Jerez - Mamola's view

http://www.eurosport.com/home/pages/v4/l0/s39/e9333/sport_lng0_spo39_evt9333_sto707890.shtml

Mamola: 'The door wasn't latched!'

Eurosport commentator Randy Mamola has given his expert view on 'that'
final corner, race-deciding collision between Valentino Rossi and Sete
Gibernau at Jerez on Sunday, saying that the Italian's move was a little
hotheaded while Gibernau could have prevented the impact by 'latching'
the door shut.


"When racing is that close, and this is the great thing about MotoGP
racing, is that there is going to be passing and unfortunately the bikes
will touch," Mamola told eurosport.com.

"Rossi admitted that it was a strong pass, and had he gone into that
corner without Gibernau being there then he would have ran wide," he
predicts, "but Rossi is not a rider who's going to just sit there and
sit on his laurels if he's given a chance.

"People are saying that Gibernau left the door open, but let's just say
that the door was closed but it wasn't latched," he added. "There wasn't
a lot of room there and it was obvious that there was going to be a
collision."

Mamola was also left disappointed by Rossi's provocative victory
celebrations, whereby he shook Gibernau's hand with little interest
before smirking to the Spanish crowd that were at that time chanting
obscenities towards the Italian.

"For me, Valentino's reaction on the podium was a little bit too much,"
Mamola said. "There's a line between sportsmanlike conduct and rubbing
it in people's faces, but that's Rossi. He's a multiple world champion
but his reactions are very open away from the race track.

"He was very smirky-like, and you very rarely see that coming from a
sportsman and I hope that it doesn't degenerate into a childish
behavior," he added. "I've read that a sticker is going to be put on
Rossi's bike that reads: 'How's my driving?' and that's just bad taste
and rubbing it in."

Mamola, a two-time runner-up in the premiere class, was surprised to see
how easily Gibernau had accepted Rossi's gestures, saying that the
Spaniard must begin to believe that he can beat the Italian if he is to
win the world championship.

"Gibernau has definitely made improvements since last season but Rossi
is still rattling him," he said. "I'm a little apprehensive to say it
fully, and the reason why I'm saying it is that Sete becomes reclusive,
almost allowing Rossi to dictate."

Stay tuned to Eurosport.com for Randy Mamola's exclusive insight into
MotoGP before and after each an every race this season.

Eurosport - Barry Thomas & Randy Mamola

 

The comment I saw from Mamola that I liked was in MCN. "If I'd been
there I would have gone for it as well. Except we both would have ended
up in the bales."

[1] Not his exact words, but that was the gist.

 

I remember seeing Capirossi ramming Harada live on TV, and thinking
it was well out of order, and then reading some interviews with
various racers in MCN, all of whom (including mild-mannered Spuds
MacKenzie) said that they'd have done the same in that situation (last
lap, championship on the line). I guess it just shows the level of
competiveness in top line raacers. Mind you, I don't think they
actually said it was acceptable, just that they'd have done it as well.

Cheers,

 

I read somewhere that the four man committee at the track had
unaminously agreed it was a racing incident. One of them (Butler?)
also said "maybe we were a bit hard on Tamada last year".

 

Yes, yes and yes.

Again from MCN.

A four-man panel unanimously decided it was just a racing incident. Race
Director Paul Butler also denied any intention of hauling the rivals in
front of him to discuss the matter.

Butler said: "We all decided, after looking at every angle, it was a
racing incident, end of story.
"Valentino did not appear out of control at all[1]. Rules about rider
behaviour are clear and they both know, as they sit on the riders'
safety panel, if they step over the mark they will get punished."

Many drew a comparison between an incident at Motegi in 2003, when
Makoto Tamada was stripped of third place for aggressive riding when he
touched Sete Gibernau on the last lap. Sunday's incident didn't appear
any less serious, but Butler added: "Maybe the Tanada punishment was a
mistake, but we take each case on merit"

[1]Hmmm. So in their view it was not a mistake but deliberate and
controlled. But still acceptable. While Capirossi was out of control and
made a mistake, but that absolves him. So what *do* you have to do now
to be reprimanded? Apart from speeding in the pitlane or passing under a
yellow. Or doing exactly the same thing in 125GP. But then any time you
have a judgement from a panel, somebody's going to disagree.

 

Of the last four episodes. Tamada was perhaps the most dangerous.
Arguably (and we did), Tamada pulled across in front of Sete before
he'd really passed him. Up till then it was a straight outbraking move.
It was especially dangerous because that's a pretty fast corner. And
because Kato was recent history.

Hopkins was unlucky to be the one that took the lesson for the rest of
the field. He made a mistake but the punishment for a straight mistake
was out of proportion. Capirossi made the same mistake with bigger
effects but looks to have been let off because they realised they were
unfair to Hopkins.

