2112 RD.3 MOTM Estoril ** Spoilers**

[Faster1]

MOTM/ DOTM for over and above to less than expected.

MOTM –
Alvaro Bautista - probably the only inspired ride for me, in a less than inspiring race.

Honorable mention –
Dovi – for killing the Cal tri-fecta
Rossi – gets it for being lead Duc. Not sure if Hayden’s crew just screwed up or Rossi is finally happy.

DOTM –
The Ben – Hard to believe but I’m not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. He gets a pass a Qatar. Jerez? Well OK ,bad day… But Estoril? WTF? Who’s fault is this? . Seems like his crew dialed up a winner for QP, even though a few of his hot-laps were interfered with.. but did they screw with the bike looking for that extra n-th for the race? If so, yer-fired! Ben isn’t just being beat by TECH3 second tier bikes,, he’s getting pissed on. Personally, I’m still on the Ben train, but for how long. So far, no controversy at Yamaha factory, either Dovi or Cal will be riding blue next year.
Hayden – there must have been a reason for that ride, no classic Hayden fight, even for the first few laps.
Abraham – Jeez will someone give him his 800 Duc back? Or at least the aileron wings on the fairing .. he clearly hates the new bike and he was faster on the compact version.

[phil]

I missed the race.. damn bbc play the races to suit their agenda...
Ben Ben Ben what's going on??
I can't comment on much else.

[Grahluk]

I'll skip personages and cast my votes between the classes.
MOTM: tie between Moto2 and Moto3. Now that is racing! More dicing and frayed nerves in the last couple of either race by the leaders than the run of the whole field of MotoGP on Sunday. There are always the odds on favorites but you never know who's going to be up front gunning for glory on a given weekend.

DOTM: MotoGP. Sorry the riding of the front runners is breathless perfection but Yaaaawn. QP the day before had more passing and drama.

[JcM]

MotM - Tough... but Aleix Espargaró impressed me.

HM for Stoner kicking ass at a track that I didn't expect him to win at.

DoTM - Spies.

HM for Ducati and their electronics ruining Nicky's race.

[dave_m]

MOTM: I'm not sure there is one, but I'll try to eliminate the riders and see who I'm left with:

Podium Trio: no, they managed to ride the entire race as a procession, never attempting a pass. (they still are making everyone else looks slow, but aren't they supposed to do that?)
Tech 3: Rode around together at about their normal pace
Bautista: Still behind Tech 3, but probably where the satellite Honda should be
Bradl: Last of the decent satellite bikes
Rossi: Good for Marlboro Ducati is still behind too many others
Other Ducs: Meh
Spies: I'm listing him up here to give him a week off DOTM
CRT: Aren't quite there yet, but I still think they will catch the slower satellite teams

So I guess the MOTM is the weather for giving us a dry race weekend and letting us really see where the teams are at after the first 3 races.

DOTM: Also the weather, but this time for cancelling the test on Monday, and not giving us hope that Ducati are any closer to the front to make the races a little better, or that Lorenzo or Pedrosa had any more pace to make the championship closer.

[Rossifumi]

MotM: I'm giving to Aleix Espergaro for his interview on the grid on the BBC coverage! when asked by the BBC reporter what his strategy was for the race he replied "I'll stay with Stoner and Pedrosa for the first part of the race and then take them on the last lap for the win' The BBC reporter stood there in stunned silence before Aleix fell about laughing!....class!

DotM: Spies again for obvious reasons. Factory riders don't stay factory riders if they get pasted by the satellite squad week after week.

[motogpmd]

2112?? Is this a forecast for a century into the future? I expect we'll all be long gone by then...

[Tourn46]

I missed the race.. damn bbc play the races to suit their agenda...
Ben Ben Ben what's going on??
I can't comment on much else.

It was Live on BBC2... I'm not sure the BBC make the race day agenda - but I get your point if you relate it to the support classes.

MotM - Rossi. Good consistent race, by far and away the top Ducati out there come Sunday. The fact he said he actually managed to have some fun out there... good on him after all the feeble attacks on him.

HM - Stoner, hard earned win... I really don't think any of the first 3 had anything up their sleeves - 100% all the way, but he just had that little bit more to offer than the other guys.

DotM - Spies. Honestly, he is embarrassing this season on a Factory Yamaha. I thought this would be his year to show us what he has... it appears to be not a lot. Have to add a bit of a DotM to Ducati for whatever went wrong with Hayden's machine...

[Cam D]

MOTM: Dovi for going out and buying brake up grades himself, instead of whining about it. That's a good sign of the guys commitment to do his best. It's about the racing.
HM: Casey, Jorge and Dani for giving us something awesome to watch.

DOTM: All those that are jumping on the "Spies has nothing and doesn't deserve his ride" band wagon. If they seriously think Spies has forgotten how to ride then they have learned nothing from Motogp over the last ten years. The press get their hooks in every chance they get. Apparently Casey and Max both forgot how to ride in the past as well. Kind of good that they didn't listen to the punters and pack it in.
3 bad races
- 2 bad races (with some valid reasons for the poor results)
---------------
= 1 bad race.

Put down the brands and pitch forks folks, it's a false alarm. Maybe we can burn him next week.

