Watching FP1, almost at the end, odd to see Lorenzo getting a tow off of Aleix!
Aleix, Jorge, Iannone, Rossi, MM, Dovi, Cal, Bradley, Pedrosa, Bradl.
Aleix and Iannone on the softest rear tire, and Dovi was on the new asymmetrical front.
Rossi looking aggressive.
A bit mixed in FP2.
Jorge, MM, Iannone, Dovi, Rossi, Aleix, Cal, Pol, Yonny.
Jorge, Pol, Iannone and Dovi all lost the front and crashed, all OK from what was shown.
MM last 5 laps; 30.287, 29.845, 29.847, 29.844, 29.762... a threatening string.
How are the tires holding up?
No reports of any issues so far...
except there were a few front end crashes, including George, on the new asymmetric front.
Seems it was a little cold to keep the center of the tire warm enough for what little hard braking there is at PI
More or less, normal service was resumed in FP3.
The 'less' was the torrid times any Honda rider not named Marquez was having.
Bradl was the *only* Honda rider other than MM that made it into Q2.
That's right, Pedrosa down with the unwashed in Q1.
Whatever it is about this track, if you're on a Honda, you're in the shit.
Strange Qualy session.....
Cal on the front row - was not expecting that....
Pos. Num. Rider Nation Team Bike Km/h Time Gap 1st/Prev.
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 346.2 1'28.408
2 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Ducati Team Ducati 345.9 1'28.642 0.234 / 0.234
3 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 342.0 1'28.650 0.242 / 0.008
4 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 341.1 1'28.656 0.248 / 0.006
5 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 335.2 1'28.675 0.267 / 0.019
6 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 338.0 1'28.866 0.458 / 0.191
7 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 342.7 1'28.887 0.479 / 0.021
8 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 344.0 1'28.956 0.548 / 0.069
9 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 340.1 1'28.968 0.560 / 0.012
10 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 343.8 1'29.088 0.680 / 0.120
11 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 340.9 1'29.155 0.747 / 0.067
12 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Drive M7 Aspar Honda 333.0 1'29.955 1.547 / 0.800
Quote from: Needle99 on October 18, 2014, 04:13:50 AM
Strange Qualy session.....
Cal on the front row - was not expecting that....
That's too weird, something's not right there.........
Cal has been pretty strong all weekend.
I think conditions changed a little, playing into his hands.
And historically he goes pretty well at PI.
Dovi and Iannone had also been strong, but somehow lost the handle.
Dovi lost the front and went down in FP2, and didn't bounce back.
Iannone was in the top 3 in every FP, but couldn't carry it into Q2.
There were a few drops of rain at the end of Q1 and just before Q2.
I think the bag factor played a big part in the results.
Crazy Joe just looked strong again in practice..
hope his tyres last until half distance...
Funny how a result last race had helped Cals feeling on the bike. Will be funny if the Gp15 are quicker than Lcr next year.
Carnage....
F'n hell.
That's all I got.
Go VR! ;D [coffee]
Craziness.
Even crazier how Crusty has been proving faster on the non-updated Ducati.
Great race.
Great pace and win for Rossi!!!!
Sad for Cal :(
Smith made it to podium after all the crashes.
Were Jorge's tires going off at the end? Great duel between him & Rossi ( again! ) but I was surprised to see him drop so far back. Were the Yami's running the asymetric front tires too like the others? That was a bit of an Ooops for Bridgestone to have them start not working due to lower track temps?
Jorge blamed a defective tire.
Clearly Rossi ones held up, but then again, tire wear depends on the rider style plus track combo.
I still can't get MM going down that way [coffee]
Damn... I was really looking forward to having Cal on the podium. He was riding the pants off that bike... I guess he's finally learning how to handle the Duc just in time to be taken off of it. I'd be really interested in seeing him on the updated GP14 just for one race... but then again it seems that just leaving him on the bike and telling him to ride it seems to be the best option.
And Rossi wins are always special wins :D
Tons of frontend crashes. There always seems to be issues with the Stones in PI! Cal should have realized that he was not going to catch Val. He should have played it safe, specially after passing JLo like if he was standing still.
David Emmet has his typically great analysis of the race (spoiler: he says don't blame the tires, blame Dorna and the time difference between Australia & Spain. Well, not entirely) up at: http://motomatters.com/analysis/2014/10/19/2014_phillip_island_sunday_round_up_why_.html (http://motomatters.com/analysis/2014/10/19/2014_phillip_island_sunday_round_up_why_.html)
He links to a side by side photo of Lorenzo's & Rossi's front tires (both extra softs, Lorenzo on the left, Rossi on the right) after the race:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B0Sc1dmCIAAGGK7.jpg)
(more at: https://twitter.com/M_Turco/status/523715970083217409 (https://twitter.com/M_Turco/status/523715970083217409))
:o
Cal's description of riding the asymmetric tire with the air temperature dropping rapidly is telling - if he'd slowed down, the tire would have cooled off even faster and he'd have crashed, if he kept pushing (like he did) the cooling was going to catch up with him regardless. IIRC, both he and Marquez crashed under braking, before the bike had leaned over 30+ degrees off of the harder center and onto the left soft edge.
Yep, they were both barely leaning when they crashed. It looked like a boxer taking a dive.
2015 will see engine exhaust being piped over the (Frankenstein) tires to ensure they get and stay hot all race….
MM's and Cal's crashes sucked. Bridgestone needs to figure out PI. They weren't even leaned over yet...looked like wet race crashes.
Most action packed race of the season!
Hayden didn't see anything wrong with Bradl taking out Pedrosa.
Poor Cal..........
Iannone took out Pedrosa. Bradl took out A. Esparago.
Quote from: duccarlos on October 21, 2014, 09:57:01 AM
Iannone took out Pedrosa. Bradl took out A. Esparago.
my mistake. I couldn't keep up with all the offs.