MotoGP MotoGP 2011 discussion

Andrea_Moda_Rules

Podium Finisher
Just when you think the MotoGp has gotten all dull and boring. The riders do musical chairs, The all dominant Yamaha loses there main sponsor, which as of writing has not been replaced, MotoGPs jewl in the crown, Rossi one half of the dominant team for the past couple of seasons has moved on. Honda looks to have bulit a stormer of a bike after looking a bit average recently, and gained an extra rider who is an ex world champion. And Ducati get the all conquering master, to form what was supposed to be an italian dream team (certainly from the marketing perspective) but a bulit a duff bike, and Rossi looks like he is need of a doctor rather then being 'the Doctor' himeslf.
The Moto GP class very much looks to be turned on its head for this season.

Honda have dominated testing so far. Stoner has spent most of the time at the top with Pedrosa and Davisioso not far behind. Theres something familar about Repsol Hondas and Australians domintaing upfront. Even the non-works bikes are looking pretty handy with Simoncelli looking like the first privateer in years could could trouble the works teams. The works Ducati who would of hoped that with Valentino Rossi onboard would of pushed closer towards the front have fallen futher behind. Rossi goes into this season looking a shade of his former self. His pre-season being destroyed by the shoulder injury that troubled him for most of last season. He had to have an operation on it and goes into nito the first race still not fully fit and on a bike even he is having to change his style to ride. In the middle of them are the Yamahas who with new world champion Lorenzo look to have a big challenge on to stay at the top of a series theyv'e won 5 out of the last 7 years. Its a very worrying for them. They have no main sponsor after FIAT pulled the plug on there deal and there Superbike team also looking devoid of sponsors.

So is Rossi finished? Are we seeing the changing of the guard upfront with Lorenzo's title last season, which will no doubt niggle him his rival miss a few races and not at his best when he came back. Is Hondas pace for real, are they going to win at a canter? And who are going to be the surpises of the season

The Moto 2 class last season may not be to the purists liking but fulfilled it purpsoe and re-ignited the 'old 250cc' series and provided mesmorsing races that most of the time made the MotoGp class look rather tame. It could be a struggle to follow up on that again this season. but with the likes of Mikka Kallio and Aleix Espargaró steping down from the MotoGP class and Kenan Sofuoğlu who made an incredabile debut, after replacing Shoya Tomizawa fater his tragic fatal accident, leading most of the race whillst completing his first dry laps on the bike in the actual race and spending the race litreally bashing 10 bells out of the handle bars to try and knock it into a comfatable postion, there is still a huge amount of seriously competitve riders out there who could take the title. There are has many as 10-15 names you could tip to take the title. My tip is to stick to the lottery numbers, you would have a better chance.

The 125cc Championship enters its final season as it will be replaced by the Moto3 series next season., has iteself trys to re-create the buzz caused by the Moto2 last season. There are some expericened names taking up the challenge to be the last ever champion. Nicolas Terol has to be the stand out favorite but can the likes of former runner up Hector Faubel and 125 race winner Sergio Gardea both returnees to the series after dropping a level from Moto2 make a challenge for the title. The likes of Efrén Vázquez and Sandro Cortese will be looking make the step up from the best of the rest group to mkae there own challenge ofr the title. Has well as the usual bunch of youngsters looking to carve themselves a carrer in Grand prix Racing.

Already there is the first piece of significant news from the MotoGP has Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista on there only bike this season broke his femur in the Qatar pratice session and will miss the opening race. Has he is there only rider and Bautista could be out for a while, It looks like there could be a chance for British Superbike debutant and Fomer Suzuki MotoGp rider John Hopkins to race for the team this season. Personally I hope he does although pity its come like this if it does (although theres rumours of some wildcard events during the season has he is noe there resevrve driver). He was really dealt a bad hand at kawasaki. and looks to be finally over his injury probelms that has badly hampered is Superbike carrer, and deseveres a chance to return to the MotoGP
 
Nice one AMR.
Should be another interesting season.

I need to get everything added to my calendar otherwise I'm going to start missing stuff.
 
Great post - can't wait till tomorrow - will be interested to see if the (hideous) flouro Ducati works

i like the Ducati livery .... well at least on Haydons bike, The yellow parts on rossi's look very much like an after thought.

It says something about ducati when Rossi n hayden are being pretty soundly beaten by the year old bkie of Barbera on the Aspar. He's looking pretty tidy this weekend so far.
 
