MotoGP – San Marino Motorcycle Grand Prix: statements, rankings and analyzes –

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San Marino Motorcycle Grand Prix: statements, rankings and analyzes

MotoGP - Motorcycle Grand Prix of San Marino: declarations, rankings and analyzes -

After each MotoGP race, find the statements and results of the main protagonists of the premier category, as well as the analysis of their successes (and their failures) by the editorial staff of Site. Debriefing of the San Marino GP 2011.

Dominant in testing, Casey Stoner finally bowed to a Jorge Lorenzo found in Misano. Brilliant winner of the 2011 San Marino Grand Prix, the Mallorcan regains precious points from the Australian, victim of a sudden drop in form (read our summaries of the races, and at Misano).

Jorge Lorenzo, Fiat-Yamaha (2nd in qualifying and 1st in race) : "The day was incredible. I had a good race, it was very hard and very long. The important thing was to win again but also to reduce our delay on Casey. I would like to dedicate this victory to Wayne Rainey (read, Editor’s note) who was back in Misano this weekend and I also want to thank my whole team for their work ".

"It’s probably one of the best days of my career! We now have two weeks before Aragon and I hope I will be in good shape to race at home. Tomorrow we will try the Yamaha 1000 cc again. I can’t wait to ride with ".

Site analysis : Author of the best start and an aggressive start to the race despite the difficult weather, Lorenzo immediately showed his rivals what he wanted to do in Misano! Comfortable on an impeccably tuned M1, he then validated his domination by signing the new race lap record: 1’33.906.

Absent from the top step of the podium since Mugello, the reigning world champion did not spare himself this weekend, managing to line up with metronomic regularity of laps at an extremely high pace. Well helped by the drop in speed of Stoner at halfway, the Spaniard wins an important victory for the championship (he takes 9 points from Stoner) and for his motivation.

Note that as during his victory at Mugello, Lorenzo was copiously whistled by the Italian tifosis during the podium ceremony … An attitude not really fair-play, even a bit out of place, but like Valentino Rossi the maliciously recalled: "we are still in Italy"…

Dani Pedrosa, Honda-Repsol (3rd in qualifying and 2nd in race) : "I’m a bit disappointed with my race because the bike didn’t give me as good a feeling as it did during practice. We wanted to improve the suspensions but the change we made had the opposite effect, these are things coming in. I realized I couldn’t keep up with Jorge and Casey on the first lap, the bike was closing in front and sliding in the back. ".

"It was better in the second part of the race, Jorge was perfect today but I was able to improve my times and catch up with Casey. We were lucky because it was a little cooler than yesterday and the rain did not finally fall. We have run on two very technical tracks the last two weeks and after Indy it was hard to recover from the jet lag. Now I will try to rest and come back stronger for Aragon "

Site analysis : Inconsistent during practice and never quite in the same tempo as Lorenzo and Stoner, Dani Pedrosa seemed to be racing all weekend after the proper settings on his official RC212V. So much so that the little Catalan mixed his brushes before taking the start by trying to tune once and for all the suspensions of his Honda.

Unable to go below 1’34 during the race, the n ° 26 was barely more efficient than during the Grand Prix of San Marino 2010, which he won ahead of Lorenzo and Rossi (read): this year, he achieved his best lap in 1’34.224 against 1’34.340 in 2010. An overall modest improvement in view of the great form of the Honda 2011…

However, in MotoGP as elsewhere, who is not moving backwards: Lorenzo completed the 28 laps of the San Marino GP in 44’11.877 minutes, or 11 seconds less than Pedrosa last season (44’22.059 minutes). Worse for Alberto Puig‘s protege: with a motorcycle and equivalent tires, Stoner turned in 1’33.965, a good quarter of a second faster than his teammate !

Casey Stoner, Honda-Repsol (1st in qualifying and 3rd in race) : "I was careful at the start of the race because there were a few drops of rain, but once that was over I was pretty comfortable behind Jorge, I didn’t feel the need to push. then I suddenly had a change of direction! I was having trouble finding the braking points and changing direction, there was no problem with the tires or the bike, the team had done an excellent job, I was just exhausted ".

