Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

It would have been a treat to watch Stoner ride against MM93 on a factory Honda.

But I'm glad Honda chose not to. Stoner would have definitely needed a great team in place to place well.

I sure as heck wouldn't have wanted to see Stoner mid-pack on the Repsol. That would have been depressing.

With the form of Rossi, Marquez, Lorenzo, Iannone & Dovi this season... there's no way Stoner would have finished on the podium.

I definitely understand the sentiment. Honda did good. And, Casey went and talked/tweeted about it in his usual Stoneresque way.

It's been two years. He hasn't changed one bit. Hope he's back soon though.

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

Listening to Marquez at the press conference, pretending he didn't know anything at all about Stoner's request until one of his mechanics told him yesterday (!), I found it very hard to believe him. As a consequence I can't help feeling that Stoner's ride at Austin was actually vetoed by Marc himself. Why? Because it is quite inconceivable that Honda's management would not inform their world champion of the possibility of Stoner replacing Pedrosa, and of course ask him if it was ok with him, -- so saying he didn't know anything about it was a giveaway imo. C'mon Marc...

In this light all the other justifications given -- no time to test, his ex crew chief Gabarrini busy with Miller, fear of Stoner not being in the top three, etc, sound like a lot of very reasonable excuses. Fact is, Stoner asked Honda to race and someone said no. As much as I like MM, I think it was him.

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

Bingo!

My thoughts exactly.

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

You have a very valid point about Marquez. Also Moto 3 last year both Rins and Miller complained about the Marquez brothers being given preferential treatment in the paddock.

And in general other riders have shared similar sentiments about Marc, with Bautista the latest in the list after being barged through at Qatar!

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

Have to go against the current here.

1. Marquez wouldn't be concerned with Stoner subbing for Pedrosa. He's been away for 2 years and won't have enough time to build even Pedrosa level of speed, let alone Marquez. Remember than Rossi had to invest an entire year to get his form back on the M1 and that's when he was still an active rider who participated in all races and all winter testing (albeit on a different machine).

2. Honda's argument makes sense. Look at Scott Redding's team. New crew, first time working on a MotoGP prototype, they're struggling to get a good setup.

3. Japanese pride : We don't understand the full scale of this, as non-Japanese people. Putting a Japanese rider on a Japanese bike is a big deal for them.

4. It's easier to justify bad performance by a test rider. Bad performance by Stoner (top 8 probably unlikely) would just bring them mostly bad publicity. Only the keener MotoGP fans would understand why Stoner isn't as fast as the top runners.

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

Marquez already lost the limelight at Qatar two weeks ago...
i don't think he would have wanted Stoners return to overshadow his possible third-straight-win-in-a-row at CoTA which Rossi called MM93's 'home track.'
He wouldn't have wanted to have to bother thinking about the Yam & Duc factory riders and now Stoner too.

Marquez knows 2015 will his most be difficult year in MotoGP. So anything to make things easier.

but Stoner jumped from the Ducati to the Honda and won the first race.
and he won the 2011 season first year back on the Honda too.

Marquez knows Stoner would be mad fast on the Repsol Honda.

And besides... I don't think Marquez and Stoner will get on one bit if they were team-mates.

But i really can't wait to see Stoner back on the Repsol.

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

Holy mother of god, that session was intense. Marquez is a bloody miracle worker.

Just when I thought he couldn't surprise anyone any more, he pulled that off!

MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

Marc looked very aggressive on that last lap, Jorge seems pretty comfortable and looks to be feeling well. Rossi would be happy starting from 4th. Dovi would certainly be a contender for the win.

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

That's an understatement. I was almost sure he was going to bin it. He looked way more out of control than usual.

Moving on though, Redding is 6th, just 2 tenths off the 2nd place, which should be a huge relief for him.

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

Since he didn't bin it, I would say he was aggressive. If he would have, it would have been stupid.
Dovi said he wanted to follow Marc on that last lap and see his lines, braking point and other things, but felt he was beyond his limit of following, so he backed out at the end. Marc was a bit hasty while going out on the last lap, mainly cos he was down at 7th when his 1st bike went kaput.
But shouldn't he be penalised for leaving the bike at the pit wall that too on the main straight? Cos it was dangerous place to leave your bike at. :P

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

That pole position lap after leaving the broken bike and running to the second one, was frickin' awesome. Speak about teking quick decisions... And maybe the physical exertion helped!
New way of preparing for a fast lap: jump over two walls and sprint for a hundred meters!

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

Anybody saw a picture of Rossi's front tyre after the race. Incredible that he rode that to a third place. Iannone cooked his tyres after wasting them catching the leading group when he got thrown off his line with Redding's crash. Marquez was in complete control at all times yesterday. Jack Miller has made giant strides in MotoGP, was hustling Hayden the entire race on the same bike. Good to see the other rookie as well Maverick get a top 10 finish. Both these guys are showing a lot of promise.

Also, check out the Twitter spat between PEsp and Redding after the race! Pretty amusing

Moto2 was awesome, seeing Rins on the podium in just his second outing. His effort is commendable. Considering the other rookie and current Moto 3 champion is relatively struggling to find his feet. Good show by Lowes as well after getting banged up in practice and qualifying.

Moto 3 was unusally a snooze fest with Kent running away with it!

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Not to forget that both the Factory Ducati's ran out of fuel as the race got over. They really were cutting it fine. Maybe Abhimanyu from a few pages previously does have a point.

Motomatters round up - https://motomatters.com/analysis/2015/04/13/2015_austin_motogp_sunday_round_up_weird.html

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

yep, the front was literally like hell..and Jorge said his tyre was in better condition than Rossi's so he feels medium front was the right choice. Iannone had similar troubles as Rossi, jorge mentioned that he noticed Iannone having trouble in right handers. Dovi rode pretty safe in the last few laps, not allowing Rossi even a single chance to pounce :P
Along with Miller, even the Suzuki's did pretty well. 8th and 9th. Sad for Pol and Redding, they definitly should have been somewhere close to Cal by the end of the race.

Dani looks to be out of the Title hunt. I even doubt Jorge, but he is some one who can suddenly start his own streak of wins. Otherwise the championship seems to be revolving around Marc, Vale and Dovi (for a change). The Ducati's ran out of fuel at the end, they will surely have to work around this to manage rest of the season, but July is soon approaching. The electronics will be standard, I expect it to be a more level playing field then and closer fight between the manufacturers.

Didn't see the spat on tweeter, can you share the comments please.

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

Here you go - https://twitter.com/PolEspargaro/sta...97207550255106

Re: MotoGP 2015 Season - Updates

hehehe...wow they're actually fighting like two little teenagers. Bringing it on tweeter removed doubts if anyone had any :P

talking about teenagers, Marc was very amused of the bull horn type Trophy that he got for 1st place :P

btw..next race is just 6 days from now. Coming sunday(19th April) Schedule is exactly the same. 00:30(midnight) is the start schedule for MotoGP.
It's got a shorter straight(compared to COTA), is easy on fuel and tyres as they say..and Yamaha's expect to do better there.