Qualifying:

125cc
1 Nicolas TEROL SPA Aprilia 228.2 2'06.605
2 Sandro CORTESE GER Aprilia 227.5 2'06.695 0.090
3 Efren VAZQUEZ SPA Derbi 225.0 2'07.651 1.046
4 Sergio GADEA SPA Aprilia 225.0 2'07.857 1.252
5 Hector FAUBEL SPA Aprilia 223.9 2'08.062 1.457
6 Jonas FOLGER GER Aprilia 225.9 2'08.298 1.693

Moto2
1 Stefan BRADL GER Viessmann Kiefer Racing Kalex 2'00.168
2 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol Suter 2'00.375
3 Thomas LUTHI SWI Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Suter 2'00.996
4 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN Gresini Racing Moto2 Moriwaki 2'01.179
5 Jules CLUZEL FRA Forward Racing Suter 2'01.408
6 Julian SIMON SPA Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 Suter 2'01.430
7 Bradley SMITH GBR Tech 3 Racing Tech 3 2'01.442
8 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM JIR Moto2 Motobi 2'01.465
9 Michele PIRRO ITA Gresini Racing Moto2 Moriwaki 2'01.479
10 Scott REDDING GBR Marc VDS Racing Team Suter 2'01.564
11 Simone CORSI ITA Ioda Racing Project FTR 2'01.574
12 Max NEUKIRCHNER GER MZ Racing Team MZ-RE Honda 2'01.741

MotoGP
1 Casey STONER AUS Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'54.137
2 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'54.342 0.205
3 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 1'54.947 0.810
4 Marc'SIMONCELLI ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1'54.988 0.851
5 Ben SPIES USA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 1'55.095 0.958
6 Hector BARBERA SPA Mapfre Aspar Team Ducati 1'55.223 1.086
7 Andr' DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'55.229 1.092
8 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'55.578 1.441
9 Valentino ROSSI ITA Ducati Team Ducati 1'55.637 1.500
10 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'55.647 1.510
11 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Pramac Racing Team Ducati 1'55.656 1.519
12 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1'55.724 1.587
13 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 1'55.881 1.744
14 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Pramac Racing Team Ducati 1'56.323 2.186
15 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Ducati 1'56.665 2.528
16 Toni ELIAS SPA LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 1'57.992 3.855
 
The Doctor has his work cut out! As has been said on other threads, the Repsol Hondas are the bikes to beat.

C'mon Vali..! It's a long season. :unsure:
 
Stoner was always going to win in Qatar though, that's not suprising. He would have easily won there last season if he didn't fall of the bike.
 
Are the 125s and Moto2 worth watching from this weekend?

Thought the GP was pretty good stuff, shame to see so many riders out by the end though. Would've much preferred to see Stoner and Rossi at it wheel to wheel for the rest of the race - although Rossi was faster at that stage I don't think Stoner would've given it up easily.

Very unfortunate for Simoncelli too. I like him, he's a bit mad.
 
Oh good I was searching for any MotoGP threads yesterday but assumed it was a 4 wheel site only.

My tip for the season is Pedrosa who I am hoping will be fully fit and fighting it out after his shoulder op. He should easily be able to give Stoner a run once that's done. Despite a rather tittish move on Stoner you have to give Rossi credit for flying through that field on a seemingly slower Ducati. "Your ambition outweighs your talent" Ouch!

I really felt for old sideshow (MotoGP's Kobayashi) and what a great performance from Crutchlow - he had that bike 5th at one point. Have we finally got some British hope back in MotoGP?
 
That was a rather foolish move by Rossi. I don't know what Simoncelli was doing though, just seemed to kick half way through the corner and then fall over the bike...
 
Great set of races, caught up with them this evening (sad I missed the first round now!). The MotoGP field seemed tiny after watching the 125cc and Moto2 races but twas still very eventful - I'll definitely be following from now on. :chuffed:
 
Oh good I was searching for any MotoGP threads yesterday but assumed it was a 4 wheel site only.
The site used to be much more general but over time it has morphed into primarily an F1 site, due largely to the member base.

There are still plenty of MotoGP fans here though :)

I'll definitely be following from now on. :chuffed:
There was some epic action last season and the season before. I'm hoping for more of the same.
 
The site used to be much more general but over time it has morphed into primarily an F1 site, due largely to the member base.

There are still plenty of MotoGP fans here though :)


There was some epic action last season and the season before. I'm hoping for more of the same.

Well, the more we post on MotoGP the more variety we'll get.
Might start a Tour de France thread in a bit...................................:whistle:
 
What does Stoner expect? Rossi was trapped under two bikes AND carrying previous injury into the race. Stoenr obviously didn't have any broken limbs so of course they'll rush to Rossi...other than that, it is Rossi...
 
I think it was fair enough that they helped Rossi to start with but once he was up, not one of them went to help Stoner, he was stood there shouting for someone to help him, meanwhile Rossi's on his way. Stoner finally had one person helping to push him! I only started watching MotoGP the last couple of years but I sense some deep rooted resentment about Rossi favouritism from the Marshalls!
 
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