Ducati Monster Forum

FP1


1   26   Dani PEDROSA           322.3   1'50.281   
2   1   Jorge LORENZO           317.8   1'50.730   0.449 / 0.449
3   27   Casey STONER           319.6   1'50.806   0.525 / 0.076
4   58   Marco SIMONCELLI   314.4   1'50.893   0.612 / 0.087
5   4   Andrea DOVIZIOSO   318.4   1'51.091   0.810 / 0.198
6   14   Randy DE PUNIET   315.6   1'51.376   1.095 / 0.285
7   69   Nicky HAYDEN           318.1   1'51.418   1.137 / 0.042
8   46   Valentino ROSSI           319.0   1'51.676   1.395 / 0.258
9   5   Colin EDWARDS           313.5   1'51.826   1.545 / 0.150
10   7   Hiroshi AOYAMA           314.4   1'51.859   1.578 / 0.033
11   11   Ben SPIES                   313.6   1'51.911   1.630 / 0.052
12   8   Hector BARBERA    321.0   1'52.016   1.735 / 0.105
13   19   Alvaro BAUTISTA   317.4   1'52.224   1.943 / 0.208
14   35   Cal CRUTCHLOW      312.9   1'52.580   2.299 / 0.356
15   17   Karel ABRAHAM      312.3   1'53.158   2.877 / 0.578
16   24   Toni ELIAS   SPA      316.8   1'53.440   3.159 / 0.282
17   65   Loris CAPIROSSI     316.6   1'53.842   3.561 / 0.402

I tried posting the results earlier, but I had a power outage.   ;D

Whadya know...Ducs mid pack.  :P

FP2: Cancelled due to a transformer at the track going bad.
Extended practice times tomorrow...

Will practice run into Qualifying tonite? Qualifying is on at 9.30pm on Oz time.

FP3(elongated)

Pos. Rider Team Bike Time
1 Casey Stoner Repsol Honda Honda RC212V 1:49.272
2 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Honda RC212V 1:49.334
3 Randy De Puniet Pramac Racing Ducati GP11 1:50.003
4 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Honda RC212V 1:50.139
5 Marco Simoncelli San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda RC212V 1:50.197
6 Ben Spies Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha M1 1:50.376
7 Alvara Bautista Rizla Suzuki Suzuki GSV-R 1:50.422
8 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha M1 1:50.444
9 Valentino Rossi Ducati Marlboro Ducati GP11 1:50.484
10 Nicky Hayden Ducati Marlboro Ducati GP11 1:50.567
11 Hector Barbera Aspar Team Ducati GP11 1:50.584
12 Cal Crutchlow Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha M1 1:50.690
13 Hiroshi Aoyama San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda RC212V 1:50.760
14 Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha M1 1:50.898
15 Karel Abraham Cardion AB MotoRacing Ducati GP11 1:51.026
16 Loris Capirossi Pramac Racing Ducati GP11 1:51.561
17 Toni Elias LCR Honda Honda RC212V 1:51.882


RDP 3rd fastest?!?!?!

latched onto Dovi...

he was second for a bit

Qualy:

Pos    No.    Rider                      Bike    Time         Diff    Diff Previous
1     27    Casey STONER         HONDA    1'48.451         
2     26    Dani PEDROSA         HONDA    1'48.747    0.296    0.296
3     11    Ben SPIES              YAMAHA    1'49.155    0.704    0.408
4     1     Jorge LORENZO        YAMAHA    1'49.270    0.819    0.115
5     4     Andrea DOVIZIOSO    HONDA    1'49.372    0.921    0.102
6     58    Marco SIMONCELLI    HONDA    1'49.528    1.077    0.156
7     69    Nicky HAYDEN          DUCATI    1'49.752    1.301    0.224
8     17    Karel ABRAHAM         DUCATI    1'49.777    1.326    0.025
9     7     Hiroshi AOYAMA         HONDA    1'49.813    1.362    0.036
10    14    Randy DE PUNIET      DUCATI    1'49.826    1.375    0.013
11    19    Alvaro BAUTISTA      SUZUKI    1'49.883    1.432    0.057
12    35    Cal CRUTCHLOW       YAMAHA    1'49.893    1.442    0.010
13    46    Valentino ROSSI        DUCATI    1'49.960    1.509    0.067
14    8     Hector BARBERA        DUCATI    1'49.976    1.525    0.016
15    5     Colin EDWARDS         YAMAHA    1'50.105    1.654    0.129
16    65    Loris CAPIROSSI        DUCATI    1'50.752    2.301    0.647
17    24    Toni ELIAS                HONDA    1'51.073    2.622    0.321

Rossi crashed early in the session, damaging the bike.
That bike was one of two with the Aluminum frame, but it was the one with engine #6 (last one of allotment).
They took the time to repair it, rather than roll the other GP11.1Al, which has engine #7 and would result in a start from pit lane.
Hence the poor starting position.

