OK, I think enough time has elapsed from the races for us to talk about them without offending anyone, so here goes.
1. Rainy meetings are always a lottery. Just ask all the riders who crashed because of the wet conditions over the weekend.
2. 125’s still provide the best racing of any weekend. The tiddlers race had all the drama you could want and threw up some really interesting pointers. Vinales looks like he could be the “real deal”. Certainly his senior team-mate who had to settle for 3rd on the podium didn’t look at all pleased about being upstaged by the youngster. And young Salom’s ride showed amazing maturity for someone so inexperienced at the top level. It’s always interesting watching the body language of the riders as they return after the race. Sando Cortese looked furious as well he might be. Having gotten rid of Marquez, he probably felt entitled to favouritism for 2011, but it hasn’t worked out that way and he’s plainly very frustrated. It will be interesting to see what the results are of Terol’s surgery to a badly lacerated finger.
3. Moto2 continues to be a mobile lottery (and even more so on a wet-to-drying track) but at least the afore-mentioned Marquez showed some much-needed maturity to cruise to his 2nd win of the season. His early season impetuosity, however, means that he is still considerably adrift of Bradl who blotted his copybook with his first unforced error of the season last night. Sofoglu also showed some maturity to stay on AND stay out of trouble to get his first podium of the season.
3. Not what you would call the best MotoGp race of all time. A boring procession, actually. Simo continues to show lack of discipline and, by the time Casey had escaped from the mess caused by him, Spies was already 4 seconds or so up the track. Casey tried hard to bridge the gap but admitted afterwards that his setup wasn’t optimal so he did the sensible thing and settled for a safe 2nd and another handsome haul of points to increase his championship lead to 28 points. The Ducati GP11.1 experiment was pretty much a failure despite both riders saying (in usual media-speak) that they had “made progress” and that things were heading “in the right direction” It seems the GP11.1 HAS solved some of the rear end problems but has replaced them with the front-end vagueness that plagued Casey last season. Apologists will no doubt point to 4th as being a good finish under the circumstance, but Pedrosa, Simo and Lorenzo would probably have finished in front if circumstances were normal so 7th is more realistic. And, while Rossi was only 20 seconds behind the winner, not 40 like he had been at Silverstone, that’s still nowhere near competitive and the season is slipping away.
Loris Capisossi’s accident and failure to start may signal the end of the popular Italian’s illustrious career. Amongst others, I have been disappointed that Loris has continued to race when he is plainly past his best. I believe that he should have retired some time ago so that we can remember him at his best, not as we see him now.
So it’s on to Mugello this weekend and Rossi’s “home” race. Those hoping for a Rossi miracle may have to be disappointed this time at least.
Oh, and here’s a nice technical article on the GP11.1 courtesy of visordown.
