Dammit. Was looking forward to watching Bagnaia race.

Fabio is gonna be hard to beat this season. He's doing everything right. Last season he had Marc to deal with and he doesn't have that pressure right now, but even if he did, I think he'd be doing just fine.

Glad to see KTM doing well. I think Pol will be the top KTM finisher this weekend though.

Well if Rins can make up as many positions as he did in the last race he has a shot at the podium.

Not great qualifying positions for Suzuki but Mir and Rins are close enough to the front to threaten and hopefully make it a good race.

They both have good pace. So does Rossi. All three of them could get on the podium. But tomorrow will be a war of attrition. There are bumps and holes all over that race track. Brno is one of the top 5 motorcycle tracks in the world and the longest track on the calendar. It has not been resurfaced in something like 12-18 years. Somewhere in there. It’s as bad as the COTA surface now whether either track could get canceled due to it.
https://the-race.com/motogp/mo...rno-surface-repaved/

I’m expecting lots of crashes tomorrow. Accelerate over the wrong bump and you’ll be hitting the deck or the kitty litter. We might see more Championship impacting injuries tomorrow. The tires are going to drop off a cliff after lap 15. The track already has low grip already, throw in the bumps, the holes, the heat, it’s going to be a nasty race. Someone will end up in tears. Vale is the dark horse. His pace was outstanding today but he mucked it in qualifying because temps were 10 degrees higher today than yesterday at the same time.

Holy shit KTM just took the lead with 8 laps left!!!!!

Binder surprised us all. Could have been a KTM 1-2 on the podium. Zarco knew what he was doing, always a bad part of the sport if you come out the wrong end of it. Tires did not drop off massively as was predicted. I thought we would see way more carnage than we did, and glad we did not.

So something sort of odd happened today. Racers with the number 33 won moto2, MotoGP and F1 today.

What are the odds of such a thing happening?

Is Brno just not suited to the Yamaha? Or bad tire choice?

FQ seemed to really be struggling.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Is Brno just not suited to the Yamaha? Or bad tire choice?

FQ seemed to really be struggling.

It’s definitely suited towards the Yamaha. The only place they lack is up horsepower hill, that’s it. Fabio’s team didn’t nail down the setup. They had it for the one lap attack but not race distance. As you could see Morbidelli’s team came close. Rossi just screwed himself in qualifying. Had he not qualified badly he could have been on the podium.

Binder is a real threat. I said that after the first race, that people should take warning. KTM’s using a V4, and their trellis frame is easy for them to make modifications during the season to get the best out of the tires. Ducati’s 2020 bikes are not gelling well with the new 2020 Michelin rear tire. Same for Honda.

Now we go to the track I hate, Spielberg. Joke of a track. Just a bunch of straights connected via a couple of corners. I expect KTM to be the bike to beat, then the Ducati if they can solve or half solve their rear tire issues. 2 rounds in a row there so will be absolutely crucial for the championship. If Fabio wants it, he’ll have to shoot for the podium both weekends and not bin it.

Thanks, I'm still new to MotoGP & haven't seen some of these track, being an F1 junkie.

The KTM seemed in another league today. Crazy he pulled a 4 sec lead by the end.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Thanks, I'm still new to MotoGP & haven't seen some of these track, being an F1 junkie.

The KTM seemed in another league today. Crazy he pulled a 4 sec lead by the end.

The best motorcycle tracks in the world are:

1. Mugello
2. Phillip Island
3. Assen (especially before they modified it to put the hotel on it)
4. Brno
5. Donington Park

Brno is the longest track on the calendar and with the elevation changes, and the forest surrounding the circuit, one of the most beautiful, except for the tarmac, which is completely fucked. They are risking losing the round if they don’t resurface it. Would be a damn shame too. Assen was modified (cut) for a hotel, so some of the magic is gone. They don’t race at Donington any longer, because the garages are antiquated, so they go to Silverstone, which to me is a F1 track, not a bike track. All 5 circuit above were not invented on a computer with CAD. They were done by hand, walked, with architects and not computer made tracks. Carved out of the landscape. That’s why they are all so damn good and better than the rest of the circuits. Laguna Seca, albeit a slow track, is also something else. They don’t race there any longer either

I remember the Rossi / Stoner battle at Laguna Seca, love that track.

Being a couple hours from COTA, I'll have to try to get over there for the next GP. Probably cheaper than an F1 weekend

Do they race the full Silverstone circuit? Long track, 2nd longest on the F1 calendar, with Baku off due to Covid.

Dovi doesn’t seem too thrilled with the Ducati this year. He said it doesn’t turn good, doesn’t stop good and even the acceleration is suffering.

I wonder if we will see a Ducati on the podium? If so I bet it’s not a factory one.

You guys think it’s because of the new tires or is there just something wrong with the bike this year?

Dovi isn’t happy because he’s not getting his ride next year. I’m sure he wasn’t too fond of the previous bikes either but he liked his paycheck so he said what was needed to keep his job.

