2010 MotoGP Round 14-Motegi (SPOILERS!)

[ducpainter]

I believe I read that people thought he hurt his leg. You can't see it from the picture below, but he supposedly got his leg caught under the bike.

The video showed his leg under the bike all the way through the gravel.

[gm2]

well that sucks 

and so much for this track being especially difficult for valentino's shoulder.  so far, anyway.

[duccarlos]

The video showed his leg under the bike all the way through the gravel.

Ouch. I wonder if he also hurt his leg, but the collarbone is the reason he's out.

[ducpainter]

Ouch. I wonder if he also hurt his leg, but the collarbone is the reason he's out.

He was limping when he got up and walked to the barricade.

His left boot looked pretty shredded.

He was on a stretcher pretty shortly afterward.

[gm2]

what a strange year.  the guy who won wsbk and the guy who will 99.99% win motogp.. i mean, i respect them, i'm excited for them, they deserve it.. but i just don't care about either one of them.  yawn.

[El Matador]

I'll be that guy.

Dani was closing hard on Jorge.

...and the fact that Ducati took the real bikes to Aragon didn't help.

Jorge didn't have it sewn up until Dani was put out of commission.

Sure he was, but let's face it, Dani was over 50 points behind. Considering the level of consistency of each rider it would have been severely implausible for Dani to pull it off.

Just look at the facts, Lorenzo has been on the podium in all but one race, which he finished fourth. This season alone he has more race wins than pedrosa in all his previous years combined.

Pedrosahas was hit or miss this season until after the middle of the championship. What happened to change that? The fact that Honda has been able to have stronger engines while yamaha has been forced to limit theirs to preserve them in case they were needed later on. It's stupid to talk about what ifs but I wouldve bet my bike that performance wouldve been much closer in the later rounds.

And yes, as you said, Ducati finally brought
a motorcycle to the races. This wouldve only hurt pedrosa's chances as he wouldve been forced to win just about every remaining race if he wanted to seriously contend for the crown. And let's face it, that would have been about as probable as Baylis returning to wsbk.

[ducpainter]

Sure he was, but let's face it, Dani was over 50 points behind. Considering the level of consistency of each rider it would have been severely implausible for Dani to pull it off.

Just look at the facts, Lorenzo has been on the podium in all but one race, which he finished fourth. This season alone he has more race wins than pedrosa in all his previous years combined.

Pedrosahas was hit or miss this season until after the middle of the championship. What happened to change that? The fact that Honda has been able to have stronger engines while yamaha has been forced to limit theirs to preserve them in case they were needed later on. It's stupid to talk about what ifs but I wouldve bet my bike that performance wouldve been much closer in the later rounds.

And yes, as you said, Ducati finally brought
a motorcycle to the races. This wouldve only hurt pedrosa's chances as he wouldve been forced to win just about every remaining race if he wanted to seriously contend for the crown. And let's face it, that would have been about as probable as Baylis returning to wsbk.

Racing is a fickle mistress, and championships aren't won only by winning the most races.

There are 5 races left and anything could happen.

Probable...nope.

I won't say he was gifted the title...but this takes all the pressure off.

Youreghey hardly had it locked up until now.



Now we'll never know.

[gm2]

if dani hadn't hurt himself all george had to do was crash once, maybe get a bad start another time.  i realize it seems like he doesn't do that at all anymore, but it's not that far fetched...

[derby]

Sure he was, but let's face it, Dani was over 50 points behind. Considering the level of consistency of each rider it would have been severely implausible for Dani to pull it off.

the point structure makes this more possible than you'd initially think.

Just look at the facts, Lorenzo has been on the podium in all but one race, which he finished fourth. This season alone he has more race wins than pedrosa in all his previous years combined.

performance in previous seasons is irrelevant, really.

Pedrosahas was hit or miss this season until after the middle of the championship. What happened to change that? The fact that Honda has been able to have stronger engines while yamaha has been forced to limit theirs to preserve them in case they were needed later on. It's stupid to talk about what ifs but I wouldve bet my bike that performance wouldve been much closer in the later rounds.

when the rules was announced, there was a lot of speculation that the engine rule would have an affect on the championship.