Wow, I didn't know they had an alum. frame bike ready.  Is it a twin spar or more like the rumored 1199 frame?  It's hard to compair with how stupid fast the Honda's have been this season but it seams like they were beginning to make progress the the carbon fiber framed bike.

Revealing pictures are in short supply, so configuration is not clear.
It is longer, attaching to the rear head further back than the CF 'frame'.
So it's somewhere in between....

They've decided to use the second bike as well, with the #7 engine.
So Rossi will start from pit lane with the 10 second delay.
Not a huge handicap at Aragon, purportedly not much worse than starting 13th.

Rossi commenting on frame... or rather what is not a "frame".

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2011/09/15/rossi-s-ducati-partly-aluminum/ (http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2011/09/15/rossi-s-ducati-partly-aluminum/)

Not a bad race in the middle. I see Sic and Spies battling for years to come.

I read the results. Zzzzzz up front but I want to see the Spies/Sic fight. Hey, for once The Ben got a good start. [thumbsup] But against those Hondas you knew it wouldn't last long. Good on Stoner, he deserves the title. I'm worried next year could just be more of the same. Hope not. I'll start watching NASCAR. [laugh]

Stoner by 8 sec from Pedrosa. Lorenzo fought back well to salvage 3rd place after being down in 6th behind Spies and Sic. I was dissappointed Spies didn't get on the podium, I like his no nonsense/no bullshit attitude.

As usual...Moto2 =  [bow_down]

that..... was good shit Maynard^

Watching the MotoGP again tonight made me wonder what if. What if Spies was on one of uber fast Hondas? Like if he took Dovi's place. Food for thought. I'm thinking he might be #2 instead of Pedrobot in the champ run. Don't see The Ben running down Stoner even on the same scooters. But I see him toasting Pedrobot on the same bike. Talk amongst yourselves. ;D

I dont think it would matter if he was on the 800 Honda, the bike is to small for Ben and he will blossom next year on a bike with more torque. Pedro is something like 48kg how the hell anyone is meant to out accelerate him Im stuffed if i know.

Must point out that Spies is about 11 lbs lighter and an inch shorter than Simoncelli, who seems to be able to go pretty damn fast on a Honda.

I must point out that Ben isn't the fastest rider on his own team.  Give Lorenzo the Honda and see what would happen.  Not Spies.

for that matter, give everybody a honda and see what would happen..

Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout.   [thumbsup]

They should just rotate manufacturers every week. One week they all ride Ducatis, next week Suzuki, etc.  [laugh]

We've already got Moto2.

And it's awesome.   [thumbsup]

I don't mind disparity between the manufacturers (Honda is fast, Yamaha handles well, Ducati sounds good), b/c it leads to different solutions and bikes with different strengths and weaknesses.  But I mind it when Honda builds a killer and the rest of the season isn't worth watching.  Unless you find it interesting to wait and see if Respol will sweep the podium.  

In reality, the problem isn't with the Hondas.  It's that Suzuki and Ducati aren't remotedly competitive.  So at tracks where Yamaha can't use its advantage (balanced and handles well) to make a race out of it, it's pretty much gonna be a Honda win.  If the other bikes were competitive, at least they'd provide a chance of mixing up the look on the podium.  No fun when it's a two horse race and one of them is guaranteed to be lame at half the tracks.  

Yah, the big H finally got all the pieces of the puzzle together at once.
Would be nicer with a little more competition from Yam, Suz, and Duc.

We can take some satisfaction in watching Stoner slide that bike around.
At least he doesn't ride like George does, and the pedrobot used to.

Hey... when's the next WSBK race? MotoGP = Zzzzzzz. [bang] [laugh]

Isn't WSBK the same, except its Ducati at the front letting the rest squabble for the minor places last year it was the Aprilia. Most motor sport is the same Formula One etc, I guess that's racing.

OK. I'm done with MotoGP. The big bike races are boring and after watching the Moto2 race I'm calling foul. If it was an AMA race there would be a motor tear down on Marquez's bike. Sealed 600cc Honda engines my ass. It was a Spanish GP with a Spanish rider on a Repsol sponsored bike. He motored past every rider he wanted to down every straight. Slip streaming my ass he had 20 horsepower on everyone. He had some good tussles up front but when he said goodbye it was all horsepower. I'm calling bullshit. [bang] He isn't that good.

