Laguna Seca FP1

ya the laguna seca fp1 is over, disappointing results for us rossi fans.

casey stoner again ruled the timings, followed by pedrosa and then lorenzo, pedrosa had a minor fall.

ben spies was 4th, followed by dovizioso, simoncelli sixth, hayden - 7th,colin edwards -8th and then rossi, followed by others.

important thing for us was that hayden tried both gp11 and gp11.1 and his fastest timings came from gp11, obviously he is more confident riding his old machine than the new iteration done by rossi and it may not be a surprise if he came to race on gp11.

sad thing is rossi finished two palces behind his team mate riding an old chasis, obviously hayden knows ducati and gp11 better than rossi, who is still strugling. rossi didn't even tried gp11, which means that he thinks gp11.1 is better than gp11.

i don't think there is any real chance of rossi being in top 5 at the race, coz this is a short track with few and short straights and rossi's main problem being corners.

rossi was 1.167 secs slower than top rider stoner.

i am disappointed.



btw, i can't see it on TV, is it available, on which channel.

FP2
Lorenzo Tops, followed by Repsols - Dani, Stoner and Andrea.
then Spies, Sic and Bautista.(Bautista all set to beat the Ducati's again)

RdP fastest ducati at 8th, followed by Colin, Nicky and Vale.
LCRs at 15th(Toni) and 18th (Ben Bostrom)

1. Lorenzo
2. Pedrosa
3. Stoner
4. Dovizioso
5. Spies
6. Simoncelli
7. Bautista
8. de Puniet
9. Edwards
10. Hayden
11. Rossi
12. Barbera
13. Crutchlow
14. Abraham
15. Elias
16. Aoyama
17. Capirossi
18. Bostrom

Courtesy:www.Crash.net

lets just hope that rossi is trying different things and not trying to post best timings.

lets think that he is experimenting and will do his best in qualifying session.

After reading motomatters article on laguna seca...I wonder if Stoner is making the same mistake again...i.e. he expected to run away clean in both Mugello and Sachsensring...encountered trouble...wasn't prepared to battle hard..., hope he sees his way through....

On this track...the nimbler Yamaha might beat the faster Honda...

yesterday I found myself thinking that had rossi stayed at Yamaha, we would get to see both him and Lorenzo(superior racecraft) chasing after Stoner and Dani(superior machine/faster)....laguna'08 could have been repeated.....

Bautista,awsome potential. Hope he doesnt end up like Hopper. Wish he gets a good bike next year. Or atleast the Suzukis start concentrating on racing instead of being grid fillers..

Good to see Rossi not trying gp11.(There would be huge debate and criticism if he did).
Maybe QP would go well, and the Race start too .
Wow.Monday is a long way.(Damn you UsGP,Kiddin' )

EDIT:
P.S.:- Ducatis should work well in laguna seca.Don't ask me how, but I do have a feeling better than the Yammies atleast.

I agree completely! The 46 and 1 combination was what I had first thought after that article. Tag team championship! Would have been an epic race

after reading the comment from the above post, I have a doubt...why can't we simply load up the front tyres by putting on some weight(dead/ballast) at the right place, I know this isn't as simple as it sounds and would require a lot of analysis (for the CG, correct place for masses, bike's dynamic behaviour)....but still it seems to be a solution worth trying...

what are the difficulties/possibilities of such a solution working? - perhaps @TZ750 can help us out here...

^^ This has been tried by Stoner in '09 or '10. I remember him telling in a post race conference.
But this cannot be a long term solution in my view and they are trying to fix it once and for all and are still finding the base setup which will be the starting point for any track...

Nice article: Lagunaseca 2008 race
Jeremy Burgess On Laguna 2008 - How Valentino Rossi Beat Casey Stoner | MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

talking of solutions....i also have a few suggestions ( don't look for me, if i sound foolish )--

• since there are no potholes or major bumps on race tracks, do they really need taht much suspension, reduce the suspension travel and stiffen it up, this will reduce the height of bike, thereby lowering the center of weight and center of gravity, will improve handling.
• redistribute and redesign teh bike component parts in such a way to further lower the center of weight and center of gravity, reduce the seat height a bit.
• reduce the handle height a little bit i.e lower the handle and move the footrests back a little bit while at the same time push the seat further ahead a bit and move the engine block towards the rear a little bit.

apart of this there are a lot of things to do like rake angle, swingarm length etc, which obviously rossi knows better than me.

if you think whatever i have written is foolish, just forget it

‪Yamaha 50th Anniversary GP Video‬‏ - YouTube

No other manufacturer can do this !

Wish, Rossi was still there.

They are a fun company to be in

According to the rumors reported, Ducati might be go for twin spar chassis for 2012. So the GP12 we saw will not be the same anymore.
With Rossi's arrival Ducati have got so much of money they are experimenting on something, ready to put it in the bin and start all over

Those are some good observations but here's what I think:


Suspension isn't entirely for the road 'bumps', it also accounts for the body weight thrown onto the bike primarily when the brakes are applied (which is very important).

You can only lower the motorcycle as much, reducing the CG will seriously affect cornering, especially when the track goes 'down'.

Aiming for land speed record?


Man, I cant stop laughing! Especially at what Jorge is wearing!

Looks like something is working for Rossi. 0.7 seconds up from yesterday. Currently 7th with Hayden 6th.

As always Stoner leading the pack.

Rossi's bike is seriously lowered I guess, sparks fly over as soon as he is into a deep corner

BOOM!!! huge high side by Lorenzo Very nasty. Very similar to 2008 highside forgot which track

Edit: got it from motomatters: It was in chinese GP