And yes, as you said, Ducati finally brought
a motorcycle to the races. This wouldve only hurt pedrosa's chances as he wouldve been forced to win just about every remaining race if he wanted to seriously contend for the crown. And let's face it, that would have been about as probable as Baylis returning to wsbk.

what pedrosa would've needed is directly related to how the end of jorge's season played out. dead engine/crash/poor finish/etc...

[zooom]

Racing is a fickle mistress, and championships aren't won only by winning the most races.

 

who had won the most races in 2006 when Nicky and his podium consistancy won him the championship? ( not aiming at you Nate with this, just helping firm up your point)

the point structure makes this more possible than you'd initially think.
 when the rules was announced, there was a lot of speculation that the engine rule would have an affect on the championship. what pedrosa would've needed is directly related to how the end of jorge's season played out. dead engine/crash/poor finish/etc...

and the way the Yammy's seem to be going versus the Honda's , that scenario was looking to be a VERY likely situation...hell..it may still come to fruition regardless...

[Jester]

Ouch. I wonder if he also hurt his leg, but the collarbone is the reason he's out.

X-Rays were negative on his leg, just bad bruising down near his ankle.  I do like Pedrosa, so there I said it.

From watching FP1 on Motogp.com this morning, there is no way this was rider error.  Dani was virtually straight up when the bike started getting out of control while under braking.  Definately electronics problems that ended his season.  Its quite unfortunate, because I really believe Dani was going to make this championship tight, and he ends up finished because his bike malfunctioned.

[gm2]

and the way the Yammy's seem to be going versus the Honda's , that scenario was looking to be a VERY likely situation...hell..it may still come to fruition regardless...

the yamaha situation supposedly is not down to the engine rule but moreso because they have about come to the end of the development of that engine and are not throwing the dollars and minds at the project that honda is.  or, that honda and ducati are.

was discussed here.

[zooom]

which I remember that also...but looking at the top speeds and the engibe usage of the 2 side by side, the Honda is looking to be a lot heartier for the usage of the entire season in camparo...that to me, regardless of the development cycle is as much a part of the game...

[Spidey]

Pedrosa was never going to catch Lorenzo.  Lorenzo has put on a clinic this season about how to win a championship.  Get a big points lead and then just ride consistently and safely.  Make everyone chasing you go for broke every race.  They'll eventually fall down or have some other sort of DNF.  It's all about who succumbs to the pressure.  Lorenzo has clearly learned a lot from Rossi.

It works the other way round too.  If you're chasing someone down in the championship and they're feeling the heat, that's when they make mistakes.  (Ben v. Haga 2009). 

what a strange year.  the guy who won wsbk and the guy who will 99.99% win motogp.. i mean, i respect them, i'm excited for them, they deserve it.. but i just don't care about either one of them.  yawn.

This.  ^

[El Matador]

the point structure makes this more possible than you'd initially think.

No, not really. Since we're speculating, we might as well do so based upon facts.

When I mentioned previous performances I was calling upon the consistency showed by both riders. Lorenzo has an race point average of 20.2 points while Pedrosa has 16.2.

While yes, Pedrosa has been getting stronger in the latter half of the season, if we take their race point averages from the middle of the season on (18.5 for Lorenzo, 22.5 for pedrosa), we come nowhere near the 56 points Pedrosa needs.

For Pedrosa to even have some sort of hope to win the championship, he needed to go balls out and try to win every single race left, putting himself in a crash prone situation. Lorenzo only needed consistent top 5 finishes, which he has shown he can do very easily. This situation makes it far more plausible for Pedrosa to crash than Lorenzo.

Another thing to consider is that Honda has been trying to squeeze every last HP out of their engines since the midpoint in the season to give Pedrobot the upper had while Yamaha has switched over to conservation mode and made theirs as durable and reliable as they can afford to. This again would suggest that if any of the two riders was going to have a mechanical, it would again be Pedrosa.

I still don't see how you guys can act like It was basically scripture that Pedrosa was going to catch up to Lorenzo.