MotoGP Aragon 2014 *****Spoilers*****

[ducpainter]

So why do a lot of these tracks have a thin strip of grass between the track and the run off?

They use the green to identify when a rider has exceeded track boundaries.

That means a lap will be discounted if timed like in qualy or practice, and probably the rider would lose a place or a penalty if they do it in a race

[ab]

Great exciting race.

MM not going in early cost him a win, but then he can afford to lose.

So sad for Rossi    Glad he is ok.  Hate to say this but Pedrosa going down will help Rossi in the overall standing and catch up to him.

Lorenzo smart race.

Very happy for Cal.

ps.  Moto3 is once again fun and exciting to watch  

[thorn14]

Wouldn't it be better to use paint than slick astro turf?

[Triple J]

That was a crazy race!

Terrible decision by Pedro and MM.

Too bad for Rossi...bad place to try to find room on the outside though.

I wish it would have stayed dry, as MM, Pedro and JLo were looking to have an epic battle. Oh well, still very entertaining!

[ducpainter]

Wouldn't it be better to use paint than slick astro turf?

Probably, but paint would be slippery too.

Both Rossi and Iannone cleared the astroturf. Iannone went down on the grass, and Rossi lost it when he hit the wet asphalt past the astro-turf.

edit...after re-watching the vids Rossi did indeed lose it on the turf...maybe they will make some changes in the interest of safety...

but... Rossi should really have thought better of trying to make that move on the outside in those conditions.

[duccarlos]

It didn't look like he was trying an outside move. The Turd moved back into the racing line. Rossi could have braked, but he chose to move farther to the left. That was the bad choice.

[ducpainter]

Watch it again...Dani didn't move more than a foot.

http://www.motogp.com/en/videos/2014/Aragon+2014+MotoGP+RACE+Action+Valentino+Rossi+Crash

I think it was just a case of Yamaha corner speed and Rossi's poor judgment in that instance.

[thought]

Just a racing incident imo... Dani did move but it just happened that they were both trying to be in the same place at the same time.  Rossi looked like he was carrying a lot more speed than everyone else so I think he was going to go wide no matter what and Dani just blocked his line at the last second.

But at least the race was fun the whole way around... normally we have great starts that turn into processions by the end.  This time the added rain made it a lot more iffy the whole time.  I'm glad the Cal got that podium though... it seems that he's finally getting the hang of the bike... just in time to leave it.

[duccarlos]

Seeing it again, Rossi was definitely taking the corner wider than Dani. He ran out of track.

[Speeddog]

And it looked like Rossi got a big drive out of the preceding corner and/or Pedrosa got a crap drive.

[OT]

Nice to see that the merit of grass/no grass in Spain is a hotly debated topic...

[Needle99]

Race was certainly different to what I envisaged...

Was hopeful of a Crazy Joe save until the rear started bouncing.

I was also surprised MM was OK after the bike clocked him while was hanging on holding the throttle open...

[ellingly]

Fascinating race strategy wise. In hindsight the Repsol boys screwed the pooch. In the saddle... harder to say. It was a gamble that didn't pay off.

Essentially wet times didn't get below 2m02s laps, but most average 2m04s or worse. Until the lap Dani binned it, Marquez was faster than that on slicks by up to a few seconds. If he maintained the pace he had the lap before Dani binned it, Marquez would have won by about 10 seconds. If the conditions only got as bad as the lap Dani binned it, he would have ended up about 5th without pitting. On the flipside, if he didn't trip over and pitted at either the end of the lap Dani binned it or tiptoed around on the lap he binned it, he'd have ended up 8th or so. Maybe better if he battled with the Tech3 boys.


is my raw race history chart, and I did the quick extrapolation and discussed it a touch more over here: http://teamghettoracing.com/2014/09/motogp-2014-aragon/

Pit stop wise it was also fascinating. Marquez was about mid pack in pitstop time, but he did have a slow in lap (even in the last sector) given he came off. I chucked up a couple of graphs of that here: http://teamghettoracing.com/2014/09/motogp-2014-aragon-pit-stop-analysis/

Fun times. No doubt a bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth going on in the Honda team.

[Greg]

Nice to see that the merit of grass/no grass in Spain is a hotly debated topic...

I know COTA uses astroturf, and we were warned about it before going out on the track. In the recent Lemans Endurance race there, they had an issue with the cars tearing up the astroturf and dragging it onto the track.

[thorn14]

It's also at Laguna on the very exit of turn 11 where if you were to hit it wrong, you will lose control right next to a concrete barrier.