2013 Moto3/Moto2/MotoGP Thread

[adamp93]

The winners of all 3 classes were seriously impressive but you really can't say enough about Marc Marquez. I mean he's only 6 months older than me and I've achieved nothing haha!

 

[Motorcycle54]

I loved watching him thought one of the long right handers where he's elbow grases the floor

Always good to see new talent. But that other thing ..is that hard??

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Marquez was super good, Rossi was a disapointement tho, I was expecting him to follow Lorenzo or at least Crutchlow. I didnt watch the other races so I can't really tell. I'm happy for Aegerter tho he's doing a very good start of the season.

Speaking of Valentino he tested a Nascar and runs pretty fast. Impressive !

 

[J-PaP]

Marquez was super good, Rossi was a disapointement tho, I was expecting him to follow Lorenzo or at least Crutchlow. I didnt watch the other races so I can't really tell. I'm happy for Aegerter tho he's doing a very good start of the season.

Speaking of Valentino he tested a Nascar and runs pretty fast. Impressive !

There was a chunk missing from one of Rossi's brake pads. Apparently added a fairly nasty vibration under braking hence the struggle on race day.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

There was a chunk missing from one of Rossi's brake pads. Apparently added a fairly nasty vibration under braking hence the struggle on race day.

Yeah I just saw that on Autosport but thanks for pointing it out. I'm not really worried anyway since we're now gonna come to track that Rossi knows like the back of his hands.

 

[adamp93]

Yeah you can't really read too much into that race, it just screams Honda. So much acceleration everywhere, similar to Sepang. If you look at Neil Spalding's tweets (@spalders) there's a graph showing the difference between the Honda's zeroshift gearbox and the Yamaha's conventional gearbox.

 

[Motorcycle54]

Speaking of Valentino he tested a Nascar and runs pretty fast. Impressive !

Thanks for posting that. I read all I could but no video.. too bad.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Thanks for posting that. I read all I could but no video.. too bad.

The test was done for a video so we'll probably see it somewhere at some point. Watch out for Monster promotion video on MotoGP or Nascar.

 

[Mike Rotch]

Tricky qualifying for MotoGP. The circuit looked to be losing grip as the session went on with Rossi, Crutchlow (twice), Pedrosa and Marquez all off at some point. Props to Crutchlow - he had two high speed offs and on both counts he ran back to the pits and climbed onto the spare, dusty leathers and all 👍.

 

[adamp93]

You'd think the second time he would be back onto the first bike
I think in our championship predictions we all ignored Alex Rins for Moto 3, the guy is on fire!
EDIT: Sorry Mike you got him in 2nd

 

[Mike Rotch]

I see Brad Binder qualified 4th in Moto3 - which considering he was knocking about in the mid twenties on average last season is a great result for him 👍

 

[Mike Rotch]

Marquez undoubtedly has bags of talent and speed, but I cant believe he is still bashing fenders now in the premier class. I hope the stewards get stuck in with a yellow card as there was no way he was making that corner without using Lorenzo as a brake.

 

[Speedy6543]

Altough I'm not a fan of Lorenzo I have to agree with you.

 

[F1 fan]

As a fan of both Marquez and Lorenzo, my heart was in my mouth at the final corner. I expected something like that would happen but wasn't expecting the two to come together as heavily as that. Fortunately, both finished the race. It was a little naughty from Marquez but not totally out of order. Jorge defended well and I'm sure he'll get a little payback soon.

I said a long time ago that the future of motogp was going to be Marquez v Lorenzo, I just never expected Marc to get up to speed that quickly. I feel that we're in for a bitter and long rivalry. Which is exactly what motogp needed IMO. Good race from Pedrosa but I don't think he's going to match the pace of Marquez and Lorenzo on a regular basis.

 

[Mike Rotch]

It is remarkable how quickly he has adapted to MotoGP; I just worry about his maturity on track. His judgement seems to be his weakness at the moment; it was astonishing he almost ran into the back of Lorenzo three times at Dry Sac on 3 successive laps.

Once he learns to calm his hot-headedness, he will be virtually unbeatable.

I wouldn't be so quick to write off Pedrosa though - last night he showed the same mettle that won his 5 or 6 in a row last year. Once he gets in front now it seems he is red hot. How he is able to mix it up with his team mate in a crunch race will be where he makes it or breaks it.