"I put in a lot of effort in Laguna and Brno, riding harder than normal. With the neck injury that I had in Assen (read, Editor’s note), my lack of training and the tight schedule that we have, I accumulated fatigue and it finally felt. In the second part of the race I was just too tired, it’s that easy and so I’m glad I finished on the podium. Congratulations to Jorge who had a fantastic race, now I hope to be in better shape for Aragon "

Site analysis : In view of his frenetic pace in practice and his record pole position, Casey Stoner seemed to be – again – the big favorite for this second meeting of the MotoGP season in transalpine lands. Unfortunately for him (but fortunately for the championship!), The HRC pilot was not able to fight with Lorenzo, victim of a sudden "slack"…

At Honda, if one is satisfied despite everything to see Stoner on the podium for the 12th time (in 13 races!), To miss a victory which seemed accessible – even promised – because of a "failure" of their boss. file has certainly annoyed as much as worried some HRC leaders.

Like Livio Suppo, now marketing director at Honda-Repsol after ten years at Ducati, who probably feared to see a repeat of the bitter episode of 2009, when Stoner had lost all his chances of being titled because of ” sudden debilitation attributed to lactose allergy…

Marco Simoncelli, Honda-Gresini (5th in qualifying and 4th in race) : "A podium is always more satisfying than a fourth place, but this result is almost worth a podium because we won a very close battle at the end of the race".

"I unfortunately made a mistake by choosing the wrong engine mapping for the start and so I lost contact with the first three, otherwise I could have followed them. I had to regain ground and once arrived in fourth position, I defended her as best I could to win a good fight with Dovizioso and Spies on the last lap ".

"I had held fourth place for 23 laps so I couldn’t let it go like that. It was good, I had fun and I think I also made my fans happy. They deserved it because that they have always supported me in difficult times ".

Site analysis : Often compared to his friend Valentino Rossi with whom he trains regularly, Marco Simoncelli gave us a race worthy of the nine-time world champion: after an average start, "Sic" worked hard to get back to the forefront, passing sumptuous overtaking, like the superb interior executed on … Rossi, precisely !

Author of the fifth fastest lap in the race (1’34.529), Simoncelli did not however manage to catch up with the leading men and even finished 17.353 seconds behind the winner: the comparison with the most improbable comebacks of n ° 46 stops. so the. But the Honda-Gresini rider can be consoled for having emerged victorious from the beautiful fight between him and Spies and Dovizioso !

Andrea Dovizioso, Honda-Repsol (6th in qualifying and 5th in race) : "The race was tough! I had to push and be aggressive, but we also had to lower the power to avoid fuel consumption problems. We were concerned about that all weekend and after the warm-up. -up, I was told the bad news: we had to lose power ".

"It hadn’t been too much of a problem for us this year and I never found myself unable to keep up with Simoncelli on acceleration. Turning down the power, however, I knew I couldn’t fight for the podium and that affected my motivation. We had a good fight with Marco and Spies. This is the first time Marco has beaten me this season so I want to say: congratulations, Marco! "

Site analysis : If Andrea Dovizioso attributes his "modest" fifth place to the voluntary restraint of his RCV, the fact remains that Honda expects him to fight in the first group and not with Simoncelli or Spies at more than fifteen seconds leaders…

Absent from the podium since the Czech Republic (2nd, read), the Italian has achieved a season that lacks a bit of panache and especially a pinch of victories. Admittedly, he is third in the championship, but already 35 points behind the leader – in this case his teammate Stoner! – while there are still five Grands Prix to go. For many, despite his flattering position overall, his future within the Repsol team is already behind him…

Ben Spies, Fiat-Yamaha (4th in qualifying and 6th in race) : "We started off with good set-up, but we didn’t really progress this weekend. We had a lot of trouble finding grip on the edges of the tire. I didn’t have a very good feeling. up front. We had tested something with the swingarm this morning, but it was a disaster. ".

“Before the race we changed the front of the bike completely and it worked, but it took me a few laps to build my confidence. Once in front of Rossi I was able to catch up with ‘Dovi’ and Simoncelli, but I lacked grip and couldn’t attack. I tried but couldn’t get into the Top 5. Thank you to the whole team for all the work that has been done this weekend ".

Site analysis : For Spies, the situation in Misano turned out to be exactly the opposite of that in Indianapolis last week (read): in the United States, the Texan had shown himself imperial in the development of his M1 while Lorenzo was struggling, while the Yam ‘of n ° 1 appeared sharpened like never before in Italy, where n ° 11 lacked grip…

This situation would have cause for concern for Yamaha if by chance it happened too regularly: Lorenzo and Spies having a very different piloting (the American keeps more brake when entering curves, which generates differences in speed of passage), their requirements on the M1 chassis are obviously not the same.

