All's fair in racing? MOTO GP SPOILER

[Texas T]

So Rossi wins, but how do you feel about the ending?

Was it a legit bump in the heat of competition or did Rossi push him off the track?

[Tourmeister]

:tab Lame. He knew he had to much speed going up the inside and did it anyway. I don't think that is "just racing"... I think perhaps his ego got the best of him :roll:

:tab Where did Colin finally end up? They did not speak much of him during the race. I wish he had done better. Hayden was doing great until a few laps left... I guess he was just pushing to stay with Rossi and Giberneau :shrug: What place did he finish?

:tab Unless something serious happens, it looks like this year will be a repeat of last year in that a few riders will break away and leave the pack. They will save all the action for the last two laps. Makes for boring race watching because the TV guys can't take their eyes off the leaders to show us the action farther back in the pack. :sleep:

:tab I guess I will keep having to watch the 250 GP racing for the real excitement, or better yet, the 125's!!

Adios,

[buck000]

MotoGP results (http://www.motogp.com/en/motogp/results/results_2745.htm?event_id=2745&subevent_id=4989&re sult=33607).

Hayden DNFd. Edwards 9th. Bayliss 6th :chug:

Biaggi 7th, not bad given his worst ever qualifying, but still and all: :eek:

[VFRinAustin]

That finish was pretty exciting, especially the last lap. Then came that final turn. Looked to me like Rossi was so P@#$@ed about having lost the lead back to Gibernau that he just barged his way into the turn. Two years ago he did that to Biaggi with about 3 turns to go and ended up getting a 10 sec penalty assessed a few days later. Wonder if that will happen this time?

[backroad boxer]

I was having a spirited debate with my son over the last turn of the race.
When the Speed channel coverage showed the contact between Gibernau and Rossi. I saw Rossi get in under Gibernau and then it appeared to me that Gibernau turned into Rossi. My son insists that Rossi Pushed Gibernau off the track. Any thoughts?
Tim
P.S. I was dissapointed in my Texas tornado :-( ..... I' still a fan of Colin

[VFRinAustin]

I was having a spirited debate with my son over the last turn of the race.
When the Speed channel coverage showed the contact between Gibernau and Rossi. I saw Rossi get in under Gibernau and then it appeared to me that Gibernau turned into Rossi. My son insists that Rossi Pushed Gibernau off the track. Any thoughts?
Tim
P.S. I was dissapointed in my Texas tornado :-( ..... I' still a fan of Colin

In moto racing, its the overtaking riders responsibility to watch out for those things. No way Sete could have known that Rossi was going to be right there when he turned in, he was just try to hold his line while Valentino started to run wide. Actually Im not sure Rossi could have stayed on that line hat Gibernau not been there to hold him in.

[Thermalser]

I was having a spirited debate with my son over the last turn of the race.
When the Speed channel coverage showed the contact between Gibernau and Rossi. I saw Rossi get in under Gibernau and then it appeared to me that Gibernau turned into Rossi. My son insists that Rossi Pushed Gibernau off the track. Any thoughts?
Tim
P.S. I was dissapointed in my Texas tornado :-( ..... I' still a fan of Colin

After I saw the replay it looked to me like Sete altered his line and turned down into Rossi. But there sure wasnt much room for Rossi to make that move inside of Sete. It wasnt the first time they banged off each other in that last lap!

I would have liked to have seen Sete pull it out just to make the season more interesting to start out. Still it was a great last lap to watch in a pub full of race fans!

In any case I thought it was a classic battle i

[bluedogok]

The way that I saw it is that Rossi had the position and Sete expected Rossi to hold the standard racing line through that corner. The Sete came down on Rossi expecting the original racing line. Rossi kinda hung him out to dry on that move so Sete would not have room to pass him even if he stayed on the track.

I have seen the same move made coming into a mark in sailboat racing. The other boat filed a protest but we won denial of the appeal since we had a lead on the other boat at the mark. We pushed them high past the mark and when we tacked down had a huge lead on the final leg that they could never make up.

The last lap was great, NASCAR fans ought to love it since they were "swappin' paint" :mrgreen:

[buck000]

Here's a cool set of angles on the 'incident': clicky (http://www2.motogp.com/ppv_multimedia2/337/337588_36228.wmv)

I'd like to see what a normal fast line is on that last corner, and compare it to the lines taken in this case...

In any event, it was quite a hoot to watch, and I think Sete's pretty classy for being so quiet about it. Hopefully, that signals a bit of inner fury, which should make the rest of the battles between these two (um, did anyone else race that day? ;-) ) VERY entertaining...

[STrider]

Loved the race, woulda liked to see more of the action behind the leaders. Based on the vid from buck000 (thanks!!) looks to me like Rossi comes in too steep, then runs wide, (intentionally? I dunno...) forcing Giberneau to stand it up. Giberneau was total class afterwards, I think buck000 is right about the inner fury. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sete take a similar shot at Rossi if the opportunity arises.

Watched it again, looks like Rossi coulda definitely not gone so wide after the bump.

[scratch]

As much as I'd like to have seen someone else win for a change, I tend to favor Rossi. It looked like he had the inside line and then Gibernau turned into him. Pretty much a toss-up, though.

While the ending was pretty exciting, jamming all the maneuvering and lead changes into the last couple of laps reminds me of the typical basketball game - too often, you can wait until the last 5 or 10 minutes of the game to turn on the TV and you really haven't missed much. ;-)

[sbaker33]

Hard racing I say but only say that based on the angle they showed on SpeedTV.

