okay... let me get my previous comment a bit more clear..

1. ducati < yamaha in terms of handling
2. ducati's used engine < yamaha's 3rd engine in terms of longetivity and power delivery (mind you jorge blew his 2nd engine yesterday which was also a new one)

and please for Christ sake do not compare this bike with the one stoner rode... it has been completely re-worked to suite rossi and could be very different from previous year....

all said and done it would be pretty hard for rossi/jorge/spies/simo to catch stoner this year...

There were some talks around the net, if JL would have used a new engine or the old one. Using 3 engines in 3 races will put him in trouble at the latter stages. Also he is 'supposed' to get an upgraded engine at Barc, so I suspect he would ve used the older engine. (just my thoughts looking at the race performance of bike)

I think a ride through penalty for Sic wasn't enough, he should have been fined or maybe banned for 1 race.. Pedrosa suffered a broken Collarbone again!!

Happy for 46 and Ducati.

As Nick Harris said during Qualifying.. "Stoner needs a sweeper ahead of him on the track".. His attitude is not earning him any fans anymore.. he lost one more.. Me. but that was in 2008 Laguna Seca.

I wonder how Stoner's face would have looked if Randy punched him back..!!

Marco's move was absolutely wrong. Dani would have never expected Marco to come from outside and chop his front wheel. While braking for a corner so hard you can't anticipate this kind of move. Marco himself didn't make it back on the track with that move.

It is all fun and games as long as you are doing it to others. But when you are the victim it gets dangerous. This holds good for each and every rider. And Jorge proved it yesterday...
The elation of standing on the podium will always be the same, be it 1st time or 150th time. How do you get tired of that feeling? Beats me.
I believe if Rossi or any rider for that matter isn't happy being on the podium then he should quit racing and he being that happy is understandable.

Dani breaking his collarbone was a consequence of the move by Marco for which got the punishment. Had Dani not broken his collarbone and just crashed out of the race, the punishment would be deemed apt.
I don't think rider should be penalized keeping the aftermath in mind.

PS: Lacy Moaner should thank Marco for stealing his spotlight otherwise had Marco not pulled that move, Lacy's Sheer arrogance and lack of humility would have been the talking point all three weeks ahead

First off: the whole debate on whether Marco being penalised is fair or not is taking away attention from an absolutely brilliant ride by Stoner.

Marco is rapidly becoming the 'bad boy' of MotoGp just as John McEnroe became the bad boy of tennis. He is certainly not helping himself by his off track behavior. Every rider at some time or the other has made such moves be Rossi (remember Sete?), Lorenzo, Dani (Nicky almost lost his championship due to his move) or Stoner. All of them at some point in time have made moves that have led to contact while passing the other guy. What is different in this case is not the move, but the person's (defiant??) attitude... He is rubbing a lot of people off in the wrong way... specially the FIM and the track officials... there are too many people complaining about him... the bottom line is that he needs friends and his behaviour is alienating people...

Rossi... well, he showed why he is a 9 time world champion... a very good ride on a machine that still needs a lot of work...

Lorenzo... don't put him down and out... he never found the right settings for the day... and then time ran out and he had to ride around the problems... he made the best of the situation and walks away with valuable points...

To those who are talk about Ducati being superior and Yamaha being inferior... in the 4 races of the season Yamaha has been on podium for 3 and Ducati has been on 1... one race podium does not make or break a bike or a team... there is still a long way to go...

^^
I think it is the other way round that people are mentioning Ducati as the inferior one. Not the Yamaha.

Sportsmanship is always welcome but I don't think anybody is there in the business for making friends with anybody.
Sic is an aggressive rider (has always been) and he cares a lot less of the consequences due to his moves. Yes he is earning a bad name but making friends isn't his main job on the track. Though neither is making enemies on track

On a lighter note: RDP is back to his old job....of testing the gravel of each race track.

