MotoGP 101: Make 7 of the top MotoGP riders look like squids in ~ 3 minutes!

[Speeddog]

I'll refer to them later as Pack 1 and Pack 2.
Comprised of 7 riders, all currently in the top 11 in points.

Pack 1  = Lor, EsP, Bau, Dov, Ped, Brd, Ian.
Who have completed a total of 502 races in MotoGP, and have 11 World Championships among them.

Pack 2  = Lor, EsP, Bau, Dov, Ped, Brd, Ros.
Who have completed a total of 720 races in MotoGP, and have 20 World Championships among them.

Pack 1 is dutifully lining up to wait for the green flag.
MM is behind them, next to Bradley Smith.
MM has just seen that there's a slot at the far right next to Iannone.
Rossi and Crutchlow following.




MM has timed his arrival at the line perfectly, Pack 1 were all stopped, he rolls through the gap to the right of Iannone, and passes all except JLo before the next corner.




Within 30 seconds he's passed JLo.
1 minute in, he's got a small gap on Pack 1, whom you could nearly throw a blanket over.




Shortly after, MM decides this is a bad idea, and backs way off.
Pack 1 blasts by.
Iannone realizes the game is afoot, drops out of Pack 1, and slots in behind MM.
Rossi has not noticed, and has joined the Pack, making it Pack 2.
MM and Iannone continue backward, until Bradley And Crutchlow are on them.
Nearly 2 minutes in, the first flying lap starts.
Pack 2 are entering T1, and MM, Iannone, Bradley and Crutchlow are ~1 sec back.




~20 seconds later, he has caught Pack 2.
L-R: Lor, EsP, Dov, Ped, Bau, Brd, Ros.
MM just behind, lining Rossi up for the pass, Iannone looking like he'll follow him through.




He passes Rossi, Bradl and Bautista in the middle of that corner.
Iannone is apparently thunderstruck by the display and is still behind Rossi.
MM is full tilt boogie, closing on the front half of Pack 2.
Notice below he's going around the outside of Pedrosa, leaned over more, and on the paint.
Also notice the times for the first sector, MM hacked a bit over 2 seconds off of Lorenzo.



He passes Pedrosa and Dovi before the apex of the next corner (second corner of a chicane, I think).
Passes EsP exiting, and goes around the outside of Jlo entering the next corner.
20 seconds to catch Pack 2, 28 seconds later he's passed them all, has his elbow down, and is leaving town.



Laps ~3.7 sec quicker than Lorenzo, who had a clear track.
While catching and passing 7 riders.
4 of whom have run more than 100 MotoGP races each, and  have 17 WC titles together.

[koko64]

Speechless.

[$Lindz$]

Yeah. He's a f-cking lunatic. Moto2 works. It works well. It's the future of how to ride a motorcycle.

It had been beaten into us that (especially on 250cc 2T and 600cc 4T bikes) it was all about corner speed. True, but to get that corner speed you had to be god damn SILLLLKKKY smooth (like Lorenzo). Then these kids started sliding the bikes. Not like Stoner was doing up in the GP class ahead of them, they were sliding the bikes into the corner. Using the front brake. They found out that riding the front tire into the corner gave it more contact patch and more grip. So long as you trusted yourself to pull it off, you could effectively "overload" the tire with grip. If you cared what the rear was doing and tried to keep it all in line this would make you run wide and push through the entry of the corner, often ending in a front-tuck low side. (Ex: Simoncelli notorious confer-entry lowsides. He was a terrific late-braker but wanted the bike's wheels to always be in-line).

But if you rode the motherf---- out and let the rear dance around on you and just entered the corner anyway, you would find that the rear consistently swung out. Every time. The rear was a pendulum due to centrifugal force from eaning over while loading the front. At this point you're still about to blow the corner but then... As you trail brake and bang over into the corner, the weight shifts slightly rearward, the rear wheel touches down, slides, then just asks you to choose your line through the corner (you're giving a decent amount of counter steer here). Lean in more and the bike willingly takes the tight line. Keep that lean angle and the bike settles into a mid line. Pick it up slightly if you need to get around someone and the bike will track wide to the outside.

Every time.

While braking late.

Lorenzo has to brake super light and super early for his corner speed, derived from peaky 250 2T bikes. Marquez can just slide his way up in front of him by out braking Lorenzo and then choose whatever damn line he wants (see: last 3 laps at Mugello 2014).

If Iannone and Redding had a decent bike, they'd be doing the same. Pol and Bradley Smith are starting to ride the Yamaha like that finally after convincing the powers that be that the new breed of riders (read: Marquez) were riding like that. Rossi kinda tries, but... you can't help but think if 2011-2012 hadn't occurred then he might have a fighting chance. Or if he was 5 years younger. Or if he didn't break the shit out of his leg in 2010. Or if Sepang 2011 hadn't happened.... etc.

As it is, I think there are just too many things going on in his head. Yes he's still world-class. Yes he's actually doing the "best job" out of the remaining riders. Yes, Galbusera was actually a good idea. But with the fuel limits and the electronics and the Qualifying format and the new way to ride... It's like seeing your super bad-ass WWII grandpa be able to do everything in the world and then asking him to manage a Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Blog account off an iPhone for a startup App company with seed money from Google. That's a LOT of new shit to throw at someone who came from 500cc Grand Prix bikes with no electronics on them at all. Even if he does figure out how everything works, he's still not going to know what the f*ck "Turn Down For What" means in a YouTube comment.

[Triple J]

That was definitely a display by MM. 

Also a display of stupidity by the others. I would have just waited to go out and got some clear track. Mid pack is nowhere to set a good lap time.

Stoner did the same thing Lindz. He slid the bike wherever it made sense to do it. Also consider, Stoner rode a different bike. He only had 1 year on the new 1000 bikes...and it was their 1st year of development.

[pesto]

Great post! Thanks!