I have to disagree on the gentlemanly comment though. Sete's hand motions on the bike were less than gentlemanly and it sounded like he was about to cry in the post race interview. The wole holding his shoulder then wrist, cant hold the champagne bottle thing looked like play acting to draw the foul too.

Rossi on the other hand, wheelying across the finish line and was maybe rubbing it in a bit as was his attitude on the podium.

I also think that in this one incident Rossi has beaten Sete for the championship. They will still battle and SG is likely to win a race or two but it is now Rossi's championship to lose. When VR beat him last year in an equally tight Spanish GP Sete seemed to fold afterwards.

I will say though that the Hondas appear to be a good bit faster than the Yamahas. honda has made good use of the off-season.

[Thermalser]

http://img140.echo.cx/img140/9643/motogp4sz.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

[sbaker33]

Great photo! :eek: That is my new wallpaper.
Thanks

[tsflstb]

At first, it did look like Rossi ran wide intentionally to run Sete off track, but take a look at the on-board video posted where you can see Rossi's right hand.

When they first make contact, Sete's shoulder hits Rossi's brake lever and pushes it away from the bars. Rossi was hard on the brakes and in the corner pretty hot and lost his front brake for an instant, so he lost his line and ran wide. He did cut it closer than he probably should have, but I don't think he meant to run Sete off track like that.

[STrider]

Up to and including the bump, looks like just hard racing. I see Rossi lose his front brake for an instant, then it looks like they both have a line to make it through the corner, but Rossi apexes the rest of the corner really late, hard to say if intentional or not, or maybe so, but more than he meant to. Of course, it is easy to judge in retrospect from the safety of my office chair w/ plenty of chances & angles to watch in slow-mo...

As for the "gentlemanly" aspect-- I see what you are saying Shannon, I was saying "class" relative to what I expected to see post-race.

[sbaker33]

As for the "gentlemanly" aspect-- I see what you are saying Shannon, I was saying "class" relative to what I expected to see post-race.

True, I was half expecting a replay of the Rossi/Biaggi catfight of a few years ago. :eek:

[Tourmeister]

:tab I don't think Ross intended to run Sete off the track. However, it does look like he was a bit careless or indifferent with respect to the chances of running Sete off and took a big chance. Had that been Biaggi, there would have been all kinds of whining and possibly an exchange of blows afterwards :lol: Sete did look like he was really playing up the injury thing. Should be interesting to see if he really is injured and it affects his racing next week.

Adios,

[Vee Dub Nut]

Here is a good clip of the last few laps for thoes who didnt see it..


http://www.helmetcam.org/motogp/jerez05.wmv

[ddavis]

Rossi rules! He won clean as far as I'm concerned.

[Chirpy]

My view is the same now after countless replays as it was when it happened....

Sete left the inside unguarded, Rossi came in, Sete saw it and knew that he wouldn't be able to just come close and make Rossi back off. So he tried a brutal block pass, hoping Rossi would roll off the throttle.

He didn't, and decided to settle the score by running Sete wide into the gravel.

BTW, there were angry words and gestures stopping just short of blows back in the pits when the cameras weren't around.

For those that think club racing rules apply at the MotoGP level, Rossi is still in the right. Find the upper rear camera angle shot, but the time Sete makes contact his rear wheel is plainly behind Rossi's. So Sete should back off and let him through.

I agree, psychologically Rossi has just marked his territory. Everyone else is owned...

[P-Ratt]

That was hard fought racing period. Rossi was a little too hot for the desired inside pass in that turn and could see Sete coming into his path. Rossi takes his foot off the peg and sticks it out for a sec there. He knows where Sete is about to be. Sete wasn't expecting Rossi to be there and hadn't prepared to be overtaken in that corner. He let his guard down. He lost as a result.

[Chris Mitchell]

I watched that contact 30 times at least on my dvr. Rossi appeared to me to have the racing inside line clearly and was ahead by about half a wheel. Sete came down on Rossi and if you watch him closely in ultra slow motion you can see him set his shoulder prior to the contact getting ready for the hit. Rossi was racing for the win and he had the inside line Sete hit Rossi with his shoulder at a point where he was actully a little behind Rossi. Either way its a thing they call racing, the most intense form of racing you can expect. There is not gurantee that in the heat of battle there is not going to be some accidental contact between two tigers like Rossi and Sete. I say its hard cheese for Sete to go to rubbing his shoulder and whining about how he had been man handled. If he cant run with the big dogs he should be selling hot dogs in the stands. I just hope to see more heads up racing like that in the 16 next episodes of this years MotoGp racing.

[Thermalser]

I watched that contact 30 times at least on my dvr. Rossi appeared to me to have the racing inside line clearly and was ahead by about half a wheel. Sete came down on Rossi and if you watch him closely in ultra slow motion you can see him set his shoulder prior to the contact getting ready for the hit. Rossi was racing for the win and he had the inside line Sete hit Rossi with his shoulder at a point where he was actully a little behind Rossi. Either way its a thing they call racing, the most intense form of racing you can expect. There is not gurantee that in the heat of battle there is not going to be some accidental contact between two tigers like Rossi and Sete. I say its hard cheese for Sete to go to rubbing his shoulder and whining about how he had been man handled. If he cant run with the big dogs he should be selling hot dogs in the stands. I just hope to see more heads up racing like that in the 16 next episodes of this years MotoGp racing.

As stated earlier, my sentiments exactly! 8-)

Welcome to the board Chris! :chug:

[Doc]

Seti should have hit Rossi harder and gassed it out of there before Rossi recovered, but instead he backed off fearing the outcome that did, in reality, transpire.

Self fulfilling prophecy. Rossi wins, because he believed he would pull it off. Seti loses, because he didn't.

That's racing.