Thetownend.com

Yay, it's finally here.

Stoner's to lose again. Hopefully Lorenzo will put up more of a fight this season. I think Spies could run Lorenzo close though.

Crutchlow seems to be the best of the rest at the moment which is pleasing. Would love to see him on one of the factory bikes in the future.

As much as it pains me, it could well be Rossi's last season if Ducati don't pull their act together. They've given him so much but he just can't put in the lap times. Maybe he's passed his best. I think he'll struggle to finish ahead of Hayden.

Anyway, a good weekend of racing. BSB starts on Monday too.

I prefer golf ;)

What's the grid size this year, they only had 12 or so entries last year, which made for pretty poor viewing (plus Stoner won, the guy is an arse)

21 bikes this season.

True, but there are a number of CRT bikes that pad that number out.

Just hoping that Ducati have a competitive bike, and that the satellite teams have the equipment to compete with full factory teams.

Hoping that Cal has a good season, as if he gets beaten regularly by Dovi his seat will be gone for next season (what with Bradley already guaranteed a seat at Tech3 next season).

For me, after the sad end to last season I just hope for a safe season for all the riders, and one that is competitive all the way through.

I know the CRT bikes aren't going to be that competitive, but at least there should be competition all throughout the field.

Hopefully the CRT bikes will at least get the likes of Suzuki, Kawasaki and Aprillia into thinking about entering full factory teams.

Seriously, MotoGP is shit.

Seriously, Fuck off then :-)

Cant wait for the race. No surprise stoner was top after FP1. Hopefully Crutchlow will put up a good fight this season. Rooting for him.
As it stands it looks likes Stoner is the early favourite. But hopefully the likes of Lorenzo, Pedrosa and even Spies wont make it easy for him. Doesn't looks like Rossi has managed to get his Ducati sorted yet, but i'm still hoping he'll at least get a couple of podiums.

Keep an eye of for Stefan Bradl, definitely the rookie to watch.

It is good to see a much larger field this season as already mentioned

Gonna be strange not having Simmo on the starting grid.

Haha, don't worry, i'm not hanging around in this topic, just thought i'd pointless troll it the same way Samdy did with the golf topic ;)

:)

Cal put in a superb Fp3.
Looking forward to qualifying.

Well in Cal. Front row start!

good lad

did you hear stoners little comment to lorenzo?
Something like "maybe you're competition for me yet"

Yeah, heard that. The Yamaha's look quick, the thing is Stoner has always had race pace.

Tomorrow will definitely be interesting.

Get a rom u par of cunts

It is a bit more interesting than F1 tbf, just

??

Thought Stoner was going to run away with that one for a bit. Happy to be proved wrong though.

Bit late because i have only just watched the race, had a family thing last night.
Great start to the season, Quatar isnt normaly the most exciting of races.

I does look like it will be a 3 horse race early on. Glad Stoner didnt win. (anyonebutstoner)
Great result for Cal, and also a great debut race for Bradl even though he dropped off the last towards the end which you cant blame him for. Certainly one to watch.

Shouldn't this be in the computer thread ?

fantastic QP from Cal at the moment, if the rain continues then its Poll in the bag. Hard to predict a winner though, because as you can see the weather is very unpredictable.
If it rains and Rossi can get a place in the 2nd row then he's got a good chance as we all know rossi is a super rider in rain.

spoke to soon :-)

Hoping for a wet race. RdP is a demon in the wet, will be good to wee how he goes.

so Casey has come out and said he is retiring after this season.

I'm not exactly his biggest fan but even I was pretty shocked when I read it.

He's only 26 and he's not even peaked to his full potential. I know he's just had a kid and is probably thinking about his safety, but he's not known for spectacular crashes.

I'd understand it more if he had a flaky record or was in decline or if it was even forced on him due to injury etc, but citing a lack of passion is just plain weird.

i was suprised because last season he said theres no chance he was going to give it up. Who am i going to dislike next season :-(

Dani Pedrosa :)

I suppose this does mean that there'll be a ride going spare at Repsol. Bradl maybe, but it's probably too soon for him. Then again, it does make way for Marquez to make the jump from Moto2 and stay with Repsol.

How about Cal? We know Bradders allready has a ride with Tech3 next season and Tech 3 have said they cant accomodate 3 riders? If Cal has a good season (which it looks like he might) I think he might have a good shout.

