Sunday 5.50pm - Only Three Days to Solve Rossi's Crisis
This is getting wearing even for that battle-hardened duo of
Valentino Rossi and his crew chief Jerry Burgess. Just when it seems that there's a window for the Fiat Yamaha crew to start closing the gap on
Casey Stoner and the Ducati, the boy slams in a win even on a track where top speed – the Desmosedici's supposed forte – is no more than 170mph even in the dry.
Now Stoner has blown away his detractors for the second consecutive race. Last year they said he bunged his LCR Honda away too often, even though he boldly finished eighth in his debut season in
MotoGP. This year he is demonstrating that he and the Desmosedici can win on any type of track in any conditions. Bring it on!
Once again, Michelin are having to carry the can for Valentino's fourth place, a vast 21.827 seconds behind Stoner.
"It's like we have a tyre for only 15 minutes in the wet," Rossi said in his post-race media debrief. "It's normal that the track surface can dry, so you have to have a tyre that works in the wet and then in the dry. Usually when it comes drier you go faster, but we go slower."
The fact that his team-mate
Colin Edwards' rear tyre was capable of giving the Texan second place could be due to different riding styles and to different setups on their bikes, Valentino theorised.
He said that Stoner's 26-point lead in the championship didn't worry him, because it represents the winner's tally for only one race. But now Yamaha and Michelin have only three days to address the problem before practice starts on Thursday for Saturday's Dutch round - and the weather in Holland is as rain-prone as in Britain.
Sunday 5.30pm - Westy Goes Down with Honour
Great work,
Anthony West. In his MotoGP debut he came damn close to fulfilling our suggestion that he might cop a podium position on the Kawasaki due to his walk-on-water ability to lap fast and reliably in the wet.