The tires are garbage. I think all the manufacturers are having a hard time getting them to work properly. There for a while I thought they did it just so the inline fours had a chance but even that doesn’t sound right now that most of the riders on Yamaha’s and Suzuki’s have been down at one point or another during a race weekend.

The 2020 Michelins provide edge grip. The 2019, 2018’s did not. You’d have to be on the meat or fat part of the tire to get max traction. So the bikes which rely on corner speed, such as the Yamaha, suffered for it. The 2020 tire have corrected that but they are a softer compound and a softer construction, which means they flex and don’t last race distance. So while they corrected an issue, for a factory like Yamaha, they introduce new problems. MotoGP bikes need a harder compound, harder construction. The construction applies to soft, medium, and hard tires. So even the hard tires have a softer compound and softer construction.

Dovi’s issues are legitimate. He wants to win like all the rest do. Simply getting a nice paycheck is not enough for any of them. Rossi was ready to quit Yamaha and retire because the factory wouldn’t let him set the bike up for his riding style. Rossi was also ready to retire at Ducati, because it was a POS back then and Corse would not listen to him nor Burgess. Zarco quit KTM, Lorenzo quit HRC. If all they cared about was a paycheck they wouldn’t say anything and stack money.

Gigi, for all his genius and changing the sport....he’s invented the winglets, swingarm spoiler, front wheel coverings to protect the brakes from getting too hot, the salad box, the hole shot device, and now the shapeshifter that turns the Ducati into a drag bike in the straights....all the other factories have copied Gigi’s ideas and implemented them. Well the one thing Gigi can’t do is fix the handling of the Ducati. Dovi has been telling them, like Rossi before him, and Stoner before him, to fix the g damn handling of the bike. It’s still a hot mess mid-corner. Ducati doesn’t make their own frames, they farm them out and it’s the underlying issue with the bike, and has been for 10+ years going back to that POS carbon frame they abandoned. The factory Ducati team don’t have their head around the new rear tire yet. It’s giving them fits. And the mid-corner issues still persist. Dovi is not happy because of a number of reasons, the new tires, that his engineers have not figured it out yet, that Gigi still cannot fix the handling issue after many years of his input, and most importantly the disrespect Ducati is showing him. Dovi’s development is why the bike has been so good, well that and Gigi, and the Audi money pumped into their MotoGP effort when the Audi group purchased Ducati. But Dovi was the development guy they needed as he has raced for Yamaha and Honda, so he has a wealth of knowledge. Dovi is highly intelligent, hell on the brakes, the best in the sport along with Valentino, and one of the best riders at managing his tires when they’ve gone off and making them last the race. He’s also busted Marc’s ass many times at the end of the race when Marc likes to dive bomb, risking collision, and Dovi has out smarted him many times and won victory. Dovi is pissed at Ducati’s treatment. They’ve given him his new contract that is estimated to be 25-33% of his current contract, which is bullshit. He’s earned his pay. Only a generational talent like Marc, has beaten him in the last years to the title. Without Marc, Dovi would have multiple MotoGP championships under his belt. The pay cut and Ducati’s treatment towards him is bs and just like they did Stoner, and likewise not listening to Valentino nor Jeremy Burgess. Andrea is responsible for getting that bike to where it is now. Andrea has integrity, it’s not all about the money. He’s ready to retire rather than sign some bullshit contract. If KTM, Aprilia, or Honda is smart, they’ll snatch him up. Ducati treats all their riders like shit. They are a bunch of assholes. Go watch Brno again, and when Zarco got the penalty, look at how the Ducati heads acted.

What are your thoughts on that penalty? Personally I think it was bullshit. Pol lost the line and then cut back knowing full well Zarco would be on the line. I would have penalized Pol if he hadn’t crashed.

A racing incident. Zarco got penalized because it’s not his first rodeo with this sort of thing. He’s done questionable shit in the past so this was like a light slap on the wrist for him. It’s a passport thing. If it had been Marc instead of Zarco, I doubt he would have been penalized.

Yeah it’s early but what the heck.

Who do y’all predict we will see on the podium at the Red Bull Ring?

All bets are off as it’s supposed to rain all weekend. The circuit sits in a valley between two sets of mountain ranges (Alps) so when it rains it f’in pours down, creating standing water in multiple areas of the track. I’m expecting one or more practices to get delayed or canceled altogether. But given this is KTM’s home track (RedBull is their primary sponsor and owns the track), and they have tested recently, I’d bet on KTM being on the podium. Ducati haven’t figured out the rear tire yet. If they did over the past week they’ll be there, and maybe a Yamaha of Fabio, Maverick, or Valentino joining them. It’s a joke of a track, shouldn’t even be on the calendar (just some straights connected by a few corners). It’s a F1 track for the dragster, 1/4 mile people. For bikes it’s a joke. Lame to watch but better than no race at all.

The rain should make it interesting. Ducati’s straight line speed suddenly isn’t such and advantage when the track is wet.

I’d love to see Mir get a podium or at least a shot at it. That last race was unfortunate for him.

Yeah rain takes Ducati out.
Be nice to see old man Rossi give it a go.