MotoGP: Middle of Nowhere, Japan (Time-Delayed Spoilers)

[azkiwi]

Originally Posted by Pantah

What is the point of competing in sports with a broken arm?

Or broken ankles, or [insert injury here]? Nicky is no debutante, and been around quite enough to know who's advice to take, or leave.

[HoneyBunz]

Motegi is the first of 3 races in 3 weeks and there is a chance of rain there.

[viajero]

I'm curious to see if Stoner is fit and competitive in Motegi.

Likewise for Hayden. I can only hope.

Should be a fun battle to watch between Pedrosa and Lorenzo, as I expect those two will gap the field. Stoner could be a spoiler, though, and I actually hope he is. I would like to see him win out to close his career.

Will Spies finish in the top five? No would be my guess.

If weather is an issue, of course all bets are off, though I would still favor one of the top two points leaders for the win.

Will engine life be a factor for the title hopefuls?

[Drif10]

The engine factor. Been wondering that one myself. 99 had a fresh one go boom in that crash, if he has a Spies, then it'd be a whole new game.

Usually about now Krop has the motor list up on his site, been watching for it. Might give some clues.

[yooperbikemike]

Just a note to those in the eastern US, FP1 starts at 9:10 PM tonight

[mdubya]

Originally Posted by Drif10

The engine factor. Been wondering that one myself. 99 had a fresh one go boom in that crash, if he has a Spies, then it'd be a whole new game.

Usually about now Krop has the motor list up on his site, been watching for it. Might give some clues.

Krop has said they teams have the motor thing down. No worries. Yet.

The half wet, half dry sessions that the fast guys have sat out have added to the comfortable situations with the motors.

[Drif10]

Originally Posted by mdubya

Krop has said they teams have the motor thing down. No worries. Yet.

The half wet, half dry sessions that the fast guys have sat out have added to the comfortable situations with the motors.

I read in one of his posts that 99 was on motor #5 already. Not sure if I remember that correctly though. I am old and retarded.

[Davi5678]

Lorenzo 1.46.558
Pedrosa 1.46.699
Dovizioso 146.919
Stoner 1.47.316
Spies 1.47.328
Crutchlow 1.47.366
Hayden 1.47.551
Bradl 1.47.561
Bautista 1.47.637
Rossi 1.47.786

[Davi5678]

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/motor...012-27i3e.html

They usually get there facts wrong at The Age, obviously his ankle not his knee. A few months ago they had him deciding the "title" in Germany.

[Pilbara]

Originally Posted by swimmer

All quiet on the radiation front.

Ah trickery it is, you see the man and woman posing as Honda employees with a decibel meter? Well you aint so smart bucko that there is an incognito Geiger counter.

there on to it...



Cheers
Pilbara

[Skowinski]

What's up with Rossi in FP2? He's only about 0.6 seconds off the fast time by Pedrosa... suprised to see him so far up there.

(not saying I wan't him to do poorly, just the opposite in fact, would love to see Rossi and the Ducati on the podium...)

[mdubya]

Originally Posted by Skowinski

What's up with Rossi in FP2? He's only about 0.6 seconds off the fast time by Pedrosa... suprised to see him so far up there.

(not saying I wan't him to do poorly, just the opposite in fact, would love to see Rossi and the Ducati on the podium...)

It was a lap out of nowhere.

He and Nicky have been looking pretty steady, but I wonder if things haven't been going well enough with race pace set up for him to make a lunge for a fast lap?

Hard to say.

[mdubya]

Here is what Vale and Nick had to say:

Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 5th (1:46.687)
"Today went pretty well, especially in the afternoon because we made a setup change that helped us to improve grip on acceleration. When I open the gas I'm able to exit the turns better, without spinning too much, and that's why I went pretty fast. I'm especially happy because the gap isn't too big. Tomorrow, though, we'll have to improve our pace as well, because for now I'm able to ride well for some laps, and then the tyre starts to slide a bit too much. The rear-tyre choice will be very important because the performance of the soft and the hard are very similar. The soft works a little better but we have to understand if it can last the race distance. Tomorrow we'll try some more changes and then we'll also consider the temperature for Sunday when making a decision."

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 10th (1:47.551)
"It was good to have a full day of dry weather on a Friday, but it was a difficult day. This morning we weren't so far off, but I didn't improve in the afternoon. I'm not getting the feedback from the bike that I'd like under braking. Also, my hand is giving me some pain and I don't have a lot of strength, especially into the right-handers. There's lots of hard braking on this track, so I'm losing time mainly on the corner entry, and it's hard to recover on the exits. We need to have a re-think tonight and try to do a good step tomorrow."

[azkiwi]

Originally Posted by mdubya

It was a lap out of nowhere.

He and Nicky have been looking pretty steady, but I wonder if things haven't been going well enough with race pace set up for him to make a lunge for a fast lap?

I would like to think his confidence is returning. That would be worth half a second in itself.

[swimmer]

Just cracked an ice cold Sapporo as the work week end and as moto3 gets ready to roll for practice. Gotta love time zone differences and live motogp.