MotoGP 2012 - Round 1 (spoiler)

[Tim...]

WTF is with Stoner and his ailments - "arm-pump" seriously?  Do not get me wrong, as I know what this is, but seriously, that is the best excuse you can come up with? - Lorenzo put on a master class.  Yamaha are looking formidable this year. 

It may not be the most exiting M/C racing around, but at this level, like F1, it is all about tyres and how they are managed.  Total nieve guess on my part, but I summarize the reason Stoner lost is tyre degradation.

Does Rossi have a point with Ducati not "listening" to him?   

Still not sure that the CRT teams add anything beyond filling the grid - time will tell.  Building up a bike from scratch, and to be competitive in the first year is daunting - kudos Colin Edwards.

[Jared]

Check out the "chatter" that Spies was dealing with at around 0:20.  Yikes.  If Stoner had actually done any race distance testing he might might have known the arm pump was an issue.

Qatar - Yamaha in Action

PS calling it now, Rossi will not finish the season unless his results improve dramatically by the mid-point.

[hille141]

I tend to believe the arm pump issue.  New season, new bike, new suspension, none of which have probably ever been run this hard for this distance.  It would be hard to hide the fact he roasted off his tires when the bike was sitting in the winners circle for all to see.  Don't you think one of the first things the race engineers do after the race is compare tire wear among the different teams?

[mikey]

stoner ate up his tires too quickly, lorenzo was smart.  he hung back and let casey lead the way around the track, then when he found the hole he took it and finished him off.  atleast thats how i saw it, and even called it 5 laps into the race.  im no expert, hell i dont know much at all.

[Tim...]

Check out the "chatter" that Spies was dealing with at around 0:20.  Yikes...

Loved his Twitter quote "That's what happens when u ride a bike that's been crashed twice".

WRT to Rossi and Ducati,  there are some interesting comments on crash.net

[Tim...]

Don't you think one of the first things the race engineers do after the race is compare tire wear among the different teams?

Not sure that doing any tyre wear comparison after the race has any benefit, as they would know what is happening to the tyres during the race based on the bikes performance.  Stoner could not maintain the pace towards the closing laps, not due to "arm-pump" but tyre degradation and Lorenzo (Yamaha) knew it. 

Arm-chair quarterbacking I know...

[vince]

Lorenzo is not that smart and really doesn't know much about tire wear. You can see this from seasons past and this race was no different. He gave it everything he had and was trying to get as far ahead as he could. You could see Stoner coming up fast and he had to he was back there aways and had to pass other riders. Just catching up used a lot of tire. He knew this and was trying to pull a big lead after taking over first. I would have to watch the race again but Lorenzo didn't get faster, Stoner slowed down because of tire wear. When it comes to race smarts on the track I have only seen two. Mick Doohan and Rossi.

[flyinlow]

You never know though, Lorenzo could be learning and getting smarter about things, which he should competing at his level. Personally I think Stoner is the guy to beat again this year.

[vince]

Something I forgot is the bikes are bigger this year and they still can only use the same amount of gas as last year. So Stoner using all that extra fuel to get up to the front may have cost him the win. The computer is not going to let the bike run out of gas before the finish for a DNF.

[Tim...]

Dumb question, but is the ECU on current MotoGP bikes able to retard rider input based on the ability to finish a race?

... The computer is not going to let the bike run out of gas before the finish for a DNF.

[vince]

From what I have read and last year being at the race asking just that question of the Yamaha techs the bike will not run out of gas before it crosses the finish line.

[flyinlow]

You're right Vince, I think they started doing that a couple years ago in the ECU's. They will back off the power so the bike will get better mileage and not run out of fuel before the end of the race.