[Ducati] MotoGP SPOILER Misano

[Peter Bonner]

Another first turn incident, and what a shame for Nicky Hayden. At Laguna it
was Hopkins playing the spoiler, and this time it was Randy DePuniet who
took himself and Pedrosa out completely and relegated Hayden to a long dirt
ride back to the track to battle on. For the Aussies, it was a great day,
the tight twisty "kart" track, as Stoner referred to it allowed Vermeulin to
make a good showing in second with Hopkins third. Stoner was so impressive
again. West was the only one who knew the track well, having scored his
impressive supersport win there but luck was more important since the crash
by DeP moved West up three places on the first lap, and then Rossi retiring
with motor problems, and also Barros retired with motor problems, both of
them ahead of West. With these 5 riders out, West was handed a top ten
finish on his factory Kawasaki. Unfortunately the injured Melandri was still
stuck with his rented bike and only able to finish fourth ahead of
Capirossi. Had Gressini Honda released him, who knows if he or Stoner would
have won (if Stoner had gotten a ride on Ducati), but certainly it would
have been two Ducatis on the podium instead of two Suzukis. Knowing that
Melandri is riding for Ducati next year is nothing but good news.

As the announcers pointed out, Suzuki was seen as a bit foolish to put so
much development into pneumatic valves on the last year of the 990cc but
obviously it worked for the 800s as well. Yamaha hasn't seemed to have done
any homework at all, and suddenly showed up with Pneumatic valves for the
first time today and Rossi was a dnf as a result, making it obvious that
tyres are not really the deciding factor and Michelin shod riders remain in
second and third place in the championship.

How good is the Ducati engine/power/gas management?  Both Loris (fifth) and
Stoner had run out of gas on the way back to the pits. So Stoner is now 85
points ahead of Rossi, and surely glad to be riding a Ducati, not a Yamaha
like Rossi is stuck with. 8 wins for Ducati this year!

Peter