Nah, Cal's been groomed by Yamaha for a few years now. If he has a good season and Spies carries on badly, Cal will be in the factory team next season alongside Lorenzo.

true, theres people behind the scenes saying that Ben might go back to WSBK, so yea, i guess that a more likely scenario

The doctor is back. What a race.

Meh, it wasn't that great. I'm a purist and prefer wheel-to-wheel action at the front, not one bike leading by over 5 seconds for 95% of the race.

Nice to see Vale back on the podium, but let's face it, it was only due to the wet conditions.

Moto3 was fun, if only for all of the crashes. Loved Gino Rea going mental in Moto2 after Zarco took him out.

Really? OK  its not fantastic when a rider opens up such a lead at the front, but the battle with cal/dovi/rossi was pretty tense and then rossi and stoner. I thought it was the best race of the season.

And agree with the moto2 and 3 races, was just pure carnage. 

And re: rossi, yes it might have been because it was wet but its still would have given him the confidence boost. We'll see in Catalunya as theres no chance of a wet race there.

Maybe best race of the season, but there's only been 4 races :)

Confidence boost or not, that Ducati is not good enough to get podiums in normal race conditions.

Alex de Angelis was a very lucky boy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsASa2ChxJ4

Called that one right :)


Bit wrong on that one. Can't turn down a guaranteed factory ride though. Will be interesting to see how Ducati do with the new money from Audi behind them.

yea, now they got rid of the rookie rule Marquez jumps straight onto the Repsol Honda.

Good race today, nice to see Bradl pushing well and Rossi had what looked to be his best dry race on that Ducati. Sign of things to come maybe?
Spies had a mare again and so did Stoner. Cal seems to have lost some momentum since all the Ducati talks.

To be fair he has had a bit of bad luck.

Didn't see today's race but at Silverstone he started at the back of the grid.
At Assen, he got taken out on the first corner & at the Sachsenring (sp) he out braked himself when he looked faster than Dovi or Spies.

He's also still carrying his injury, have a feeling that once he gets his first podium he will get a few more.

Boring race If you looked at the whole field, there was some good racing in parts but Lorenzo's dominance is boring. Moto3 was a good race though.

Better than Stoner dominating though :)

Could be down to a two horse race next season. Ducati really need to get that bike competitive.

Any one but Stoner. :-)

Looking at Hayden and Rossi yesterday it looks like they are going in the right direction.

It helps that Mugello is the Ducati test track though. You would expect them to be quick around there.

Hmm... Spies leaving Yamaha at the end of the season.

Rossi & JB back to Yamaha anyone?

Thats my thought, its the obvious choice.

Not really. Dovi or Crutchlow are the obvious choices.

Someone stepping up from WSBK or Moto2 being less obvious choices.

Rossi would be the crazy 'never saw that coming' choice, but I've just got a feeling it might happen.

Tough one to call, i hope that Cal hasnt shot his bolt with all the talk of a factory duke for next season, i think that he could get the now vacant factory yamaha ride. I can see Spies going the other way to either Tech 3 or Ducati 

I think Spies will most likely end up back in WSBK or AMA. Tech3 next year will be Bradley Smith (already guaranteed a ride) with either Dovi or Cal.

Out of the two Tech3 riders, Dovi looks most likely to get the factory bike because he's had more podium finishes on the Tech3 and can probably bring bigger sponsors.

It will be interesting to see how competitive Cal can be if he goes to Ducati.

Ducati will have to have a major rethink in the winter about the design spec, If Rossi cant get it to work then i think that they have a major chassis issue, Haydon has to wring its neck to get anywhere near the top 7 , im really not sure if going to Ducati would be a good move for Cal but would Tech 3 want 2 British riders? having thought about it, i agree with you that Dovi is a shoe in for the factory bike. I will be really interested to see how Bradders goes in Moto GP and i have to say that i am impressed with James Ellison this year.

That's Hayden's style though; very much 'ride it like you stole it', which is similar to Stoner so you have to question why he hasn't had success with Ducati.

I can't see what value Smith really adds to Tech3 above Cal or Dovi, he hasn't torn up any trees in Moto2, but they've promised him the seat and I suppose you do need to blood the youngsters at some point.

Ellison's done well for what is essentially a road bike engine in a custom chassis. He, along with most of the other CRT riders, has admitted that this season is mostly just about testing and getting the most out of the bike.

The CRT bikes have been a breath of fresh air, if nothing else they fuck Stoner off and that has to be a good thing :-), its good to see a full grid again, just like to good old days of privateers.

