Stoner vs. Stoner, sympathy for Rossi.

Congratulations to Stoner and Pedrosa for a job well done, sorry to see the spirit disappear from the race after a couple of turns for it could have been a great battle. Seeing Rossi fight back from a great distance (after the first lap we counted a massive 34 seconds behind) and all the people in the crowd spurring him on sitting in the grandstands was a sight to behold.

Very nice comment from Stoner.

DePuniet should be fined for that incident.

Spacelord, erm, why should DePuniet be fined?

Kawasaki is going to lease the Marlboro Ducati bike that Melandri will be done with after the break. They'll paint it Green and have a reliable machine for Hopkins or West to ride the second half of the season instead of the rubbish bins. (not really)

Good comment from Casey, nice to see some Sportsmanship.

Also from Rossi, who said he Sincerely apologises to Randy and Team Kawasaki for the accident he caused.

Wouldn't be surprised if hopkins ripped the duk, he seems to have little concern for the laws of physics...

Stoner is not only a great racer but also a nice guy..

Rev, are you suggesting Ducati shuold be disqualified for breaking the laws of physics?

What an amazing performance from Stoner and Ducati!
Yes its a shame Rossi fell but I'm glad in a way it was his own fault (I'd hate it to have been someone else's)
Over 11seconds clear at the end and perhaps most impressively over 30secs faster than last year which is even more impressive when you consider Stoner was not being pressed and last year Rossi had to catch, pass and pull away from the Ducati.

Congrats to CS. His Ducati GP8+ or GP9- is really a different bike to earlier in the year. Mechanical grip seems to be well up and he seems to be able to now hold a far tighter line if needed(just like the VR Yamaha). Maybe BS has also something to do with this as I thought they introduced a new tyre at Donnington.
While VR's error is unfortunate it has allowed the championship to become a three way battle. CS's only chance for the WC was a bad result from VR in at least one GP.

What we need to see now is the fight back from Yamaha & Rossi, we know they can do it as they have proved it at the begining of this year, what concerns me most is the way as someone else pointed out above is the way Stoner is able to ride his Ducati, literaly just about how he wants.

Let's hope that we can have a closer battle in the second half of the season between the top 3.

Randy DePuniet races with LCR Honda (Lucio Cecchinello's team, the same one that Stoner was in 2006) Kawasaki has Hopkins and West as riders.
Rossi took out DePuniet, not the other way around.

Nigel..You mention a Yamaha fight back well there is one area the VR Yamaha has had problems with for quite a few seasons and that is average to poor starts which can put him back in the pack and increase the risk of carnage or as in this case force him to take risks with a possible error the result.

Honda seem to have the benchmark launch control this year.

Yes the most impressive part of the CS victory is that the CS Ducati now seems to corner as if it is on rails which is something we associate with the Yamaha.

I agree CA, at the moment they must be scratching themselves (yamaha) behind their ears..

It's going to be interesting to see how other teams manage to fight back when you look at what happened to the new Honda. Yamaha had the same issue with there air valve engine when it was first introduced, if it didn't blow up it ran out of fuel.

Nicky had the measure of Danny with the new bike, so lets hope they just under filled Nicky's bike & where not running it at maximum allowed fuel. If Danny gets the new bike/engine working for him he maybe able to run with Stoner. Rossi IMO is going to have to over ride the Yamaha, which is going to force him into more rider errors, the same as last year. The Yamaha is clearly the 4th best bike on the grid ATM. It is no longer the best out there

I can certainly see why people would think Rossi was taken out on the opening lap.

Whilst watching the start I blinked and then saw 2 bikes hit the gravel, one was The Greatest bike racer of all time, the other was a guy probably there to make up the numbers (sorry randy!) I immediately thought De Puniet had lost it and taken out the Doctor.

However, saw a replay and Rossi clearly over cooks it trying to get back into a good position. The guy IS human after all!!!!! who'da thunk it?!

Good win for stoner, although... was he being sarcastic with his sympathy for the italian as this time Rossi didnt steal all his cheers?!?!!! oooohhh controversial!!!!

I posted the same math in some other thread, numbers don't lie

4 Yamahas have scored average 110 WC points this season:
4 Hondas have scored 94:
4 Ducati's have scored 58.

Like it or not, Yamaha is clearly the best bike out there.

Define the best bike though S.Alec

Maybe, a more suitable word would be Yamaha produces the most 'consistent' package that can be ridden by most riders?

The Ducati (In the hands of Casey Stoner) is the best bike, he was 11 secs clear of 2nd place. No Yamaha touched that kind of pace.

Only Stoner (out of the Ducati riders) has the skill to adapt and use the machine to it's full potential it seems.

Ducati seem to have produced a MotoGP machine, like a Ferarri VS a Porsche road car. A liability, over complex - but when controlled in the right hands - utterly sublime.

Grumpy - that is a very fair assessment, yes obviously the Duc is way fast but also obviously it - still - needs someone who is capable of using it properly. Anyone who watxched the race would have to accept that Stoner is a very good rider: the way he was riding last night (for Aussies) was very reminiscent of Valentino on his last year on the Honda - almost inch-perfect 100% control of every factor in the riding, speed, line, braking points, change of direction. One may lament the lack of racing action but that was a superb demonstration of ultra-high speed riding on a demanding track. I, too, want to see Stoner and Rossi slug it out, I am a fan of both - Yamaha, don't fail us now.

if you take the total race time take the first lap times off Rossi will still be about 16 sec of the pace!!!
take another tenth or so a lap (cos his bike wasn't 100%) and he still is five to six seconds off Stoner's pace.
im sure if Stoner was pushed he could have dropt his laptime a bit more.