Germany (Spoilers)

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If Melandri hadn't been fighting with Pedrosa for much of the race,
would he have had a bit more tyre grip left for the last battle with
Rossi and won?

Rightly or wrongly, that's what I was thinking when I saw Rossi driving
smoothly at the front with Melandri/Pedrosa/Hayden fighting. Whether
Rossi was preserving his tyres more than the riders behind him.

 

If rossi qould get his Q-tires to work and not have to fight his way up,
would he have walked away with the victory?
Surly he was the one with the disadvantage, especialy on one of the
thightest tracks in the season.

I was impressed with Hayden and the way he managed to keep Pedrosa behind on
the last laps. He had some obvious grip problems but showed that he is a
fighter. On the other hand, he had some one to follow and the result could
have changed if he was in the lead.

/MBE

 

Anyhow, so much for the notion it's hard to overtake in Germany. The guys
did it often. In the end, all the guys in the leading group were there often
enough to put a strategy together on how to stick it out. Pedrosa seemed to
be the smoothest one with the bike, and yet he finishes fourth despite
whatever tire advantage might have resulted from that. To it looked like
they finished in the order of who simply the better rider was today. All
within .4s, mind you. These guys are so close together...

Yeah, saving the podium not doing anything stupid. keeping hsi head like
that despite pressure in a race like today's means a lot.

Other trivia worth mentioning: if it hadn't been Roberts taking out Tamada,
but someone like Melandri taking out Roberts, we'd never hear the end of it
in this NG. In any case, racing incident, and shame those guys weren't there
to mix things up a little. Or Stoner, who could not even start because he
got a concussion falling off during the warm-up. The grid seems to have a
new king of the chuckers. Stoner has to watch it, despite his obivous huge
talent, his career is not going to be long-lived in MotoGP unless he watches
it a little. For those who are about to bring up Checa as a counter-example,
heck, he seems to have done a nice job of turning a bike and tire combo that
could not crack the top 15 into a top 10 finisher as of late. It'll be
interesting to see whether he can manage to unexpectedly sneak into the top
10 again through regularity. Ahead of Hopkins and Elias, who had an
extremely forgetable day.

....pablo

 

Also interesting to see Pedrosa state the other guys always got him on the
brakes...

 

Yeah, but all you had to do to score points today was to finish.
(BTDT, got the lap of honour and the $CDN100...)

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Didn't he do that quite often in 250 too, when he didn't get away ofcourse.
Seems to remember that I saw quite few races where he stayed behind and let
the rest battle it out.

He he, so true.

Cant't help thinking that Hayden is THE lucky guy this year. Thinning the
leadergroup gave him and the rest behind Rossi an easier fight and a minimum
4th pos. Imagine 6 of them batteling out in the last turn

/MBE

 

Hayden doesn't mix it up to the same extent as Rossi, Melandri and to a
lesser extent Pedrosa, the reason Rossi won and Melandri got second today is
they were prepared to push and take calculated risks whereas Hayden seemed
to be waiting to capitalise on other riders mistakes and since Rossi and Mel
didn't make any last lap errors Hayden didn't get past. Rossi's coming up on
him now and Melandri and Pedrosa aren't too far way either so I think the
time will come if Hayden wants to win the championship he's going to have to
start battling and going for the win, even if it means taking risks. His
sensible attitude may have been ok while he had a large lead but things are
changing now and he may have to change with them. Even listening to his
after race comments he said he was waiting for Mel to make a move on Rossi
so he could capitalise if they pushed each other wide, but Mel never made
that move. Hayden keeps saying how much he wants to win but it seems Rossi
and Mel want to win even more.

Paul

 

He hasn't had to, and he'd be stupid to. He's ahead on points, significanty,
let others take the risks for now. When and if they come closer, then maybe
it's time to let it rip, but that of course entails a bigger risk. Rossi
will have to assume more risk going forward. That's a huge tactical
advantage for Hayden as far as the championship is concerned given Rossi's
(and others) hit-miss ratio this year.

Yes, indeed Melandri assumed more risks, but it didn't pay off, did it.
Imagine if Melandri had taken out Rossi... the championship would look very
different already. And it is far from an unthinkable scenario that some of
the people trying to overcome the points disadvantage for Hayden take each
other out.

