MOTOGP » Pedrosa: I didn’t think Rossi was so close

It's not pedrosa's style to slow down, it's a cover up for the fact Honda were running something new and the computer was limiting the bikes performance to insure the bike came home.. Pedrosa isn't stupid, well done Honda.

pauly73, according to Nick Spalding (eurosport english commentary) HRC haven't gone back to an old chassis they have developed a new to make better use of the Bridgestones. Apparently they stiffened up the front of the chassis and have more flex in the rear & swingarm.
Dovi has done the development and now its been rolled out to all HRC supported riders. Defo seems to suit Pedrobot anyway

Nick is very technical and close to the paddock so I tend to believe him.

Good coverage on eurosport, not as good without Randy Mamola though

2Pac, Dovi has done development zero of the new chassis! The new rules forbide private tests with MotogGP riders. The development was done by HRC's testers. Honda bring the new chassis to Catalunya circuit expecting Pedrosa and Dovi test it Monday after Catalunya GP. But as Pedrosa was hurted and he dind't attent the test it was Dovi who check the chassis that Monday and said it was really better. That's all the work done by Dovi. In Assen both riders rode with the new chassis and... both riders fell.

The new chassis is faster, but also it provides less feedback from the front tyre, making it easy to crash. But it's racing, you must be fast more than sure!

Bad coverage in the US, they need to quit hiring Scott Russel for color commentary.

@Derek0113 I must agree - Morgue usually makes good thoughtful comments but occasionally disappoints like this. Still he's better than most.

Re: the Dani slowdown, did you see how hard his crew leaning over the wall were whipping him up to go faster. Maybe they suspected he'd button off if he thought he had it won easily.

Guess we'll never really get to the real reason that Dani slowed so much on the final lap.

Was kind of disappointed that Vale couldn't nail him at the end, but was also glad to see Dani get a win, so that he gets some cred back and possibly adds more spice to the rest of the season's racing.

2nd for Vale was good enough on the day, given that he may possibly have ended up 3rd ( not that he would have let Jorge away with that pass,had it stuck)

Roll on the 19th !!

It's pretty clear what Morgue is saying, and I'd have to agree with him - on paper Rossi should have won this race. He came into the weekend as favourite (based on past form), and then his two closest rivals are hurt during qualifying. However, it didn't turn out that way and Dani beat him fair and square.

Robert Jones - Immediately after the race Dani said he slowed a lot because he thought he had a bigger gap, and there was no reason to push as hard as he was all the way to the flag. Then on the final corner he heard Rossi so he stepped it back up to make sure he got the win. Seems normal to me since he lost over 1 second or so, if I remember right, during that lap. There's no reason to lie about it, IMO.

Close wasn't the word for it. After one of the best starts I've ever seen anyone get off the line , it looked like Danny's Honda went into safe mode to get the bike him hence Rossi catching in the last moment. I reckon if there has been 2 more corners spare we'd be reading different headlines.