The Marco Simoncelli MotoGP Thread

Jocke1 · Post by **Jocke1** » 20 Oct 2013, 05:07

Anyone else watching the on-going "race"?

This is a farce! Pathetic...

Jocke1 · Post by **Jocke1** » 20 Oct 2013, 05:47

Post by **mario** » 20 Oct 2013, 07:36

Well, it goes from bad to worse as two riders - Staring and, most crucially, Marquez - were both disqualified from the race for riding for more than 10 laps on the same set of tyres (Marquez having pitted on lap 11). http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2013/lore ... lia+motogp and http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/motogp/24600081

watka · Post by **watka** » 20 Oct 2013, 15:15

I've never seen a cock-up that bad in MotoGP. All HRC needed to do was be able to count to 10. Despite Parrish banging on about getting his calculator out it was quite simple, put by the end of lap 10 or your disqualified! You've got to feel sorry for Marquez, he should have been going into Motegi with the championship being a formality if he didn't fall off, now he's got a chance of losing it because if Lorenzo wins the final 2 races, two 3rds for Marquez (possible given that Pedrosa could beat him) wouldn't be enough for the title.

good_Ralf · Post by **good_Ralf** » 20 Oct 2013, 15:20

watka wrote:You've got to feel sorry for Marquez, he should have been going into Motegi with the championship being a formality if he didn't fall off, now he's got a chance of losing it because if Lorenzo wins the final 2 races, two 3rds for Marquez (possible given that Pedrosa could beat him) wouldn't be enough for the title.

Then it could be F1 2007 all over again. A bad team/driver mistake in one of the final races closes up the title battle right up and at the final race despite looking secure the rookie loses the crucial championship lead and thus the chance to be WC in his 1st season.

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 20 Oct 2013, 16:05

Unbelievable. Way to go Marquez, you found your way to Hamilton beach. Somebody needs to get fired.

watka · Post by **watka** » 20 Oct 2013, 22:40

F1000X wrote:Unbelievable. Way to go Marquez, you found your way to Hamilton beach. Somebody needs to get fired.

Very much shades of Shanghai 2007 but Marquez isn't to blame at all, he should be able to rely on his team whilst he concentrates on racing.

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 21 Oct 2013, 06:18

watka wrote:
F1000X wrote:Unbelievable. Way to go Marquez, you found your way to Hamilton beach. Somebody needs to get fired.

Very much shades of Shanghai 2007 but Marquez isn't to blame at all, he should be able to rely on his team whilst he concentrates on racing.

I agree. Hence, fire someone.

wsrgo · Post by **wsrgo** » 25 Oct 2013, 03:15

Heavy for has led to the cancellation of Friday morning practice at Motegi.

roblo97 · Post by **roblo97** » 25 Oct 2013, 06:43

wsrgo wrote:Heavy for has led to the cancellation of Friday morning practice at Motegi.

I do hope for Scott Reading to be passed fit for the race.

Jocke1 · Post by **Jocke1** » 26 Oct 2013, 11:43

Ben Spies announces retirement from racing
http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2013/spie ... retirement

Gerudo Dragon · Post by **Gerudo Dragon** » 27 Oct 2013, 08:10

Lorenzo won

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 27 Oct 2013, 08:25

This is going to be exciting.
And Moto3 has three riders that could claim the title... Salom 300, Vinales 298, Rins 295 points :shock:

Jocke1 · Post by **Jocke1** » 27 Oct 2013, 09:09

An employee at Team Repsol put this picture out on their official Twitter mid-race, but it soon got deleted when the mistake was discovered.
Embarrassing, first the black flag and now this:

Also, MM wore a not-so-politically-correct t-shirt in the pits:
(not that I take offence personally, I think it was quite humorous, but perhaps Repsol's media people should have thought twice about it?)

Post by **mario** » 27 Oct 2013, 16:00

On the first picture, it is going to be especially embarrassing if, should something go wrong in Valencia, Lorenzo takes the title instead of Marquez. As for the second picture, I have to agree that it is a bit tasteless - I know that it is not meant to cause any offence, but you can see why there might be those who find it offensive.

On another note, what on earth happened to Espargaro? The way he got off the bike suggests that he had some sort of brake failure and decided to bail out rather than risk being stuck on the bike, but it just looked somewhat surreal from the trackside cameras.

