Last night’s Czech Republic Grand Prix showed just what an awesome rider Casey Stoner is when all the planets line up. Complaining that the bike isn’t right in FP and Qualifying has become the norm for Casey, but I think it’s just because he’s a perfectionist and always wants the bike to be better than it is. During morning warm-up, the mechanics fiddled with the bike a little more and, when Dani Pedrosa lost the front end in an unforced error, Casey was there to pick up the pieces and cruise to a crushing victory, his 6th of the season (out of the 11 races run so far). HRC got an unexpected present with an all-Honda podium, the first for many years and reigning World Champion, Jorge Lorenzo was left struggling in 4th, ruing an incautious tyre choice.
But the race threw up all sorts of other factors worthy of comment. Win, lose or draw, the media fascination with Valentino Rossi’s struggles with the recalcitrant Ducati continues and, to a degree, overshadows the better work that is being done by some other teams. However, Rossi IS news so, how did he go? Well, he finished 6th, again, hardly anything to send the journalists rushing to the phone. Hayden finished one place behind so it seems like the status quo is continuing, GP11.1 notwithstanding. However, unlike most races this season where Rossi has been accustomed to finishing in 6th and 30 seconds or so behind the leader, last night Rossi was only 12 seconds behind the winning Honda. Surely this is an improvement. Rossi himself has said on many occasions that the Ducati is a fiddly beast where tiny adjustments make huge differences and where many adjustments need to be made to eke out those improvements rather than just one, or perhaps, two, on a “normal” bike. If this is the case, then some improvements made in morning warm-up certainly helped.
Before getting too carried away, however, let’s remember that 6th place is a long way from the podium and 12 seconds behind the leader in a 20 lap race still equates to being nearly half a second slower on average. Perhaps it is the flowing nature of the Brno circuit with far less stop-start corners that also suited the Ducati. In any event, testing is taking place today for all teams so the times should be interesting. Ducati will certainly be putting a favourable “spin” on their “improvement” last night.
And, speaking of spin, Suzuki’s Paul Denning is the new master of it if comments he made after last night’s race is any indication. According to the Suzuki boss, the bike is much better than it was (that wouldn’t be hard) and that the stats show the Suzuki’s real potential. Pardon me, Paul, how do you figure that? Well, here’s the explanation.
“”We started 14th and we were 10th at the end of lap one, and seventh at the end of lap four. The only place gifted to us was Dani’s crash.
“Alvaro’s average lap-time until the crash was faster than Jorge, Ben, and Valentino, and was 0.2 from Andrea and Marco, despite the traffic caused by the starting position.
“Alvaro’s average lap-time was 1.8 seconds faster per lap than 2010.
“On laps 8,9,10 and 12 Álvaro was the second fastest rider on the track, and was the third fastest on lap 11.
“Before the crash, Álvaro was only three seconds back from P2.
“Alvaro’s best top speed over the weekend was fourth fastest at 298.3km/h, only 2.7km/h slower than the best.”
Taken at face value, this sounds like Suzuki are likely to be on a winner soon if they keep improving…BUT, as my heading suggests, you can’t have it both ways. Either you place well and call it a plus or you get good times and you call it a plus. Either of these scenarios is merely window dressing and making excuses for being off the podium. Fact is, you need BOTH and, just like Ducati, Suzuki may have one but they don’t have the other.
A couple of things from commentary last night, several, actually.
1. I wonder if Mr Emmet and Mr Harris actually watch their monitors? I routinely notice things happening on-track, laps before they note it on air. For example, they failed completely to mention Bradley Smith’s horrendous “reach for the sky” barrel roll that took him out of the race even though it was plainly visible in the background of the shot as the rest of the field headed down the hill.
2. Mention was made again of the possibility of Suzuki continuing on in 2012 with the 800cc bike. Nothing new here but mention was also made of a 1000cc bike a little further into the season. To be honest, I still expect Suzuki to pull the pin at the end of the season. I hope I’m wrong, but..
3. The possibility of Ducati ditching the C/F mini-frame and going conventional was also canvassed with the opinion in the box being that it was inevitable. Rossi’s slightly better showing last night may delay that decision a little, I feel.
4. Much as it irks me to laud Spanish riders, the fact is that Marc Marquez is the real deal. Expect to see this kid with a MotoGp world championship medal sometime in the future.
5. Finally, congratulations to Casey Stoner and his wife, Adrianna on the news that she is expecting their first child. The way that Casey rushed over to her in parc ferme the moment he got off the bike said a great deal about their relationship. If this is the way that a contented father-to-be rides, the rest of the field had better watch out.
