Moto GP

[miasmum]

I watched qualifying today and it was far more exciting than Formula 1. Tomorrow I plan to watch the race and see if I can get into bike racing

[cromwell]

It was good wasn't it?
Mark Marquez is a bit of a phenomenon. He'll win the championship this year if he doesn't have a huge crash!
Putting the bike sideways at 170mph..

Lorenzo is magnificent on the Yamaha but the Honda is a better bike at the moment, he's up against it.

Silverstone is a magnificent circuit for bike racing and I will certainly be watching.

What usually happens is that Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Marquez all clear off to have their own personal scrap and the rest follow on!

[miasmum]

Thank you Cromwell. I have watched the odd lap so I know the names and I have seen Jorge Lorenzo win and throw himself in some lake. I know Cal Crutchlow is doing well and I don't think he rides for a top team, does he?

I am quite looking forward to watching it.

[cromwell]

MM, Cal rides for the Tech 3 Monster team, who use Yamahas. This is a "satellite" team, one which isn't officially run by the Yamaha firm itself. But they are quite good at giving Tech 3 factory spec parts, so the Tech 3 Yamaha is a good bike; not as good as the factory bike but the way Cal has been riding it, he has beaten Valentino Rossi (who rides a proper works factory Yamaha, a couple of times, and usually outqualifies him to boot). Cal's team mate is Bradley Smith.
Marquez and Pedrosa ride the full Honda works bikes.
"Satellite" almost full factory spec Hondas are ridden by Stefan Bradl for the LCR team and Alvaro Bautista for Gresini racing.
The full factory Yamaha bikes are ridden by Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.
And I'll be watching as well, hope we have a good race!

[Workingman]

Good info Cromwell, thanks for that, but you forgot to mentions Steve and Charlie. They are as good a double act as can be found anywhere on the comedy circuit. Once they get a "theme" going there is no stopping them.

[cromwell]

Well that wasn't "good", that was fantastic! Best race of the season bar none and well done to Lorenzo for the win.
WD also to Marquez for riding after dislocating his collarbone in the morning warm up.
Brilliant racing with Lorenzo and Marquez swapping the lead, and Rossi and Bautista doing the same battling for fourth, great stuff!

[Workingman]

What a shame Pedrosa cooked his rear tyre in those four or five laps when he was reeling them in, was it three lap records? Had he done it over a few more laps he might well have been able to mix it with them right at the end. He proved that he had the pace to take them.

But yes, a great race.

And the view from a bike shows just how difficult Maggots-Becketts-Chapel really is for cars and bikes.

[miasmum]

Well I have never seen anything like it.....team mates racing, allowing the best man to win, overtaking without a flap on the back to help, no adjustments from the pit wall and even more amazing smiling and not whinging about a dislocated shoulder......my oh my, shouldn't be allowed

Cromwell thank you for that. I didn't watch it until tonight, so I wish I had had it handy to see who was who, but I daren't look in case I found out who won. In a fortnight I shall be there again, with that info to hand.

So Cal is going to Ducati next year, is that a good move or a bad move?

Oh just a thought, I plan to watch it but what is TV coverage actually like?

[cromwell]

MM Cal is indeed going to Ducati. Good move? In terms of £££ yes, because usually a factory rider gets more money than a satellite rider. In terms of bike/team, the answer is probably no.
In the past 6 or 7 years Ducati have only won one world championship, with the much-underrated Casey Stoner on the bike.
In fact, Stoner is the only person who managed to win a race on the Ducati in that time! Rossi and Nicky Hayden, both ex-world champions, couldn't manage to win on the Ducati.
Set against that, Ducati have been bought out by Audi and have received money and hopefully some Germanic efficiency. Plus Cal is not lacking in guts, so if anyone can make it go, he's probably the one to do it. We'll see.

The riders tend to be tough boys. Jorge Lorenzo broke his collarbone in a crash earlier this year, had it operated on and 48 hours later rode in the race...
They had to peel him off the tank at the end of the race, but he did it.

TV coverage can be a bit spotty. Eurosport 2 on Sky has practice and qualifying, but not the live race, the BBC has that. As WM says the Beeb commentators are pretty good.

[miasmum]

I don't have Sky, we have normal telly only But BBC do show the races do they?