Rossi v Stoner

[Artemis Fowl]

This may be swimming upstream a bit but I do not feel that Stoner's championship win was as deserving as I first thought. I say this because the Ducati was/is seriously fast and most of his passing was either done or set up on the straights. Credit to him however, he did not fall in a race, but his two offs in practice at PI were unnecessary due to his total dominance all weekend, and indeed the second, which resulted in a cut elbow, could have wrecked his championship had he not been able to start. I can understand the euphoria with the home environment but I feel he lost sight of the big picture.

This year at Qatar he qualified on the front row and it was only a matter of controlling Lorenzo should it have been necessary which it wasn't, so how fast the Ducati actually is this year is yet to be revealed.

At Jerez I saw Stoner's first off track excursion but did not study it at length due to having to return the VHS. The second off puzzles me and perhaps somebody could put me straight. Stoner's straightline speed was amazing (He had to catch up from his earlier mistake and showed what horsepower the Ducati has). When he made the move on, from memory, Nakano and Vermeulen it appeared from the camera angle that he was easily able to pass both bikes, but when the camera angle changed he was back alongside Nakano and heading for grief. Did I miss something?

Re Rossi and Bridgestone tyres; it may be a little early to assess what difference they may have made but my thoughts at this stage are that in Jerez, Rossi was able to able to hit the front a lot earlier than last year. Was this tyres I don't know.

I appreciate the skill level required to ride at the front all season and from the mental aspect Stoner appears to be as strong as Rossi, but I guess what I am really asking is did he really deserve the championship.

[enigma51]

Hell yeah

Yes your are right the ducati is the fastest bike out there .... but he's the only one the seems to be able to ride it fast

Yes he had a bad day at jerez so did rossi last year at almost every race.

The same question can be posted for Hayden 2006 title ...... so why did pedrosa not finish second that year?

Or better why did Capirossi not finish second last year ?

[onearmedbandit]

Despite being a dye-in-the-wool Rossi supporter I do think that Casey deserved his win last year, anything less would have been an upset. Sure the Duke had a power advantage at the start of the year, but that's not Casey's fault, and in the latter stage of the year the gulf wasn't that big between the other makes.

Regarding his two offs at Jerez, the British commentators made reference to brake issues in the first one (so there may have been an issue with the brake setup). The second one it looked like he had the draft from Nakano and Vermeulen but Nakano closed the door on him and Stoner was committed to his move. He had to take action to avoid a crash and the only choice was to take it off track. Nakano did no wrong in his move, was just taking his line. It is up to the rider passing to make sure they get past cleanly.

Too early in the season to say how things will work out with Rossi/Bridgestone, but it does make for interesting racing watching the two team mates on different tyres. Notice how the other Ducatis suffered in the race. Once again comments were made about this and Steve Parrish put it down to Stoner being the only Ducati rider capable of extracting the best fron the bike.

[vifferman]

Yes, Soner deserved to win last year - he was consistent and fast.
No, Hayden didn't deserve to win in 2006. In fact, he didn't win so much as Rossi lost: too many DNFs or poor results (ran out of gas, bike stopped, wrecked his Michelins, etc.)

Stoner ran off the track the first time because his bike wasn't set up to his liking, and the front end was misbehaving (or felt like it was). The second time, Nakano forced him to stand the bike up in order to avoid a collision.

I can understand why Rossi went to Bridgestone, as Michelin couldn't come to grips (heh) last year with the limited tyre numbers rule, and in too many races it was obvious that Bridgestones were better tyres, for all those riders who had them. This year, they reckon Michelin's got it sussed, but we'll see. In the first couple of races, it was probably "advantage: Michelin".

D'ya ever get the feeling that it's just someone's year? It was definitely Stoner last year, and Rossi had a few real beauties in the past. This year it could be shaping up to be Lorenzo and/or Pedrosa who receive the BikerGodz's favour.

[Tony.OK]

D'ya ever get the feeling that it's just someone's year? It was definitely Stoner last year, and Rossi had a few real beauties in the past. This year it could be shaping up to be Lorenzo and/or Pedrosa who receive the BikerGodz's favour.

Yeah Stoner deserved it,didn't see any other duc's challenging the lead.

