MotoGP in Turkey *SPOILERS*

[itsari]

The race just finished, and all in all was a pretty boring race up front, but two things made it worthwhile -- Melandri scoring his maiden victory and Gibernau fscking it up again. I wonder who he is going to blame now

Melandri was very solid and made an impressive run from start to finish and even managed to hold a 3s lead over Rossi, during the last 5 or 6 laps. Rossi came in 2nd, Hayden in 3rd and Gibernau 4th.

As for Gibernau, well, this just goes to show he's an *****. He started the race scraping the toe guards of his boots on the asphalt, throwing a shower of sparks, pure show off. What a ******. Did that again a couple more times and then ran wide into a turn again (Qatar dejà-vu?), visiting the gravel trap. He managed to keep the bike upright and was able to rejoin, but lost a lot of time. And all this happened while he was leading with a good two bike lenghts advantage over Melandri. The Spanish friends I had over to watch the race were all laughing, cheering, and calling him "loser" (or worse, trust me ). Even Randy Mamola (he, along with Toby Moody and Julian Ryder make a fantastic trio of commentators on Eurosport channel) was slightly amused and saying "you'd expect this kind of mistakes from rookies".

Toni Elias made a great race as well, finishing 6th. He passed Edwards a few cm before the finishing line. Max Biaggi was 12th (!!), behind Chris Vermeulen. Astonishing, considering it was only Vermeulen's 2nd race, and Biaggi is the most experienced rider of the pack, with over 250 races under his belt. And hist team mate, Hayden, finished 3rd so evidently the bike could run...

Anyhoo, it was great seeing anyone other than Rossi taking a win, and Melandri sure is a fantastic rider, he deserved this for a long time. Also great to see was Rossi and Hayden pulling wheelies side by side down a hill, on the cool down lap.

Edit: Official results

 

[markjenn]

I suspect Rossi backed off the tiniest bit to allow his friend Marco to win. This makes up for his bonehead takeout earlier in the year, and puts Melandri in the driver's seat to take the runner-up spot now that it's now clear that Colin is out of the hunt for this. I suspect Rossi has given up on Colin now that even Elias on the 2nd-tier team is quicker than Colin on nearly the same bike as Rossi.

And it sets the table for Valencia where Rossi wins the final race of the season to beat Doohan's record for most wins in a season and Melandri clinches 2nd.

- Mark

 

[itsari]

I suspect Rossi backed off the tiniest bit to allow his friend Marco to win. This makes up for his bonehead takeout earlier in the year, and puts Melandri in the driver's seat to take the runner-up spot now that it's now clear that Colin is out of the hunt for this. I suspect Rossi has given up on Colin now that even Elias on the 2nd-tier team is quicker than Colin on nearly the same bike as Rossi.
And it sets the table for Valencia where Rossi wins the final race of the season to beat Doohan's record for most wins in a season and Melandri clinches 2nd.

- Mark

I'm not sure, the commentators were talking, during the race, that all through Saturday Vale "looked like Sete mid-season" (read: very angry and frustrated) and had said he wanted to go home. Rossi himself said, after the race, that it had been his worst weeked ever, since he arrived in 500/MotoGP, and that after Saturdary morning practice he was ready to throw the towel and go home. He didn't want to race! Looks like they had lots of problems all throughout the weekend, the worst of which seemed to be the front suspension.

Ah, well, it was great to see Melandri win. And boy, did he ever celebrate! He was doing burn-outs in "Parc Fermé"! I'd never seen anyone do that!