Jocke1 · Post by **Jocke1** » 27 Oct 2013, 17:49

mario wrote:On another note, what on earth happened to Espargaro? The way he got off the bike suggests that he had some sort of brake failure and decided to bail out rather than risk being stuck on the bike, but it just looked somewhat surreal from the trackside cameras.

Could it have been a stuck throttle?
Because the brakes seemed to work, the suspension looked like it compressed when he squeezed the brake, before he bailed.

Post by **mario** » 27 Oct 2013, 19:02

Jocke1 wrote:
mario wrote:On another note, what on earth happened to Espargaro? The way he got off the bike suggests that he had some sort of brake failure and decided to bail out rather than risk being stuck on the bike, but it just looked somewhat surreal from the trackside cameras.

Could it have been a stuck throttle?
Because the brakes seemed to work, the suspension looked like it compressed when he squeezed the brake, before he bailed.

That is definitely a plausible alternative - a few other commentators have suggested that might have been the case, and in some ways that would be an even stronger incentive to bail from the bike than brake failure (though both scenarios are rather terrifying). I'm surprised that there seems to have been hardly any mention of his accident though as, judging from the reaction to the severing of Pedrosa's traction control system a few races back both scenarios would surely have attracted the attention of FIM if nothing else.

watka · Post by **watka** » 29 Oct 2013, 00:28

Really excited to see the championship battle go down to the last round, should be one heck of a battle! I haven't followed Moto3 this season but I'll have to give that a watch too!

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 29 Oct 2013, 03:54

watka wrote:Really excited to see the championship battle go down to the last round, should be one heck of a battle! I haven't followed Moto3 this season but I'll have to give that a watch too!

Best of the three classes by far. I barely look up from my laptop when Moto2 is on.

Gerudo Dragon · Post by **Gerudo Dragon** » 10 Nov 2013, 13:48

Marquez is champion.

Jocke1 · Post by **Jocke1** » 10 Nov 2013, 13:56

Marc Marquez.

roblo97 · Post by **roblo97** » 10 Nov 2013, 14:56

Those First 10 laps were unlike anything I have ever seen :shock:

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 10 Nov 2013, 23:41

Worth champions either way. Shoutout to Pedrosa for that epic battle against Lorenzo.

watka · Post by **watka** » 11 Nov 2013, 00:55

It was as if the race was back to front, all of the battling happened at the start of the race. Marquez is a worthy champion indeed, without the Philip Island mess up, he would have already won the championship. Lorenzo never gives up though and you have to admire that. Are we in for an era of Vettel-like dominance? Well I think its up to Yamaha to give Lorenzo a better bike next year because I think that on equal machinery, Lorenzo would beat Marquez. Pedrosa's going to have a tough year next season because it will be the first time since his first season where the Honda team hasn't been built around him (IMO, Stoner wasn't there long enough for there to be any favouritism to his side of the garage).

Maverick Viñales won the Moto3 class in a pretty interesting race. He only won 3 races in the season, but his rivals Salom and Rins couldn't match him today, with Salom going down and Rins being beating in a drag race to the line.

madmark1974 · Post by **madmark1974** » 11 Nov 2013, 10:15

Congratulations to Marquez, a well-deserved and multi-record breaking title win.

It was an excellent race for the first 10 laps or so, great use of 'dirty' tactics by Lorenzo, just a shame Rossi wasn't fast enough to keep up and mess with Marquez a bit - I felt that Bautista didn't want to make a
move on Marc so helped give him a buffer over Rossi, and once Jorge had had enough of stuffing Pedrosa up and went for it, Rossi was too far back, even if it was fruitless as Marquez would still have won if Rossi
did get through.

It doesn't seem as if Dani was under any kind of instruction, so was racing for the win himself, but it would have made things a lot easier for Marquez if Dani had made a move stick on Lorenzo. Marc just played the
race perfectly to race well within himself, not get involved in any 'mind games' but still be fast enough to beat the non-podium runners. WELL DONE MARC MARQUEZ!!!

madmark1974 · Post by **madmark1974** » 28 Nov 2013, 13:21

Apologies for the double post, but I wasn't aware of this news until now.

Formula One reject team Caterham are to enter a 2-bike team into Moto2 next season : http://www.caterham.com/moto2/

Can't be that short of money then, can they?

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 30 Nov 2013, 19:01

RIP Doriano Romboni

watka · Post by **watka** » 03 Dec 2013, 00:09

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:RIP Doriano Romboni

As a Simoncelli memorial event too. RIP.