Who, as someone else mentioned, has a tradition of not winning out of very
close finishes. It may be speculated his low weight hurts him when it comes
to braking. He lost today's battle on the brakes, no doubt about that. He
was very disappointed, however he also was fully aware of the fact he could
not keep up on the brakes when it came to the other riders... and it's not
that Melandri is that much bigger. That's where experience comes in.

Again, that's because they *have* to as far as the championship is
concerned.

I would not say that - in that case he'd been happy running a more distant
fourth. No point in mixing it up with the more aggressive leading group if
that was all he was after.

Hayden admitted as much after the race, and I think it was the right thing
to do. Rossi is not shy to go take risks that go beyond the "calculated"
when he feels he has something to prove - and he has several titles, so if I
was Hayden I would save my infighting skills for the time when it's only him
and Rossi going for the championship, closer on points. I stongly feel
that's Hayden's best strategy for the title. And also, while Hayden is
expected to win easily in Laguna, I hope Hayden doesn't go int there with a
Kocinski-like "win or bin" "I must prove I own this place" attitude. He has
far more at stake right now than merely proving cojones in front of his home
public. He should approach it as just another day at the office, and stay as
cool as he's been. And, of course, obliterate the opposition if the
situation truly presents itself. But I still think he ought to be careful in
dealing with the others, who may be getting impatient when it comes to try
to close the points gap.

I'll say that when they're ten points apart. As of now, it's still a
relatively big difference: 26 points. Hayden's lead is still very solid.
He'd be stupid to sacrifice something he's worked hard for with consistency
and racing smarts.

Again, I disagree with your take here. I think the points difference is big
enough to dictate a different strategy on Hayden.

The time may very well come. But it's not quite here and now. Many things
can happen. Hayden may get involed in a chance racing incident. Or his
rivals. But if we extrapolate the current trend linerly, then certainly the
time will come when hayden will have to fight. I am pretty sure he will not
concende his lead easy. In today's post race interview, it looked to me he
would have liked to let it rip more, but ran the points count in his head.
If he had been on point parity with those guys, I think he'd tried something
else for sure.

Again, I think we will agree if the current trend of Rossi gnawing away at
the points lead holds. I would not be too concerned about Melandri or
Pedrosa right now - neither of the two have been too consistent. But Rossi
and his team seem to be getting the Yamaha to work better. But Rossi right
now would greatly benefit from a team mate able to truly ride at the front
and take points from some of the other top riders when occasion presents
itself. Edwards probably was the biggest disappointment today, and seems to
be on a downward trend. Finished behind Checa on Dunlop tires, for heaven's
sake.

I have no doubt Hayden would like to win. But a stranger to the podium he's
not. And it'll be so much sweeter to be crowned world champion later
on... no race win can ever mean a fraction of what that stands for.

....pablo

 

Hayden's points lead is what it is, but it is also due a in big way to the
two mechanical DNFs Rossi has had.

 

It's pretty obvious nobody here had enough of an advantage as to walk away
with it, as all four were given the opportunity and none of them could
prosecute effectively to get away.

It was inevitable that Nicky would have been passed, and at that point he
just hung on tight to the lead group as they worked through the middle of
the race.

At the end Nicky was certainly getting a bit more aggressive, but he could
only push it so far. The biggest gift he was given was when Dani didn't take
him out in turn one when they were so, so close. And to Danis credit, he
never got spooked by it. None of these guy really lost ground in any of
their minor mistakes.

No, it doesn't get much better than this I think.

It certainly hurts Nicky, but it's not over yet. We'll see how they all
adapt to the changes at Laguna Seca, and then hopefully Nicky's bike can get
better over the break.

Regards,

Will Hartung

 

Rossi WAS always going to win

He is THE GREATEST rider EVER...PERIOD [all this on a SHIT bike, shame
yammie shame]

 

Whatever the reason, it is what it is; and that's part of racing (or
Gibernau could have won last year!). And fact is that Hayden would be very
foolish to not let the situation dictate his -conservative- strategy built
on consistency.