^^^ ok... 'friends' may not be the right word... maybe 'well wishers' may be closer to what I am trying to describe... what I am trying to say is that he cannot keep going around antagonising people with a 'in your face' attitude...

when a guy like Stoner says something like I respect you but you need to cool it down (something to that effect)... he needs to at least take heed to it...

it will reach a point where though people will not admit it openly, they would rather have him disappear or melt away... ultimately, he is a part of a community and he has to survive in that community to do any good...

AFAIK Dani was on the inside line and was the one to brake early so that he can stick to the racing line... Marco broke late so he was ahead of Dani coming out of the corner and got the racing line.. the only thing was Dani not being able to hit brakes as hard as Marco and hit him. And the reason Marco did not make it back on the track with that move is because Dani hit him.

Look at the second pic... Marco is already ahead of Dani entering the corner.

^^^
Let me quote some of the tweet conversations:
By Dennis Noyes:
@motomatters yes...you do that as instinct to avoid running into someone. Dani could not tighten his line...physically impossible.

By motomatters:
Looking at SIC vs PED again, looks like PED picked the bike up so as not to take SIC out, but took himself out instead.

The move was there to be taken but it involved too much of a risk. Had Dani not stood up, it would have been Dani who had taken both down.

Racing line is the line taken for optimally making the corner and the line that Marco took was an aggressive one (going wide, braking late and coming back in sharp) and what dani took was probably a defensive one (taking it inside and then going wide to block the overtake).

Sic entering the corner after going wide came back in but his trajectory was directly inline with Dani's which I guess Marco would have known before entering itself. There was no way he could have pulled off that move without touching. He still went through it because as mentioned by everybody that he doesn't care what will happen to other rider and which is why I said it is wrong.
He should have as well waited for some more time may be one more corner to take the second position again.
And I don't think Dani clipping Marco's rear tyre would have changed much where Marco was heading i.e. not making the corner itself.

Video: Why Marco Simoncelli got a ride-through penalty


But yeah all this is coming from an arm chair enthusiast hence I can be completely wrong.

Okay going to another controversy in the making

Did Rossi pass under a yellow flag? - Motorcycle racing news: Moto GP - Visordown

^^^ +1 have to agree with you absolutely...

On a lighter note, found this on another forum: Simoncelli was robbed....... Reality: of a brain at birth.

some twitter quotes from my side as well...

Spalders Neil Spalding
Ok, it's 24 hours since Dani crashed and opinion is split whether it was a racing crash or not; but a ride thru penalty was not appropriate.

Johnny Mowlem
by tobymoody
@tobymoody totally agree! If Dani hadn't stood his bike up at apex they wouldn't have touched, but it's bumpy down the inside in2 tht corner

Neil Spalding
Taxi driver watched the race, reckons Simoncelli was hard done by.. Reckons Dani's bike twitched before he crashes... Pretty observant!

well the entire racing world is having difference in opinions so lets respect the difference in ours as well and agree to disagree on this shall we...

btw here;s a graphic depicting DP's injuries...

it has been cleared yesterday only....I don't remember where I read it...prolly on twitter....but it said that Rossi was Clean....he passed before the flag...and the other rider pulled up alongside him at the corner....

For injuries Chart: , Also Hopper is up there when it comes to injuries.

From what I have read(riders, motomatters, noyes, ryder etc)....simoncelli seems to be at fault....still am an armchair enthusiast as well...

Anybody saw the video of Jlolly's engine going KABOOM!!.....kinda funny...he crashes...runs straight to bike and then met halfway by a huge smoke cloud....

and what about his pass on Dovi...Idiot...

Lets see what Simoncelli has to say
Simoncelli rejects blame for Pedrosa crash | Page 1 | MotoGP News | May 2011 | Crash.Net

Dovi is talking big...has the best bike...still trails far behind....not impressed by his speed this year....

Dovizioso: Beating Rossi is always special | MotoGP News | May 2011 | Crash.Net

Stoner
RDP on punching incident

de Puniet sorry for Stoner incident | MotoGP News | May 2011 | Crash.Net