At Aragon last night, Casey Stoner broke through for his first win since Malaysia last year and his team-mate finished 3rd. Rossi-philes are foaming at the mouth that the Ducati has finally come good and that Rossi will disappear into the distance in 2011. But they are willingly ignorant of the fact that Stoner was still using the 2009 front forks because the Duc still has abysmal front-end feel and also that Pedrosa’s Honda was clearly the fastest bike on the track by a huge margin, only failing to catch Casey because he had to use up so much tyre recovering from a poor start (unusual for him). Down the straight, the Honda just smoked them. Of course, given Hayden’s third place, it’s pretty obvious that Ducati found a better set-up to suit the new track than anyone else did and that Yamaha plainly got it wrong. So the Ducati fans would be well to temper their enthusiasm just a little.
In other MotoGP news, TechIII has re-signed Colin Edwards for another year. Quite what someone at the team is smoking is a moot question. Edwards is 36 years old, has a best-placed finish of 7th this year and finished 12th last night. Herve Poncheral would be far better off signing a younger, hungrier rider rather than a has-been whose only claim to fame in the last few years has been his development skill. Since neither T3 bike has exactly set the world alight lately, one wonders just what this “skill” actually is.
Away from MotoGP, Taree’s Damian Cudlin was crowned the German Supersport Champion last night after finishing 4th in the final race of the season. Damian went into the double-header with a 20 point lead but was trowelled up by Austrian rider, Michael Ransedder in race 1. Ransedder finished on the podium where he was heckled and abused by all and sundry, before being disqualified from the result.
Damian had to finish 5th or higher in race 2 to clinch and he did that easily. Congrats to a really good rider who also happens to be a great guy into the bargain. Australia’s Russell Holland also raced but didn’t figure in the results.
PS: In light of his disappointing 6th place last night, Valentino Rossi was questioned about his performance and also what his plans were re: shoulder surgery. Rossi confessed that the injury was far worse than first expected and that he is seriously considering missing the final two races of the season at Estoril and at Valencia in order to have the surgery sooner so he can be fit for 2011. He is planning testing out the shoulder more at the 3 flyaway rounds coming up (Sepang, Motegi and PI) but I feel that appearing at those races has far more to do with satisfying sponsors than it does with assessing fitness. It is already abundantly clear that he is not fit, I can’t see how racing on for three more races is going to prove anything. Even allowing for the fact that Yamaha obviously got the setup wrong for Aragon last night, Rossi’s 6th (actually a distant 7th allowing for Dovizioso’s last-lap fall) is a far cry from what we are used to seeing from him. Recovery from the projected surgery has been quoted at 2 months so you can see how important it is that Rossi get it out of the way and be ready for Winter testing.