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 03 Dec 2013, 22:20

Rest in peace

go_Rubens · Post by **go_Rubens** » 24 Dec 2013, 02:27

Make of this what you will

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 24 Dec 2013, 13:47

go_Rubens wrote:Make of this what you will

Nothing new, just the usual hollow threats from Honda when they don't get their way. Where are they going to go if they quit? WSB? Really? More chance of hell freezing over than them quitting!

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 24 Dec 2013, 22:21

So according to Crash.net Smith was the 8th best rider of the season :lol:

So he did improve a fair bit in the second half of the season, but he was still nowhere near the front and he only got that high in the poll due to the Crash readers British nationalism. Looking forward to seeing Espargaro the younger beating him in 2014.

Post by **Londoner** » 24 Dec 2013, 22:31

eurobrun wrote:So according to Crash.net Smith was the 8th best rider of the season

So he did improve a fair bit in the second half of the season, but he was still nowhere near the front and he only got that high in the poll due to the Crash readers British nationalism. Looking forward to seeing Espargaro the younger beating him in 2014.

Gotta love polls. According to this one, Maro Engel is the third most popular driver in V8s this season. :lol:

I might have voted for him...

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 26 Dec 2013, 23:00

The crash.net poll so far
4th Cal Crutchlow GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 7.20
5th Aleix Espargaro SPA Power Electronics Aspar 6.97
6th Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha Factory Racing 6.91
7th Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP 6.29
8th Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 6.17
9th Alvaro Bautista SPA Go&Fun Honda Gresini 5.90
10th Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Team 5.48

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 27 Dec 2013, 13:50

AndreaModa wrote:
go_Rubens wrote:Make of this what you will

Nothing new, just the usual hollow threats from Honda when they don't get their way. Where are they going to go if they quit? WSB? Really? More chance of hell freezing over than them quitting!

F1? It makes sense... Though I'd have to admit this is common and foolish, considering they are the manufacturers champions, as well as the riders champions with Marc Marquez. I still think that Marquez winning is all a dream...

Post by **mario** » 27 Dec 2013, 18:22

Aerospeed wrote:
AndreaModa wrote:
go_Rubens wrote:Make of this what you will

Nothing new, just the usual hollow threats from Honda when they don't get their way. Where are they going to go if they quit? WSB? Really? More chance of hell freezing over than them quitting!

F1? It makes sense... Though I'd have to admit this is common and foolish, considering they are the manufacturers champions, as well as the riders champions with Marc Marquez. I still think that Marquez winning is all a dream...

I'd likewise agree that it would be very surprising for Honda to cut out MotoGP given their traditional attachment to MotoGP. I could possibly see Honda cutting back their activities, such as reducing support for satellite teams, as a way of upping the pressure on Dorna and trying to bluff it out with them, but a full scale withdrawal doesn't seem to be on the cards.

Jocke1 · Post by **Jocke1** » 26 Jan 2014, 02:13

Rossis new Yamaha for 2014:

And Tech3's workshop was damaged in the floods of the southern coast of France on 21 January.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 26 Jan 2014, 02:49

Saw a tweet from Matt Roberts on Friday that said the Spanish press were reporting that Yamaha had secured Movistar sponsorship, with the brand returning to MotoGP for the first time in bloody ages when they used to sponsor the Gresini team and became iconic when Gibernau did battle with Rossi.

Here's the tweet: https://twitter.com/matt77roberts/status/426746463713247232

Not sure how much truth there is in it, but it would be awesome for a number of reasons:

1. Yamaha propped up for a while longer with a title sponsor for the first time since Fiat walked away.
2. Another big name back in the sport, makes it more marketable and evidence to allow other brands to get involved.

But, it's another Spanish sponsor. Spain can't carry a world championship on it's own forever especially considering the country isn't exactly the healthiest it's ever been. Having said that, considering Santander have such a big involvement in F1, I'm surprised they've never bought into MotoGP.

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 26 Jan 2014, 07:53

AndreaModa wrote:Having said that, considering Santander have such a big involvement in F1, I'm surprised they've never bought into MotoGP.

Wouldn't be surprised if they do get to enter soon via Honda.

Jocke1 · Post by **Jocke1** » 26 Jan 2014, 10:46

For a while this silly season there were rumors of Lorenzo moving to Ducati in '15. But Lorenzo has since commented there are no truths to the rumors.