 

Exactly. They were extremely evenly matched. It seems to me they -with the
exception of Hayden- took turns at trying to get away, and couldn't. Rossi
seemed to have somewhat of a flow on all of them. It was interesting to see
the onbike shots, and see where the different Rossi challengers happened to
be a bit faster and then lose the advantage. I seemed to observe Rossi was
the one with the somewhat clear overall advantage, and that he let Melandri
pass to see what type of risk and strength/weakness portfolio he brought
with him for the final showdown. It also semmed that, in the last few
rounds, hayden and pedrosa just didn't have enough to mix up with Rossi and
melandri, even though hayden made a very nice and smart try towards the end.

It was still a tad odd to see Pedrosa do such an aggressice inside move on
his friggin' championship leading team-mate. I don't think hsi taking them
both out would have been a good career move, and his cramped style
afterwards seemed to attest to his own awareness thereof.

Indeed, it was great stuff to see the 4 leading riders in the championship
fisnish within .5s. Awesome.

I think Hayden comes out of this having defended his lead very well on a
circuit where others were able to get a very good set-up on race-tires. In
chess, it was a great defensive move. It's a good time for that at mid-game.

....pablo

 

That was stunning entertainment! Rossi only JUST won, by sheer
personality, rather than the best bike. His blocking (legitimate) on
the last lap was sheer magic when Melandri seemed to have the legs on
him. Sooo close! One more lap could have easily reversed the result.

Wonderful to see what MotoGP had over F1 in a back to back live
comparison yesterday.

Now that's motor racing. As a viewing punter I put that race on a par
with Mugello, perhaps even better.

In appreciation,

Tony B.

 

pablo wrote:
takes.

Yeah, his earlier pass was bad enough when he forced it inside and
shoved Nicky wide, but that wasn't close to taking him out, and it
may have been at that point Dani could have had the goods to tun down
the leaders, but If I were Hayden (or pretty much anyone on the Repsol
team) I think a little "talk" with the rookie is needed.

I wholeheartedlt agree, this was even better the Mugello.

Nicky played smart - he never let the leaders get away, didn't try and
silly stunts and was ready for an opening if Melandri and/or Rossi
puled a desperate move (as they both have been known to do) but it
didn't play out that way. If he tried to force something a good chance
it could go badly and let Dani back through - it's tough passing while
still defending - or even worse a DNF.

All props to Rossi on a great race and (maybe even more important) to
Jeremy & the team for another Race day setup gamble that payed off big

bruce

 

Indeed. It was obvious from Rossi's post race interview this race was won in
the garage. Nice to have a team like that. Odd Edwards can't leverage that
more consistently - Yamaha needs him to run near the top and take points
from others now. Laguna may be more important to Edwards than it is for
Hayden...

 

<conspiracy theory>Its kinda surprising, given the mechanical
reliability of the RC211V, that Sete's bike failed to proceed after he'd
signed with Ducati...</conspiracy theory>

Maybe it won't matter whether Puig or RobotBoy listen...

big

 

I don't know.

It looked like Melandri and Rossi had a bit of speed on him, and
neither one of them is the type to not pass you back if you get around.
The previous four laps had consisted of Melandri and Pedrosa passing
each other, getting set up to make a run at Rossi, and then getting
passed back as soon as they switched to riding offensively instead of
defensively.

And come on - if you see Melandri and Rossi battling it out, and have
Pedrosa breathing down your neck - isn't waiting for Melandri to stuff
it up the inside of Rossi on the brakes and taking both of them wide,
and passing on the inside for the win the textbook plan? Or at least
the highest percentage maneuver?

-jake

 

Why wouldn't you want to be Rossi? ;-)

 

When he has comments on all those incidents that has been juged by the jury
as race incidents? Me think not.

No they are not, and I do believe that you to a certain limit create your
own luck. Even without luck he still would have many of those podiums. It's
just that when you add up the bad luck of others (taken out by others or
machine failures), the bad moves by others (crashing and injuries), I mean,
even his strategy falls out lucky. This is THE year to go for consistency
(as long as you are lucky enough not to be taken out by someone else). It's
not that Hayden don't deserve it, first of all he chose the right strategy
this year.

Absolutly outstanding, but he wasn't that out of it. He had a very good
first stint in the QP and a good moring warm up session. They both told that
Rossi had the race pace he needed.

/MBE