You are right, I see a lot of rivalry being sown this year, I just hope Yamaha can get their pace up to match home to make it a 3 way battle (4, if Rossi can find his old form).

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Apparently Rossi is slightly behind because he's struggling with setup more than Lorenzo. For example yesterday for the race he reverted to the setup he was using during the test in march. Lorenzo and his crew knows the bike much better than him and can bring the best out of it. Once Rossi will have the bike figure out he's gonna be much more dangerous I hope. And yes those Yamaha need a bit more power.

I wouldnt put Pedrosa out neither, if he can stay on his bike he'll be a contender for the world title.

But what a week-end from Marquez again, even if his attack was borderline, Lorenzo himself admit that he gave too much gap on the last corner.

Slighty disapointed with Rossi even if he was faster than in Austin.

And I think this year the Moto2 category gonna be really tight. There's 5-6 driver that can win.

 

[hornet_burnout]

From motogp.com

 

[Mike Rotch]

Rumours are surfacinig that Pol may be forced to Tech3 next year by Yamaha, leaving Crutchlow at a loose end .

The faster they get rid of prototypes and everybody has CRT, the better.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/motogp/22464330

 

[Speedy6543]

The faster they get rid of prototypes and everybody has CRT, the better.

I sure hope you don't mean that.
MotoGP is prototype racing and it should stay that way. It's all in the benefit of future developments of roadbikes.

They've done enough already, switching to one tyremanufacturer rule. Which results in tyrecompanies not racing eachother anymore to come up with the best possible tyre for certain conditions.
And giving the CRT guys more engines to work with over the season. 👎

 

[Mike Rotch]

I sure hope you don't mean that.
MotoGP is prototype racing and it should stay that way. It's all in the benefit of future developments of roadbikes.

They've done enough already, switching to one tyremanufacturer rule. Which results in tyrecompanies not racing eachother anymore to come up with the best possible tyre for certain conditions.
And giving the CRT guys more engines to work with over the season. 👎

I do see where you are coming from, but if the choice is having 3 factory teams each only allowed 2 bikes (and one of those teams is so far off the pace they may as well be CRT), the racing is pretty predictable with 3 or 4 riders only ever in it.

I want MotoGP to be like Moto2 with anyone out of 10 riders capable of a win.

 

[F1 fan]

Rumours are surfacinig that Pol may be forced to Tech3 next year by Yamaha, leaving Crutchlow at a loose end .

If Cal continues to out perform Bradley like this, I can see Bradley's contract getting bought out. I know it's early days but the gulf between them is huge.

Frankly, I was puzzled when it was announced he was moving up to motogp and he's not done anything to change my mind.

 

[Mike Rotch]

If Cal continues to out perform Bradley like this, I can see Bradley's contract getting bought out. I know it's early days but the gulf between them is huge.

Frankly, I was puzzled when it was announced he was moving up to motogp and he's not done anything to change my mind.

I was quite shocked to see how far off the pace is he in Jerez. I would hope the keep Cal over him, Cal has pace, he just needs to keep it out of the kitty litter more regularly.

 

[Speedy6543]

I do see where you are coming from, but if the choice is having 3 factory teams each only allowed 2 bikes (and one of those teams is so far off the pace they may as well be CRT), the racing is pretty predictable with 3 or 4 riders only ever in it.

I want MotoGP to be like Moto2 with anyone out of 10 riders capable of a win.

Having some closer racing would definitely crank up the joy of watching the race but I don't think putting everyone on CRT would solve that problem entirely as there's also a significant difference between those guy's finishing times. There's always going to be the problem of who has the most money and talent. I'm not saying there's no talent in the other teams but I do think almost half the grid are riders who come a bit short. The possibility of your 10-riders-capable-of-a-win idea will be more likely with everyone on CRT though. Hope my explanation makes sense.

Also, why is Triumph not there with a prototype of the next Daytona model, or Kawasaki with their prototype of the next ZX10R? Suzuki with the gsxr, BMW S1000 RR, Aprillia RSV ...
The answer is fairly simple I think, money, Suzuki for one dropped out because of the high expenses if I recall correctly, but if these factories could take it up with the others we could have 8 factory teams with a total of 16 prototype bikes on the grid.

