MOTOGP » Stoner's night dream, Rossi's nightmare

I must admit to my prediction of Stoner,Rossi, Pedrosa, being slighty wrong!. Stoner and Pedrosa carried on from where they left off last year, Lorenzo and Dovi rode like MotoGP champions,and Toseland on the slower spring valve yamaha made me proud to be the son of a "£10 POM",now that admitting to something! no excuse for Rossi, he was outclassed by all the above riders.

Prototype bikes (like F1 cars) must be designed during the previous season with the specific behaviour of the tyres they will be using in mind. Presumably, for the Yamaha, these would have been Michelins. You can''t just bolt on a totally different construction and make on a bike designed for another tyre. The other Yamahas are on Michelins, including Rossi''s team-mate. So every weekend will be a learning experience - in the middle of a championship fight and they have NO data from previous seasons or from other bikes to work with. He''s on his own. A combination of the problems Ferrari had as the only leading team on Bridgestones; and Renault had in a car designed for Michelins.

Stoner rode like a God, and Rossi rode like a has been.

end of story!

Michelins apparently had an advantage in the colder temps. (Rossi and Stoner were the only Bridgestones at the top). Stoner still won by 5 secs (yes, a genius!). Lorenzo beat Rossi convincingly. In the past Rossi's talent would have overcome this, but the skill level in MotoGP has gone up. So on days when Lorenzo has an advantage, he will beat Rossi. Rossi is faced with a package in the 'zone': Ducati/Stoner/Bridgestone. Plus 3 other Ducatis to help with data. No way out for Rossi: He can't go back to Michelins - humiliation; can't quit - humiliation; expect murmurs about the other Yamahas (at least Lorenzo) switching to Bridgestones for next season. Either way, Rossi's in trouble.

"the skill level in MotoGP has gone up."
Shows how muchyou know cap, thers no more skill in MotoGP than there is in World Superbikes now with all this traction ******
Bring back 990's, they were spot on!!

i dont think its a issue for rossi just yet, lets see. but the person who does have to worry is Hayden, to be blown away by Dovitsey thingy on a satelite bike from last year is not good. Hayden has been making hard work of racing for quite awhile now, watch your *** boy.

Let us not forget how much testing michelin had just before the race, they will not have that for the rest of the year...expect different results next time out

Lets see how the next few races go. This was a)the first race of the season and b)the first ever night race.

which doesn't exactly make for the best data when trying to do analysis for the season

500's were spot on, 990's belong in superbikes.

Rossi will be back at Jerez. He was the best performer there on race tyres at the recent tests and the Ducati has not been right at the front in the dry there.

Regarding Stoner and the Ducati well for a bike that is meant to be controlled by electronic everything his bike always looks like it is on the ragged edge mainly because that is the way Stoner rides it.

The reason Stoner is so good is because he is consistently fast lap after lap after lap after lap after lap.

Ask Lorenzo who was complaining about physical problems brought on by the pace.

The race pace was such that it was 26 seconds faster than last year.

2008 will be an interesting year.

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