But it's an artificially big grid, back in the privateer days they were on the same (or similar) bikes. The CRT bikes just aren't the same kettle of fish. The moto3 races have been good as there's a fucking huge grid of similar machines, motogp is just getting stale.

Privateer bikes did used to be a lot more competitive, but the cost of renting a bike from a factory for a season is just silly money now. I guess that's how it goes with technology advancing so much though.

I think SOME of the privateer bikes were competitive, mostly the ROC Yamahas but even these had some level of factory support, Niall McKenzie always gave a good account of himself on one of these, the Harris bikes were OK but very much depended who was on board, Foggy had a decent ride (Til he came off) at Donnington in 92, Reynolds was pretty steady on one as well. The MuZ was fast as fuck but wouldnt go round corners, the Paton was shite end of.

Those Red Bull machines (as ROC became) were a lot more competitive in the late 90's early 00's with McCoy & Laconi.

I absolutely loved McCoy's riding. Amazing to watch him slide it around a race track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDxs2aDqvS4

The ROC chassis was immense, i have a feeling that the full factory Yamaha team used one for a couple of races, Simon Crafar won a GP at Donnington if my memory serves me right? then they changed to Michelin and it all went to rat shit. I miss the strokers doing plug chops under the Dunlop bridge

Yamaha to announce Rossi on 15th apparently

One last shot at the championship before retirement.

So Rossi to Yamaha, Cal to Ducati.

Think he'll sign for 2 years, like you said, one last shot. (or 2)

Shame it hasn't workers out for him on the Duc, shame to see Cal go the other way if it's true!

It's official. Rossi back to Yamaha for two seasons. Wow.

To say I'm excited is an understatement.

happy it was made official, didnt think theyd wait until 15th as originaly stated.

So Hayden is staying with Ducati, Dovizioso is joining him, Ianone and Spies will be on the satelite Pramac team.

Very happy about Crutchlow staying at Tech3, hopefully Bradley Smith will put a good season together too.

No real surprise that Pramac have binned off Barbera. Spends more time in the gravel/medical centre than on the track.

things are shaping up nicely for next season. looking forward to it.

now that was an interesting race. gutted for pedrosa as i really wanted to see him win the championship this year. Its not over but its gonna be bloody hard to catch Lorenzo now.
Great ride from Rossi, and was great to see Bautista get that Gresini onto the podium, was very fitting.
And also with Bautista not having a ride for next season yet he needed to put on a good performance.

Shame for Bradl too, he seems to do well until the closing stages then drops down the pack, he's new so could be down to stamina, or he's still learning how to conserve his tyres. Regardless its been a good opening season for him.

Pretty sure I read that Bautista is staying at Gresini next year. Are you getting him mixed up with Barbera? (Who crashed again - standard).

Thought Crutchlow was nailed on for a podium until he binned it.

Pedrosa was a weird one. I've never seen the pole sitter, or anyone for that matter, pull up and start from the back of the grid after the sighting lap.

As far as Im aware Gresini haven't signed anyone up yet, rumours are they want to keep Alvaro but nothings confirmed, Ive also heared if they can get the funding for a 2nd bike they want Jonny Rea.

I know this is only Wiki but...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Grand_Prix_motorcycle_racing_season

In regards to Dani, if i heard correctly the reason he had to start at the back was because he got overtaken by the safety car on the sighting lap. I dunno.

Good to hear Bautista has secured his ride for next season and a good podium for him

Absolutely gutted for Cal today.

Have you seen this about the changes to qualifying next season?
http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2012/New+qualifying+format+announced+for+2013
Can't say im too impressed initailly.

Did Cal run out of fuel? Didn't stay tuned for the post race stuff as I turned straight over to watch the F1.

Not really fussed about the QP changes, not going to make much difference at all. 12 factory/satellite machines and, conveniently, 12 places up for grabs in QP1. Just means that 2 riders will have to do an extra session.

yea, but its only 2 15 minute sessions, i quite enjoy watching qualy.

Yay for Jorge Lorenzo. A deserving world champion, didn't finish lower than 2nd all season and only 1 DNF when he was taken out at Assen. Unlucky for Pedrosa, but that's racing (and I didn't want him to win anyway :)).

And yay for Cal Crutchlow, another British podium.

That was worth getting up at 4.30am for.

Happy for Jorge but would have likes Dani to win, I think he deserves a championship. Anyway, it wasn't Stoner.

Granted Dani is a talented rider, but the guy has zero personality. A bit like Stoner and probably why I dislike them both.