Which now comes down to Rossi. IMHO this really falls in the same place
as 125GP last year and the year before. Even if I admit that Rossi was
pushing his luck, it was in a very slow corner and Sete should have
known and probably did that it was coming. What ever else it was it
didn't look to me to be that dangerous. The worst that would have
happened if it really all had gone pear shaped was that they both ended
up fighting in the gravel. Although it is true that you can hurt
yourself pretty badly at 30mph. In which case I'd expect race control to
give a stern but effectively unofficial warning in the next safety
meeting. "Let's have a good clean fight with nothing below the belt."

BTW. I'm trying to remember who was involved at the Melbourne Loop in
the 125s. Locatelli?

 

2 years ago Pedrosa was shunted off at the Loop, that what you mean? Didn't
think it was Locatelli; Perugini perhaps?
tim

 

This argument is getting really boring and is mildly offensive to half
the racing world.

I have to admit though that I don't know where the FIM are taking 125.
It feels like we'll end up with rules that say you must be between 16
and 16.5 years old at the start of the season. I guess I know why
they're doing it, but I also don't want to see riders like Steve Jenkner
(Yuichi Ui, etc) chucked out of the series for being too old.

The series which I think is almost more confused is the 250s. It feels
like a long time since we had a close competitive field. In the mid 90s,
there were some class riders and lots of them. Since then it seems to
have been dominated by a single winner on a single bike with all the
others too far behind to mix it up with them. Either because they're
just not in the same class or because there's too big a gap in
performance between the factory team and the customer bikes.

 

Ironic that today's race was a cracker. Congratulations to Stoner for
his first 250 victory. And to Dovizioso, De Puniet, De Angelis and
Pedrosa for pushing him all the way.

The 125 was pretty good too. Kallio Gets the first Finnish win in 30
years. And Faubel pushed him all the way.

 

Was that Jarno?
or Lansivouri?

Bummers

And Faubel pushed him all the way.

 

Minimum age
125 - 15
250 - 16
MotoGP - 18

Maximum age
125 - 28. 25 for Rookies and wild cards
250, MotoGP - 50

125. Not a world championship because it's kids on training wheels
250. Not a world championship because it's irrelevant
WSB. Not a world championship because there's no US race, spec tyres,
owned by Ducati
WSS. Not a world championship because of spec tyres, no US race and no
Americans

And since AMA600ss and AMA Superstock are the support races in Laguna, I
guess that makes them world championships as well.

Well OK. I'm putting words in your mouth.

Bring back the 50s and 80s and 350s, the Honda 125-5 and Yamaha 125 V4
two stroke. Oh, and the Suzuki 12 speed 50-twin as well. Pretty hard to
imagine now a World championship race day with 6 championship races. And
with lots of riders doing 3 or 4 of them.

 

Just a thought on World championships. Now we've got a race in China and
in Asia (Turkey), how long before there's a race in India? there's a
huge population of M/C and Scooter riders and they do actually race. I
wonder if there's any half way decent race circuits?

 

It was good, wasn't it.

I'd like to understand how/why Porto set such a cracking opening pace,
and then got reeled in and pushed back to, what was it, 8th? The only
explanation I could guess at would be that he had a couple of cuts in
his front tyre (or perhaps both).

 

Pretty easy to 'deny' from where I'm sitting.

You have a very odd world view, Mark.

 

I don't think he ever had that good of a pace. In the beginning he was faster
than the others - but not that fast in overall terms - the rest were just
taking it really easy due to the wet. once things dried a bit everyone
picked up the pace except porto - so even though he had a monster lead,
they ate it up, passed him and then continued to move on and then even
riders further back ate him.

bruce

 

Shame there's no rounds in South America. They've got several pretty
good tracks. But apparently no money.

 

But why didn't Porto pick up the speed? He's good enough to feel the
tracktion on the dryer track. Also, Pedrosas rear must have been shreds at
the end. The two last laps is was constantly stepping out in the senna curve
at what I guess is more or less constant speed.

Maybe they both had a few cuts in the tires?

/MBE

 

I just watched it and it really was a pearler, there were 5 guys
battling for the lead about 8 laps from the end, the quality of riding
and the closeness of the racing was a real pleasure to watch. All the
bikes seemed to be very even in performance so it really was down to
rider ability and tactics, races like that aren't that common.

Paul

 

That has to do with money and american tobaco companies, not about your
rather boring europeanizing conspiracy.

/MBE

 

The championship tried for years, on and off to have Brazilian and
Argentinian rounds - these came and went due to the inabilities of the
local organisers to provide a safe track, decent organisation, etc.
The SA round has come and gone for similar reasons. An Australian
round was added in the late 80s.

There would have been a US round right through the 90s if you could
have found a safe track and proper organisers (correct me if I'm
wrong, but isn't Laguna Seca run by an amateur car club?)