MOTOGP » Hayden '09 mirrors Melandri '08

Mr "lie enough and it becomes the truth"

is John Hopkins lying when he says

"If you look at, that's why Stoner, actually, is riding so good. Nothing to take away from him. The guy's an amazing rider, an amazing talent. He's really good, and I'm good buddies with him. But if you look at every picture that Stoner, if you have the apex, it doesn't matter, if his hand is off the brake, his elbow is touching the fairing. He's wide open. "

???

A friend of mine suggests Casey Stoner's parents strapped him on to a kangaroo when he was young and this is how he remains onboard the bucking Ducati.
Fancy an Italian team sending their Italian rider to a shrink to sort out his head ? Sounds mean and very unpatriotic. 46

I just want to clarify about me saying Casey 'lucked into' being able to ride the Ducati. I'm not saying he isn't a talented rider, I just think that it's a case of '1 in a million' that he manages to ride the thing as good as he does. The great/terrible ratio is so much of a knife-edge that Casey's lucky he's the one that can ride it.

That's what I meant.

Interesting comment by Hopper, considering the only onboard footage Ive seen of Stoners throttle hand shows exactly the opposite..

Google 'Stoner Onboard Brno'. He's definately not 'wide open everywhere'!

I looked at the on board. It's inconclusive. MotoGP riders have different throttle tubes and the outside of the glove moves less than the inside, creating further distortion. Both Hopkins and Melandri are saying Casey trusts the electronics. Call them liars if you want to, but they are good riders and have more info than the majority of people.

Hayden just needs more time on the bike. I think he has had less time on it than melandri, although cappa and kallio are in the same boat. Bring back Friday morning fp1 for an hour, I think the fans trackside would appreciate it as much as the riders...

I just love it when Crash writes a small piece that attracts so many comments

Rubbish. The footage clearly shows Stoner feeding the throttle in gradually and its backed up by the accompanying telemetry. 100% conclusively NOT wide open everywhere!

Why are you bad-mouthing on Stoner?

He doesn't deserve it, watch at least the first race in Qatar, it's full of stoner's onboard camera. he wasn't using the TC more than Rossi. That's the truth, If you're not deaf you can hear it clearly. And about the throttle, NO one rider in Moto gp let it wide open. Just open your eyes on a replay. We don't need JH pov for that! Moreover JH is not a moto gp spy whose someone told him Duc's secret and he never rode a duke! How could he knows things he never touch? the only stuffs he've seen about du'c throttle was the same as us, Onboard cameras.PERIOD
I dislike Stoner serouisly, but I don't forget to be objective. respect for all Riders.

If Casey can ride the duke then it makes sense that another talented rider should be able to match his times. Does this mean he would be 1/2 second quicker than everyone else on the Yam or Honda?

Hayden will improve through out the year but he will never be competitive, he is just not that fast on any machinery consistently at every race.

Just read Hopkins' comments on technology in Motogp. He comes across as an idiot. Full of contradictions and perhaps sour. Disappointed to say the least.