2009 MotoGP Round 9 - Sachsenring (Race Spoilers)

[Orangettes]

Let me guess, stacy must be having stomach cramp!  He blamed the tires at the garage after the race but it looks completely fine even the commentator said so too.  Mysterious illness attack again since... hmmm last Friday...     

In contrast, Marco Melandri did exceptionally well on a Kawi.   

[derby]

Let me guess, stacy must be having stomach cramp!  He blamed the tires at the garage after the race but it looks completely fine even the commentator said so too.  Mysterious illness attack again since... hmmm last Friday...     

that's rather disingenuous.

http://www.motogp.com/en/videos/2009/Stoner+explains+podium+dropoff

[Jester]

I don't know if Stoner is fully health, but its good to see him fighting and keeping pace for most of the race.  Watching the race, Stoner did make a handful of mistakes that hurt his bid to stay up front.  His rubber did look fine in post race pictures, but that doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't having grip problems.  Perhaps his setup was a bit off.

When Jorge learns patience, he's going to be a force.  This is two straight weeks that he probably should have postponed his pass until the last few laps.  He was trying to pass and then gap Rossi, but most likely would have been better to just sit on his butt another few laps.  We have a bright future ahead with him in the paddock.

[CairnsDuc]

And from Ducati.com,

Casey Stoner's after race Comments

"I wasn’t too confident at the start of the race because we were losing ground and my feeling with the bike wasn’t great but it quickly improved so we decided to hit the front as soon as possible – if nothing else just to hold everybody up and stay in there with a shout. I started to lose the front end a few times so I decided to back off a bit. That allowed Valentino, Jorge and Dani to come past but then, as the fuel load lightened, the front fell more secure and I was able to pick up the pace again. Dani came up with an unbelievable lap that was about half a second quicker than any of his others. After he passed me I tried to push and stay with him but I actually lost the rear at the bottom of the hill and had to let off the brakes, which almost forced me to run into the gravel. All in all with the way things have been going lately I’m happy with today’s race because it’s the first time in a while I feel I’ve been really involved and I think if it wasn’t for that problem with the rear I may have been able to dig deep and given Valentino Jorge and Dani something to think about at the end. I’m excited about going to Donington now and I want to thank the team for sticking by me over the last few weeks because it hasn’t been fun for any of them."

And from Nicky Hayden

“I knew I needed to get a good start if I was going to do anything special today but I got into turn one hot and everybody came underneath me. To be honest after my crash in warm-up I started the race a little uptight because I didn’t want to wreck another bike or throw away everything we have gained and learned this weekend. It wasn’t the race we were looking for so I’m sorry to the team because the bike was capable of more here, I’ve just made a couple of mistakes this weekend. I don’t want to apologise for trying too hard though because I knew I could do good here. It is hard to be patient when you have a sniff of the front and instead of taking things step by step like we have up to now I pushed my luck and we’ve paid the price. So I’m disappointed with the race but not with the weekend on the whole because we’re up and running now and moving forward.”

[kopfjäger]

SPEED Channel was using that 1,500 frame per sec camera, during the race. Incredible footage. 

The announcers call him, Horhay, Rossi calls him Yourgy. 

[superjohn]

What a race 

Too bad Stoner couldn't hold it together in the end, but the Lorenzo-Rossi duels are getting good.

[Triple J]

Exciting race!  It's great watching Rossi and Lorenzo battle!

Too bad Stoner couldn't remain up front, but he looked good in general...and is only 28 points behind. Hayden also looked pretty good, despite turn 1 at the beginning.

The slow motion shots through the chicane were great...as was the shot of the start where Stoner got sandwiched. 

[superjohn]

Exciting race!  It's great watching Rossi and Lorenzo battle!

Too bad Stoner couldn't remain up front, but he looked good in general...and is only 28 points behind. Hayden also looked pretty good, despite turn 1 at the beginning.

The slow motion shots through the chicane were great...as was the shot of the start where Stoner got sandwiched. 

I liked the shot where Stoner basically had his knee planted in the side of Lorenzo's bike 

[swampduc]

Let me guess, stacy must be having stomach cramp!  He blamed the tires at the garage after the race but it looks completely fine even the commentator said so too.  Mysterious illness attack again since... hmmm last Friday...     

You did watch the race, right? So your theory is that Casey rode the hell out of the bike for 2/3 of the race and then got scared?   

[OT]

Hard to read Jorge's expression in the press conference....disgust? shock? perplexed?

[Jester]

Hard to read Jorge's expression in the press conference....disgust? shock? perplexed?

I think frustrated more than anything.  He said after Catalunya that he's not used to coming out on the wrong side of these battles.  He's young and will take it back to Rossi soon enough I'm sure.

[Orangettes]

SPEED Channel was using that 1,500 frame per sec camera, during the race. Incredible footage. 

That wasn't speed channel's footage, only food channel have this kind of technology in America. 

[kopfjäger]

That wasn't speed channel's footage, only food channel have this kind of technology in America. 

http://www.redlake.com

[DesmoLu]

I want some of whatever medicine they gave Stoner this week, even if it did wear off in the last laps.

[CairnsDuc]

Stoner had said he was feeling better and has been receiving treatment, but he had said prior to the race that he was still going to be tired towards the end of this race and maybe a couple more.
 
And maybe the tires were going off, just because a commentator says they look fine and we see they look fine does not mean anything, he or the Team may have chosen the wrong compound for the race, There may have been an internal carcass problem, or it may have felt like a tire problem at the time, but on closer inspection of the Data, they may have found another Suspension or Brake issue that he didn't know about.

But the problem is we'll never truly know, all the Teams play there cards so close to there chest, and they watch every little thing they say, knowing that every other team is looking at the bikes and the press releases trying to gain an advantage.