Under these conditions, continuing to improve the bike while trying to keep the riders happy is less easy than before for Yamaha. In 2010, for example, Rossi and Lorenzo (both from the Grand Prix school, unlike Spies) used roughly the same settings, which made it easier for the Japanese engineers responsible for the development of the M1..

Valentino Rossi, Ducati (11th in qualifying and 7th in race) : "I’m pretty happy because we didn’t expect to do so well. I didn’t think I could stay in the second group, that’s our goal right now and we managed to do it for half of the race . We weren’t able to attack as I wanted, but we were there. ".

"I started well from the fourth row and it was a bit crazy in the first three corners because there were a few drops of rain. After that, everything was fine. I stayed with ‘Sic’ and ‘ Dovi "for a while I also fought with Spies and we kept a good rhythm".

"This morning we made a modification which had a positive effect at the front and if I had made it yesterday maybe we could have done better. In the end it was one of my best races this year, although we have to remember that we are only talking about a seventh place … It was still a good race in front of a good crowd. We are generally satisfied because we had to move forward. ".

Site analysis : Transparent in practice and victim of many "straight ahead" because of recurring transmission problems on his GP11.1 (false dead spots on downshifting, as in Indianapolis), Valentino Rossi appeared in a very bad position for his second national race…

For once, the specific decoration of his helmet matched his situation perfectly: the Italian’s AGV exhibited humorous symbols of anger, charged to reflect with humor (really?) His state of mind riding the GP11. 1! Not sure that this trait of self-mockery, as the Italian star is so fond of, has been well received by Bologna !

On the other hand, the spectacular and promising start to the race by the official Ducati rider had something to give the Reds some balm in the heart! Unfortunately, this beautiful passion was only fleeting and the Doctor gradually fell into line, struggling to achieve lap times more than seven tenths from the fastest lap in the race (1’34.633 against 1’33.906 for Lorenzo).

Passing under the checkered flag 23.703 seconds later than the winner, Rossi finished first Ducati rider, just a handful of seconds behind the factory Honda and Yamaha of Simoncelli, Dovizioso and Spies. Not enough to savor the champagne for the Reds, especially since Nicky Hayden made a mistake from the start of the race when his warm-up pace looked promising….

Randy de Puniet, Ducati-Pramac (14th in qualifying and 14th in race) : "I’m disappointed. After Indianapolis I thought it would be better, but the weekend was negative as regards my feeling on the bike. The heat did not help me, but the front axle did not work at all way really not as it should. I wanted to do better, like in Indianapolis where I was in the top 10. I have to forget this race as soon as possible and prepare for Aragon, where I will really want to do better ".

Site analysis : At Ducati-Pramac, the Grand Prix de San Marino is added to the long list of weekends "to forget": fourteenth in qualifying as in the race, Randy de Puniet seems to no longer know which end to take his Ducati, while that the future retiree Loris Capirossi (read) once again had to abandon due to technical problems (clutch and chain) on his Desmosedici…

Next meeting in 15 days on Motorland of Aragon (Spain) for the fourteenth Moto GP event of the 2011 season. Stay tuned !

Provisional general classification Moto GP 2011

Position-Rider-Motorcycle-Nationality-Points

  • 1-Casey STONER-Honda-AUS-259
  • 2-Jorge LORENZO-Yamaha-SPA-224
  • 3-Andrea DOVIZIOSO-Honda-ITA-185
  • 4-Dani PEDROSA-Honda-SPA-150
  • 5-Ben SPIES-Yamaha-USA-135
  • 6-Valentino ROSSI-Ducati-ITA-133
  • 7-Nicky HAYDEN-Ducati-USA-105
  • 8-Marco SIMONCELLI-Honda-ITA-93
  • 9-Colin EDWARDS-Yamaha-USA-87
  • 10-Hiroshi AOYAMA-Honda-JPN-82
  • 11-Hector BARBERA-Ducati-SPA-69
  • 12-Alvaro BAUTISTA-Suzuki-SPA-57
  • 13-Karel ABRAHAM-Ducati-CZE-50
  • 14-Toni ELIAS-Honda-SPA-47
  • 15-Cal CRUTCHLOW-Yamaha-GBR-45
  • 16-Randy DE PUNIET-Ducati-FRA-29
  • 17-Loris CAPIROSSI-Ducati-ITA-29
  • 18-John HOPKINS-Suzuki-USA-6
  • 19-Kousuke AKIYOSHI-Honda-JPN-3

Alexandre BARDIN – Photos DR

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