When's the next REAl race? WSBK trumps MotoGP every single day. [thumbsup] [Dolph] [popcorn]

Checa is doing well this year, but it is usually good racing regardless. WSS is very good as well.

Fastwin, I'm not sure what Moto2 race you were watching, but Marquez by no means just ran away with that race. It was a battle till about 7 left.

Agreed.

Put down the tinfoil hat Fastwin.  [cheeky]

OK Marquez is good. I'll take that back but it sure looked like a horsepower race at the end, not tires or talent. If it had been an AMA race someone would have demanded a tear down. I hope someone in Aragon did. I've seen "getting a good drive" out of a turn a few times in my life regarding a pass but that was pure HP. He passed folks at the end of the race like Stoner did to Spies. Again, I'm still thinking it stinks. Spanish race, Spanish rider, Spanish team all with links to Honda for years. Besides, if you had a secret HP advantage wouldn't you hide it until the end of the race? Why show your hand on lap 2? Besides, I'm a fan of conspiracy theories. [laugh]

Reminds me of the bullshit "illegal crankshaft" crap pulled by the AMA on Mladin at VIR a few years ago. Only it's the reverse. If I was Bradl, De Angelis or Iannone I'd be checking that bike for a NOS bottle. You talking smack about my tin foil hat??[laugh]

Hopefully not a derby...

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2011/09/19/wayne-s-world-business-as-usual/ (http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2011/09/19/wayne-s-world-business-as-usual/)

He pretty much said what friends and I have said to one another. Ducati is in a big mess. They walked away from WSBK for this? [bang] Thankfully Checa is doing them a HUGE service. I can't imagine the amount of money that has gone to Rossi and the MotoGP effort. And they have shit to show for it. How sad and embarrassing is that? Not that miracles were expected from the Dream Team but still... how about some podiums at least. Hope this isn't indicative of how the 1199 will fare in racing.

Two completely different bikes in shape and form.  Besides, its not like Ducati really changed or fixed anything.  The Ducati has been a disaster for every single person to ride the thing except one person, so its not like its ever been a good bike.  They tweaked with the existing concept, but really haven't changed anything, so they have the same results.  Also Rossi is a front end centric rider, not rear like Stoner.  If Rossi's front isn't good, then forget it.  I think Burgess made the gross miscalculation that he could fix the bike in 80 seconds, so they believed in it and stepped into their own grave.

Didn't he put the pass on Iannone (?), who is 4 inches taller and 22 lbs heavier than Marquez?  That pass looked entirely like draft and drive on a heavier, taller rider.  Everyone said that he got updates to the suspension and chasis that gave him at least .3 second a lap.  And those updates helped with drive out of turns.  Which is what you saw.

Besides, if you think that what you saw was a one-off because he got fast-bits, you haven't been paying attention to Marquez.  And you didn't pay attention to him last year.  Sure, he started off this season crashing a lot, but he f'n killed it last year and is killin' it this year.  It's not about go-fast parts.

At my age it's hard to pay attention. [laugh] Comments based on what I saw... not what I know. Which is thin at best. Again, just sayin' it looked funny. If it wasn't, then it wasn't. [thumbsup] No biggie. Personal opinions are never fact.

Rossi and Burgess ain't dumb. It wouldn't take ten minutes over cold beers with Hayden and Stoner to confirm everything they saw from the Yammyhammer paddock before they signed the Ducati contract. And I can't believe they would sign a contract that did not give them a shit load of control regarding bike development and changes. Am I stupid here once again? [bang] I just don't see Vale & Co. going into this blind and not aware of the f'uped bike they were going to ride and what it needed. And I don't see that power team being pushed around by Ducati engineer nerds or top brass. Makes no sense. I would think if Vale & Co. wanted an in-line 4 with an aluminum twin spar frame that is what they would get... yesterday! [Dolph] Guess I'm wrong once again because they haven't accomplished shit. Might as well be running a Multistrada out there against the Hondas and Yamahas! :P

By the way Jacob, it was all I could do to not toast you on the Rossi/front end vs Stoner/rear end comment. [laugh] [laugh] It was out of respect and the fact I know you. Besides, it was just too damn easy! [laugh] Still a true comment jokes aside. ;D

About 75% of developing a bike starts the season prior. So Rossi/Burgess could only do so much with what was provided to them. Throw in that Rossi was still recovering from his shoulder thing to make things even more complicated. They will definitely have more input on next year's bike, but the engineers were always looking at the CF frame. They tried a lot of things to make it work. Now, they're looking at another solution and using the GP11 as a test bed for any changes. Basically they are using this season as an extended development time for the GP12.

there is 1 bit in there I think he is 100% wrong about in there...