MOTOGP » Stoner stays top, Melandri rides GP9

Let me start by saying that I am a huge Rossi fan, the man is a legend no question.
Last year Stoner Had the best bike and the best tyres, but he also rode brilliantly, pushed very hard and did not fall off. This year the GP8 is definitely not the best and you can clearly see how he is struggling with corners, yet at the weekend he finished just behind Rossi, a real achievement. Melandri was probably the best rider last year behind Stoner and Rossi on a satellite Honda but he and the satellite GP8's have been woeful. So again you have to credit Stoner for what he has done. Rossi, Pedrosa, Stoner and Lorenzo are the only riders likely to win a GP bar rain and they are all superb riders in GP

Monty which posts do you claim are this ID theft? I see one post that includes your name . Admittedly, having a keen eye for detail and of course being a Unix system admin i noticed something you may not have picked up on. Some clever (smart ***) referenced your name with the preceding Unix command rm -rf . I found this pretty funny for obvious reasons to me at least. the "rm" command means "remove" the option "-rf" is used to forcibly remove recursively any directory and file.

I think he was literally meaning to say remove everything Monty Cowan says.

It is quite funny to savvy unix geeks.

Rossi is undeniably one of the greatest racers of all time but it is fair to say that he came to MotoGp with not only the best equipment going but also the best engineer, possibly of all time, (counted by WCs)who has stayed with him at Yamaha. Had he not been the rider he is, all those advantages would have been wasted - they were not. Stoner has a long way to go to be counted as a 'great' but the denial of his achievements to date in MotoGp on a total package of far lesser dominance is the stuff of bitter little people. Those who cannot accept that Stoner is a damn good rider and racer really need their medication changed.

Stupid question maybe, but is there any hurdle to Stoner racing the GP9 this season? Are the regulations changing for 2009? Would the 2009 bike be eligible to race in the current season?

I am so sick of the Rossi-bashing and the Stoner-bashing that I wish Crash.net would just moderate it out of the forums so we can have some informed, interesting, constructive debate.

I have been unable to find a good image of the GP9. Particularly its carbon fiber frame. Is it a tubular trellis frame as Ducati is known for or a more solid, twin spar like the Jap units?

Yes, the fanboyism here is tired.

Waz, I'm pretty sure the teams / factories can run whatever they want within the guidelines of course. 2006 Honda had a couple of frame changes, teams went from screamers to big bang firing order the same year, they have all introduced and modified electronics like Traction Control etc over the past 4 years. I can't help but think that Ducati will be having a frame change very shortly. Reliability / longevity may be their only concern in th eshort term. Some extensive testing should sort that out. It only took Casey 12 laps to get his never ridden before bike down under GP8 times on race rubber.... that says a lot!!

Gotta agree about the trogladites from both camps!!

Robert....true. However it took 3 consecutive championships before he was hassled.

It's legal to introduce the GP9 this year, but they wont. Developing a bike mid-season, during races is a compromise. And if they hypothetically give it to melandri, what would he bring to the party? I think Melandri is a great rider, but he's just not adapted at all. Shame really.

No-one has details about the CF frame, but I read it is at least a 'departure' from the trellis design.

Stoner is a great rider - yet he sadly still has the manner of a teenager though.
(He openly sulks and throws a temper when it doesn't go his way).

When will he learn to accept he was beaten in a race - because he was beaten?

Like him or not, this is what attracts people to Rossi - he is a good sportsman and carries a happy/fun image. Rven if this is a smoke screen, who cares? People like seeing motivated happy people on TV, not grumpy show offs.

When Rossi lost the 2006 Championship to Hayden (through 3 DNF's) instead of stating these reasons, he congratulated Hayden and even Haydens family on Live TV.

Stoner must learn to do this if he is to gain support outside Australia.

Grumpy, while I agree with your views on Rossi, however it is unfair to make an apples to apples comparison to Stoner.

Rossi was happy to congratulate Hayden - who was never his serious rival in past years. Also don't forget that he had just won 5 championships in a row, not the sane as being in your 2nd year and trying to prove yourself. Ask yourself, if Sete of Max had won a title over him, would have he reacted in the same way?

From interviews I also get the feeling that Stoner sacrificed a lot to get where he is. So have so many other riders, but I believe moving to Europe and living in trailers since he was 14, no mates around, must have be must be very hard and affected his character