I think my moneys on Lorenzo this year,or if they give Toseland some decent HP he might surprise ppl.

[onearmedbandit]

I still don't think it's Pedrosa's year. Jerez is his track. Lets see how he does on tracks that don't 'suit' him as well.

[johan]

I think a big part of Stoner's success is consistency.

Just look at his lap times compared to Rossi:

STONER @ Assen:
1 1'43.163
2 1'38.164
3 1'38.120
4 1'38.085
5 1'38.274
6 1'38.399
7 1'38.239
8 1'38.284
9 1'38.101
10 1'38.453
11 1'38.063
12 1'38.001
13 1'38.373
14 1'38.467
15 1'38.528
16 1'38.178
17 1'38.321
18 1'38.097
19 1'38.233
20 1'37.906
21 1'37.988

Rossi @ Assen :
1 1'46.479
2 1'39.525
3 1'38.568
4 1'38.122
5 1'38.036
6 1'37.795
7 1'37.713
8 1'38.155
9 1'37.680
10 1'37.642
11 1'37.508
12 1'37.651
13 1'37.433
14 1'38.005
15 1'38.541
16 1'38.170
17 1'38.498
18 1'38.026
19 1'38.123
20 1'37.964
21 1'37.968

Taken from Motogp.com

[k14]

Credit to him however, he did not fall in a race, but his two offs in practice at PI were unnecessary due to his total dominance all weekend, and indeed the second, which resulted in a cut elbow, could have wrecked his championship had he not been able to start. I can understand the euphoria with the home environment but I feel he lost sight of the big picture.

Lol, you do know he won the world championship the race before in Japan? His first crash (at honda hairpin) was attributed to something on the track. Chaz Davis had exactly the same crash moments earlier. The second was on a drying track where he was riding on wets, yeah rider fault but I think he's allowed one stuff up for the season.

At Jerez he just didn't get on with the circuit. The first runoff was just outbreaking himself. The second was just a bit of bad judgement. He tried to pass nakano at the same time nakano tried to pass vermeulen. So all of a sudden they were three wide trying to get the best line into the corner. On looking at it closely I reckon nakano and stoner touched. He still bought it home though and was also top ducati. Its a bit early to be writing him off this early. He's only 11 points behind pedrosa.

Last year he and ducati won the championship because they had the best rider, best bike and best team. You can't say that comes about from luck. I think this years first two races have shown even more just how good a rider he is. The other three dukes (which are pretty close if not identical to stoners) are struggling down in kurtis roberts territory. Two of the riders )melandri and elias) have won motogp races and multiple 125 and 250 races to boot.

Stoner still is gonna win this year, I just think it will be closer than last. Pedrosa will push him but I think Hayden will also be on the improve. Looks like honda have got their bike running semi good. Although still prob the third fastest bike.

[Korea]

Look, the entire field is sooo incredibly competitive and racing is as close as it's ever going to be. So much so in fact that you'd have to pretty much run a perfect race on a perfect setup in the perfect conditions to end up on the podium. One tiny slipup/imperfect line during the race is enough to rob you of the win.
Watching with interest as these 800cc racing gods battle it out, but it's just not the same as it was.

[Marknz]

...but his two offs in practice at PI were unnecessary due to his total dominance all weekend, and indeed the second, which resulted in a cut elbow, could have wrecked his championship had he not been able to start. I can understand the euphoria with the home environment but I feel he lost sight of the big picture.

Are you not thinking about Bayliss at Phillip Island in the WSB's?

Casey deserved his championship win last season ... no doubt about it. Capirossi couldn't get the results on the Ducati, and it seems neither can Melandri. Casey didn't go too well at Jerez in 07 from memory, so I think the next three or four rounds will be the ones where we start to see who the real players will be this year.

[ElCoyote]

[QUOTE=Marknz;1514838]Are you not thinking about Bayliss at Phillip Island in the WSB's?
QUOTE]

I stand corrected I was at both events and I can only blame brain fade.

[Clivoris]

I guess what I am really asking is did he really deserve the championship.

When all is done and dusted, the racer who has the most points wins the championship. He must have deserved it. That's how it works.
IMHO I think your analysis had some pretty valid observations though.