MOTOGP » Rossi's 69th makes Indy, MotoGP history

waz
"I suspect Stoner fell because he is able to ride faster than the bike is capable of going"

I think all the top riders can ride faster than their bike is capable of. The secret is that they should know/feel the limit. Some of them can feel it some of them can not. Stoner was lacking of feeling in the last few races... It seems when he is under pressure he is losing it easily. He needs to improve quickly because next year not only Rossi will put the pressure on him.
Lorenzo is close to Vale because he is a damn good rider the future champion. But Rossi still has the edge that makes him the current WC.

The front runners are all on top bikes. The Ducati, Yamaha and Honda works bikes are very close. When you saw Hayden pull away from Vale on the straights at Indianapolis you can tell that there is not a great machine advantage for one of them,
one bike/tyre combination just suits a certain circuit better than the other. The Suzuki and Kawasaki works machines (in that order) seem to lag a bit behind.
The rest is really up to the riders, they make the difference. Lorenzo is a huge talent, getting his first podium in the wet in such a situation and especially after the confidence 'dent' he suffered mid season is very good.
Last time out at Misano he was not far off Rossi as well, on Michelins!

GrimTurtle: 'Also says that once you get to the top 5 riders 'there is a lot of bike' involved.'

So says Ben Spies, speaking from mid-pack and most decidedly NOT one of the top 5 MotoGP riders in the world despite the disproportionate amount of talk about him.

tv67, I think where San Marino is concerned you are right, sort of. Vale and Stoner were riding equally well, Vale said so himself. Stoner said that he 'kept losing the front' until eventually losing it altogether. You can't tell me that Rossi was losing the front all the time too but could hold it together every time out of sheer skill. Nup - I'd say his bike was and is working as a package that little bit better than the Duc.

waz
"Stoner said that he 'kept losing the front' until eventually losing it altogether."

I am not saying that Rossi was losing the front all the time but kept it together. He pushed it to the limit - not over the limit that's all in my opinion...

Anybody notice that when Rossi won his 69th MotoGp he had to beat number 69 to get it. A little bizarre would you think

Rossi won most of his titles with a win. The only one i know of is 2005, he became 2nd behind Loris. But who knows when he became champion in 1997? I thought it was in Brno, but that race he beacame 3rd. Was it that race? Or another one?

Waz-- i have to say that when talking about which bike is the best, your assuption that Stoner is as good a rider as Rossi at this stage of his career and that the reason for his crash was that Rossi has the better bike almost too ridiculous for words, in fact as I type this I can hardly believe I responded..........

Friday = 30,978: Saturday = 52,010: Sunday = 91,064 according to SPB.com

Pardon me. That's according to SBP.com

That was SBP.com