I know we're never going to get there but wouldn't that be great?

 

[Peasantslayer]

I know it's a bit late but I don't think Marquez was completely in the wrong, from my perspective he made a hard move and Lorenzo was in a position as he turned in to let Marquez through or hit him and he chose to hit him. Just as Lorenzo released the brakes he made a delayed decision to nail it through the corner.

If Cal continues to out perform Bradley like this, I can see Bradley's contract getting bought out. I know it's early days but the gulf between them is huge.

Frankly, I was puzzled when it was announced he was moving up to motogp and he's not done anything to change my mind.

Same here I can't recall a time even in 125 where he was clearly fastest, he always seemed to be 3rd/4th best. I imagine Pol would get Brad's bike if his contract was bought out, that is if Jerez was a one off and he beats Rabat over the course of 2013.

 

[Imari]

Lorenzo left the door open, and Marquez would have made a major mistake had he NOT had a go.

Lorenzo read the situation poorly, and while I think he had an amazing race and deserved second, you can hardly blame Marquez for having a go and then capitalising on the luck when he came out on top of the clash.

Had Lorenzo braked early and let Marquez fly past he would have had second with no danger at all. You've got a hotshot young rider right on your tail into the final corner, what's the chances he's going to second guess you on that one? Still, 20/20 hindsight and all that.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Well Marquez apologized for it, so I guess it was still a bit rough but nothing that big. Stuff happen. Noon of the drivers scored 0 points so all is good for me. I prefer this kind of ruling that in F1 where everything has to be sanctionned. Racing incident are part of the sport.

As for the Bradl vs Crutchlow comparaison, I'm not sure you can really compare both of them. The Yamaha seems much closer to factory bikes than the Honda of Bradl is. If they were in the same team ok no problem, but here, shooting comparaison like that seems a bit unfair.

 

[Peasantslayer]

Well Marquez apologized for it, so I guess it was still a bit rough but nothing that big. Stuff happen. Noon of the drivers scored 0 points so all is good for me. I prefer this kind of ruling that in F1 where everything has to be sanctionned. Racing incident are part of the sport.

As for the Bradl vs Crutchlow comparaison, I'm not sure you can really compare both of them. The Yamaha seems much closer to factory bikes than the Honda of Bradl is. If they were in the same team ok no problem, but here, shooting comparaison like that seems a bit unfair.

Neil Spalding thinks Bradl's Honda and the Tech3 bikes are close to the factory bikes but Bautista's Honda is a bit of a test bike.

 

[F1 fan]

As for the Bradl vs Crutchlow comparaison, I'm not sure you can really compare both of them. The Yamaha seems much closer to factory bikes than the Honda of Bradl is. If they were in the same team ok no problem, but here, shooting comparaison like that seems a bit unfair.

We were talking about Bradley Smith and Crutchlow. There have been strong rumours that Pol Espargaro will be signed to tech 3 for next season. Bradley Smith already has a contract for next year and Crutchlow's contract expires at the end of this season.

I've no idea how Smith managed to get such a contract, but I can see it being bought out as Cal really is a class above him. Of course, there could be an opportunity for Cal at Ducati, but despite the supposed promise they have for 2014, I'd stay at Tech 3 given the choice.

I was quite shocked to see how far off the pace is he in Jerez. I would hope the keep Cal over him, Cal has pace, he just needs to keep it out of the kitty litter more regularly.

Agreed on both counts. I think it's just a bit of mild desperation. He's so close to the front, he can practically taste it, then he ends up overdoing it. His day will come sooner or later.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Oh right right, sorry I dunno why I thougth it was Bradl.

 

[adamp93]

Bradley does have potential, as he showed by finishing 2nd in the 125s. He just needs a good bike, those 2 years on the pathetic Tech 3 Moto 2 bike can hardly be helpful for his confidence. Just look at the other riders who have had it; Simeon, Louis Rossi and Danny Kent. Only Bradley has scored a point on it since last August and Simeon looks pretty solid on a Kalex now.
Also, if you think Bradley should be running alongside Cal already you're a bit deluded; while Marquez is already up to speed he is a freak of nature and most people take time.
Just to clarify, I don't think Smith should be chosen over Crutchlow next year I just think you lot are being a bit harsh.