The Animal -
Sgt. Sisk: Ladies and gentlemen, our suspect is not human. He is at home in the bush. Shoot to kill. Any questions?
Mob Member: Oh, yeah, yeah, I got a question there. When do we get to light our torches?
Sgt. Sisk: When it gets dark.
Mob Member: Ah, I see. Oh, hey, I got another question there. Suppose, hypothetically, you know, a guy had already lit his torch. I mean, it'd be cool if he could just keep it lit, huh?
Sgt. Sisk: Yes.
Mob Member: Oh, excellent. Excellent.
Sgt. Sisk: Now, if there are no more questions...
Mob Member: Oh, hey, hey, hey, I got another question. Hey, uh, if one part of the mob gets separated from another part of the mob, shouldn't there be a place that we can get together? Maybe a secret place the two mobs could reunite, and we'd be a big mob again.
Sgt. Sisk: Stay with the mob.
Mob Member: Stay with the mob. All right.
Sgt. Sisk: Right.
Mob Member: Hey, hey, hey, I got another question. Hey, uh, doesn't this guy deserve a fair trial?
Sgt. Sisk: You - back of the mob!
Mob Member: "Back of the mob"? What? This is my spot! I came early!
Sgt. Sisk: Okay, *out* of the mob!
Mob Member: Ah, this mob blows.

[Faster1]

DOTM: All those that are jumping on the "Spies has nothing and doesn't deserve his ride" band wagon. If they seriously think Spies has forgotten how to ride then they have learned nothing from Motogp over the last ten years. The press get their hooks in every chance they get. Apparently Casey and Max both forgot how to ride in the past as well. Kind of good that they didn't listen to the punters and pack it in.

maybe so, but (big but),,, this punter (me) would like to state his case..

First, I don't think anyone thinks Ben forgot how to ride, and I don't remember anyone accusing Casey or max of the same. Stoner gave up on Ducati when they gave up on him (something about trying to hire Lorenzo for twice CS's salary, buts that's for another thread). And max's success in WSBK is no litmus test for how he would have done in gp (in the same time )period.

anywho,, Ben's performance over the last 2 races (Qatar not his fault) is worthy of "less than expected" criticism. after all, it's a turnkey podium bike. Also, and this is the basis for my WTF critique, there is a special sense of urgency this year for EVERYONE riding a tuning fork powered machine. Something about a hastily signed guaranteed ride for Bradly Smith makes for 5 arses to occupy 4 seats. Unless I'm missing something (which is more than possible), the lowest performing of the current 4, is left without a leathers filling job next year.
Back to the criticism. Ben isn't just doing bad, He isn't coming close to the 32bit version, of his 64bit bike. And to make matters worse, I'm hearing too much chit-chat that the blame might be down to his crew, not dialing the bike in correctly. While these past 2 races might not be cause for alarm just quite yet, It does, justifiably come within 2 more similar results of "fat lady walking up to the microphone".. And with each non tech3 defeating moment, nothing short of a few outright "wins" will quiet the critics,, and that's a fair bet that it won't happen.

[lebowski]

MOTM- the circuit for the cheap tickets and the fans for turning up. Surely must have boosted the local economy.

DOTM - Nicky's bike woes/Ducati. This is the big league boys. Nicky has given 110% and they give him a bike that doesn't know where it is.
DM - Spies.

[Cam D]

DOTM: All those that are jumping on the "Spies has nothing and doesn't deserve his ride" band wagon. If they seriously think Spies has forgotten how to ride then they have learned nothing from Motogp over the last ten years. The press get their hooks in every chance they get. Apparently Casey and Max both forgot how to ride in the past as well. Kind of good that they didn't listen to the punters and pack it in.

maybe so, but (big but),,, this punter (me) would like to state his case..

First, I don't think anyone thinks Ben forgot how to ride, and I don't remember anyone accusing Casey or max of the same. Stoner gave up on Ducati when they gave up on him (something about trying to hire Lorenzo for twice CS's salary, buts that's for another thread). And max's success in WSBK is no litmus test for how he would have done in gp (in the same time )period.

That was a generalisation but there were plenty of mags/web sites, in their resective times, saying Max has lost it or Casey has lost it, and the mob followed. They were saying that neither Casey or Max deserved their rides etc. It is definitely "less than expected", that's a fair comment. I understand the point that there are people lining up for his seat but I think the next couple of dry races will give us more information about how well he's going. jmo

[phil]

What I read into the words written here about the Ben were disapointment not lets take a pot shot at his ability...
I think it's fair to say everyone here wants 4 aliens at least.
Lets get Rossi up there and have 5.

[Oscar]

No real MOTM performances for me, the races just seemed slightly too 'flat' for that.

HMs: Crutchlow for his QP performance.

Stoner, for hanging a difficult ride out to a win at this particular circuit. Having to develop and remember different mappings on the fly and then apply them correctly around the laps with Lorenzo coming up to yer cloaca would tend to raise your workload not inconsiderably.

The motoGp broadcast director, (GASP!) for managing to actually accentuate the positives rather than ignore them - the slo-mo stuff of Stoner sliding it and Lorenzo smoothing it was cut in at the right times to keep us aware that something interesting was in fact happening, just that it was more technical than dodgem' racing.

And - second GASP! - HM to Harris and Emmet for what was, on the whole, pretty good coverage of the actual race going on..

DOTM: the Ben - though moderated by the fact that, with all his other issues, he is apparently being pestered by Schwantz's unwanted 'advice'.

[TwoStroke Institute]

MOTM, The receipt for Dovi's new calipers wins hands down and slow mo's of tyre chatter.
HM, Dani, Casey and Jorge.



DOTM. Spies again.