Honda for The Doctor next year.  The second rider with a major headache today is Colin Edwards, who is on the verge of calling it a career and pulling the plug on his CRT experiment, a sad failure on a number of different levels.  We will miss his skill, honesty and humor, and wish him all the best.

Then there’s Alvaro Bautista, the fair-haired boy whose star appeared to be rising, until today.  Though his team and owner Fausto Gresini will undoubtedly defend him publicly, his actions today suggest a low racing IQ, a charge being simultaneously leveled at Hector Barbera from several quarters.  Bautista has accomplished more since moving up from the 250cc class than has Barbera, but both need to get a lot smarter if they want to avoid being sent down to the minors.

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Cal Crutchlow Hating on Alvaro Bautista

June 30, 2012

Assen, The Netherlands, Saturday, June 30, 2012–Immediately following today’s race, Cal Crutchlow, who labors for the Tech 3 Yamaha MotoGP team, had a few choice words for fellow rider Alvaro Bautista, the #1 rider on the San Carlo Honda team.  At the start of the race, Bautista launched himself from the number eight spot on the grid, going white hot into the first turn.  The resulting, entirely predictable low-side crash removed Bautista from the contest, which is fine.  The problem was that it also removed championship leader Jorge Lorenzo, he of the factory Yamaha team, who was quietly minding his own business.  Crutchlow, too, was victimized by the reckless actions of Bautista, as he slipped from fifth position to 13th, trying to avoid the chaos in front of him.

Crutchlow was still amped on adrenaline and anger shortly after the race when someone stuck a microphone in his grille and asked him what he thought about Bautista’s actions.  Working without a tape recorder, what follows is the gist of Cal’s comments:  “It’s hard, you know, when some DICKHEAD pulls a stunt like this, risking the careers and lives of everyone around him.  The %$#@& guy was still changing gears when everyone else was on the brakes.”  Suffice it to say that the Crutchlows will not be on the invitation list this year for the Bautista Christmas bash.

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